..keep your head down..
When the Folgaria Golf course was built in the late 80s, I was just a child.
The driving range offered free golf lessons for children, and since it was just a few hundred metres from the hotel, I would cycle there in the summer.. My parents were busy at work so it was just a relief that I was somewhere else. The balls were distributed by a large red machine, with square tokens. You hung the bucket on the hook of the slot at the bottom, inserted the token and voilà, twenty-five balls ready for use. Once the tokens provided for the lesson were finished, the director Capelli allowed me to continue hitting balls, for free, if I went to collect them. At sunset Monia would arrive, a few years older than me, who, walking up and down on foot with a special tool and a basket, would collect all the balls on the lawn to put them in the big red machine.
My teacher was Malcolm J. Harrison, a Scotsman who, living at the Aurora residence 70 meters from our hotel, had become friends with our father and our uncle Mauro owner of the restaurant alla Segheria, Malcolm was a regular. I spent many hours with him on the practice field and he taught me all the fundamentals of golf.
At the time, the cartoon "tutti in campo con Lotti" ( original title "Ashita Tenki ni Nāre / A Great Super Shot Boy") was shown on television, which further strengthened my passion for this sport because, what Malcolm explained to me, was what Lotti did on TV. But I didn't have my clubs and I was only a child, beyond the course hours, I had no opportunity to practice. So I decided to build my first golf club: it was made with a broom handle and some pieces of wood that I had collected in the garage. It was very rudimentary but it did something. Attached to the handle was a piece that we could define as a tetragon, or a right-angled but three-dimensional triangle of which the smaller rectangular face was the base, the face with the larger and more inclined surface was the face of the club in contact with the ball, and the back part was attached with screws to the broom handle. It required a lot of maintenance.
Since I couldn't play the holes of the Folgaria Golf Club, to do so you had to be a member of the club, I solved the problem by building my own golf course. When they cut the grass around the hotel, I dug a small hole and put a large whiskey glass in it, just above the edge, that was obviously the hole where the ball was supposed to end up. For the flag that marked the position of the hole, I planted a branch or a rather long stick with a ribbon tied to the top. 
Hole no. 1 started from behind the hotel and went towards what is now the Maso Engher, hole no. 2 was parallel back, hole no. 3 went towards the Aurora residence with a flag under the larches and hole no. 4 returned near the start of hole .1. My personal course was beautiful, with 4 holes, par 15, so 15 shots were needed to complete it regularly. I don't think I ever made a round in par even though I knew the course very well.
Our grandmother Tina, perhaps moved by her grandson's makeshift equipment, went to the Moda Sport store in Costa and bought me my first pitching wedge, which I still own. In fact, I own all the clubs my grandmother bought me, a little at a time. After the pitch came the 8-iron, the 5-iron and the 3-iron. As the distance increased, the 5-wood and the driver, made of wood, arrived. The putt was the last. Since we had minigolf in the hotel, the putt was borrowed from there, even if it was slightly different in shape it was more than fine. Today all those clubs are in the simulator room, in the little red Dunlop canvas bag.
The red Dunlop canvas bag was given to me because, up until that point, the club bag was another of my creations: a black garbage bag with a string and some cardboard to give a bit of a circular shape to the entrance of the clubs. I was really proud of my black bag made from the black garbage bag, up until that point I had had to carry everything in my hand and in my pocket. When you're a child, everything is always beautiful.
Golf has always accompanied me since then and has taught me a lot, as far as I know it is the only sport where you have to give yourself penalties, you play against yourself, like a mirror. So if you cheat, that's what you are.
Today it has changed a lot and it is not true that it is an expensive sport. It is if you want it to be. I invite everyone to try it because there is nothing like golf. To learn it, however, you really need a lot of willpower because it is extremely complex both technically and mentally.
For enthusiasts
We have several solutions for those who, like us, love this sport. Both for those who go golfing on weekends to compete and for those who intend to spend several days, during the week, enjoying the splendid Folgaria Golf Club when it is less crowded. The autumn months are the best, our course is open until October 31st.
Passionate golfers for decades, we try to offer players an immersive experience not only on the course, but also in the hotel.
We have golf-themed Suites, frescoes by Gloria that recall the Scottish links and others with futuristic golf in the style of Depero, a futurist artist from Rovereto that Gloria imitated in her art.
We offer stays with greenfee included in the price, you can book the Golf experience directly below
Golf simulator
Our Hotel offers a very accurate golf simulator. We have personally recreated the Folgaria Golf Course using LiDar files, with minimal error the course is faithfully reproduced in every part. With this simulator you can hit the ball, throw it against a special sheet on which the effects are reproduced in a virtual environment via an HD projector, you can play the holes of the course challenging other guests or use the practice field. Once the club is selected, the sensor detects its speed, direction and angle of impact; in the same way for the ball it detects speed, effect and direction.
Video of the Folgaria course in digital
With the golf simulator, you can challenge your friends in the evening or when you can't play on the course. In addition to having data on how you hit the ball on the virtual practice field, you can play on all the courses in the world, from the most famous real ones like St. Andrews, Pebble Beach, TPC Scottsdale to the most imaginative ones, and obviously on the one in Folgaria created by us in a perfect way.
Two players on Folgaria digital golf course
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