The birthplace of the Mafia is a perpetual conundrum, famous for all the wrong reasons, but this island off the south coast of Italy is now a serious tourist destination.


Sicily Golf

One of history’s most significant human migrations saw millions of Sicilians leave the island of their birth over many centuries, bereft of property and possessions if not hopes and dreams.

Until recent times, this exodus was fully justified. Life on the largest Mediterranean island was, on the whole, nasty, brutish and short. If the Mafia didn’t get you, then an earthquake, an eruption from Mount Etna or an invading force would.

But today, nothing could be further from the truth. Sicily has transformed itself over the past half-century – partly through funding from the Italian government, partly through showcasing a heritage and culture reaching back almost a millennium before the birth of Christ, and partly through the growth of tourism, with the invaluable support of those related bedfellows, good food and fine wine. And the fact that Sicily is as autonomous as it’s possible for a region to be without being a separate country has clearly not checked this upward spiral.

Golf Tourism

Another increasingly prominent bedfellow of the island’s ambitious tourism programme is golf. A generation ago, when golf tourism mushroomed into big business around southern Europe, Spain and Portugal cashed in while most Italian clubs were run as gated retreats for the country’s social elite. It’s no exaggeration to say that visitors, let alone tourists, were discouraged, but a more welcoming attitude is now in vogue. The number of courses in Italy has doubled over the past decade to approaching 300 – several attached to new hotels and residential developments – and has contributed to a sharp rise in golfing visitors.

Where to Play and Stay

Leading the way in Sicily is Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa. Located in the southeast, near the Baroque town of Ragusa, Donnafugata opened in the summer of 2010 and less than a year later hosted the inaugural Sicilian Open on the European Tour. An hour’s drive south of the airport at Catania, Sicily’s second city at the foot of Mount Etna, the resort is located within a nature reserve near the beautiful beaches of Camarina, Punta Secca and Marina di Ragusa, and the UNESCO world heritage sites at Modica, Scicli and Noto.

At the heart of the resort are two 18-hole courses – the north (Parkland), designed by Gary Player, and the south (Links), laid out by the great South African’s Italian protégé Franco Piras – along with a 202-bedroom hotel, spa, three restaurants and a growing colony of holiday homes.

The Parkland, within the walls of a local castle and measuring just under 7,200 yards from the back tees, is a joy to play even though its awkwardly sloping, bent-grass greens are defended by sometimes cavernous bunkers. Spread out across an age-old olive and carob grove, the Bermuda-grass fairways seamlessly blend into the natural environment to create the effect of a golf course that is anything but man-made. The last three holes are protected by two lakes that make for an exciting trip back to a clubhouse overlooking the 9th and 18th greens in the style of an ancient amphitheatre.

donnafugata

Malta can be seen from vantage points on both courses, but the view is much clearer from the Links where, contrastingly, the holes meander back and forth across two undulating valleys, each with its own lake. The sea is more of a backdrop, but the olive trees, ubiquitous on the Parkland, are surprisingly scarce on the ground here. Indeed, the main arboreal interest on the Links is provided by several lines of palm trees and a few, strategically-positioned pines that offer welcome shade on hot days – of which there are many in this part of the world – and shelter to the migrating birds with whom this stretch of land is a popular stopover. There is also an abundance of indigenous birds to be spotted in the wetlands between the 2nd and 3rd holes.

Donnafugata has the ideal climate for golf — dry in winter, breezy in summer — and its courses are irrigated with recycled, purified water. Indeed, sustainability is at the core of the resort’s operations: the hotel reduces carbon-dioxide emissions by using solar energy to produce hot water, employs air-conditioning to heat its kitchen water, and halves its electricity consumption with LED lighting.

The island has certainly warmed to golf in recent years and the other 36-hole newcomer well worth a visit, in the southwest, near the port of Sciacca and the ruins of an ancient Greek temple at Agrigento, is Sir Rocco Forte’s luxurious Verdura Golf & Spa Resort.

Opened in 2009, Verdura is home to a hotel with 203 bedrooms, a spa, three restaurants and two 18-hole courses – the East and West, both designed by American architect Kyle Phillips, creator of Kingsbarns Golf Links just south of St Andrews. Meandering from mountain foothills through olive, lemon and orange groves down to the Mediterranean, these layouts, a composite of which hosted the Sicilian Open in 2012, are a joy to play.

sicily verdura resort

For more information please visit www.verduraresort.com

Best of the Rest

Sicily has two other 18-hole clubs worthy of note. The older, Il Picciolo, home course of the Etna Golf Resort & Spa just north of Catania, was laid out in 1991 through oaks, hazels and vineyards on the eastern slopes of the eponymous mountain. And on the north coast, a few miles east of the capital Palermo, Il Picciolo’s designer Luigi Rota Caremoli followed up in 2003 with Le Madonie, sculpted imaginatively around five lakes and framed by stunning views of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Golf, of course, is still only a small part of the equation in Sicily, but these days, for people who ‘have clubs, will travel,’ the welcome is, thank goodness, as warm as the weather.

How to get there

Located just 20 minutes away from Comiso airport and set in the beautiful area of Donnafugata, a natural reserve and famous tourist destination known for the imposing castle which bears the same name, the resort also boasts a number of fantastic historical cities nearby. These include Val di Noto, the heart of Sicilian baroque: Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Noto and Scicli. All of them are deemed fitting of UNESCO World Heritage status.

For more information please visit www.donnafugatagolfresort.com 
Or call 00 39 0932 914 200