LOST BALLS IN ITALY – BY ROBERTO VAN HEUGTEN

… about that time I was in a Tuscan golf course and I came home with an oil tin and wine bottles?

Here. I’m talking about Golf Bellosguardo Vinci, a golf course that is quietly located through the hills of Vinci, and without too much clamor lies in the epicenter of the Tuscan northern golf center.

Looking at the map, you can point the compass on the Bellosguardo and make a circle that will include Le Pavoniere, Castelfalfi, Montecatini and Ugolino, all of them practically equidistant. How do you say? It is not a circle? Uuhh… how picky you are! Then I will add that, deviating a bit from that ideal path, you end in the Chianti Region.

And anyway, do not be sophistic, we all know that the golfer, busy in the day in fairways and greens, at the end of work speed with the car on the streets, looking for food, wine and hobbies that can alleviate as much as possible the anger matured on the course. So, if your trip is not so linear, think instead that those golf clubs actually are not far from Vinci.

All right, let’s stay on point and keep talking about my trip. I arrived early in the afternoon, at Bellosguardo Golf. Two things struck me immediately: the kindness of the staff and the parking lot full of Dutch cars. “What has this to do” you will say. I answer immediately this question.

First point: Bellosguardo Golf represents, in my eyes, the smartest club imaginable. There, you can play, have lunch, dine, stay overnight, walk, buy wine and oil, have “apericena” (aperitif + dinner) with music, and even get married!

The second point, related to the first: when I was there, the Dutch were present en masse not for a national away golf tournament, but to attend a civil wedding, which was officiated by none other than the director of the club!

Said that, you have already understood that spending one or more days at Bellosguardo has its remarkable reason. You will be guest of a sort of private park, where the owner, who also welcomes overnight stays in an elegant farmhouse adjacent to the field, cultivates wisely olive trees and vineyards, with its own production of the highest quality. I am not saying it for flattery, their oil is really superb!

Let’s talk of the game.

Here too we understand all the mastery of the inhabitants of this land. The genius of Leonardo, 500 years later, still spreads chromosomes on the fortunate population of these splendid lands.

We are talking about a nine-hole, of course. But with a clever design of the tees, it provides eighteen departures. The first lap is presented in a way, the second in another one, much longer and more difficult. This trick, which is not actually that but simply wit, allows Bellosguardo to host even important tournaments, since the course is not to be underestimated, indeed.
And it also presents a superior condition of maintenance!

About the Vincian genius: the enthusiastic people of Leonardo have dedicated in his honor the construction of a series of models in full-scale of his original projects. So, not only golf, not only dancing “apericena” or outdoor weddings: the Bellosguardo is in effect a museum.

How those who studied at Berkeley call them… Ah, yes: Hidden Gems. Here. I found one of them in Vinci, that day I passed by there to practice in freedom. And I have a beautiful memory of it.  Go there, and then you will tell me.

Have a good trip, and have good golf!

Roberto Van Heugten
Italy4golf Italian Ambassador
buonavita.me