golf travel
3 Generation Challenge
Story and Photos By Greg Wise
Version II – Italy
Clubhouse at Marco Simone Country Club
Number 7, Par 4 - Major risk-reward on this hole at Marco Simone. Over the creek or short
The tradition began with a trip to Sicily
View from the top of the volcano rim.
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to see our son and his family in 2018. While we were there, Chase (Grandson), Travis (Son) and I, decided to play golf and create this generational challenge. That inaugural event was at Siracusa Golf Monasteri (Golf Central Magazine - Volume 19, Issue 2) and would lead to an eye-opening experience for me that had to be repeated. Thanks to the pandemic, this wasn’t possible until just a few weeks ago. The trip back to Italy that was planned 8 months ago, once the Italian travel restrictions began to free up. But where to play? Well… it was obvious to me… “When close to Rome… do what the Romans would do,” and go play Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, in Guidonia, Rome, 10 miles from the city center. There is the 18-hole Championship Course and an additional 9-hole Resort Course that is being built now on the grounds. After attending and covering the 2021 Ryder Cup event for Golf Central Magazine at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wisconsin, having the opportunity to play the golf course and see the beauty that surrounds these magnificent courses, I knew it had to be Marco Simone and experience this course a year before the 2023 Ryder Cup. There Golf Central • Volume 23, Issue 4
