“The Rome Golf Club” probably already existed before 1903. Its members, mostly British and American diplomats who were keen golfers, played on the lawns of the Roman villas: Villa Doria Pamphilj, Villa Borghese, and a course outside Porta San Giovanni.
In January 1903, as recorded in the earliest available minutes, the Members’ Meeting instructed Mr Arthur Flach, appointed Hon. Captain, to look for suitable linksland in order to have a course that would best fit their needs.
After evaluating a number of alternatives, the Extraordinary Meeting of 28 November 1903 ratified the choice proposed by Mr Flach: the links at Acquasanta, on land owned by the Princes Torlonia. The lease agreed for the land and a rustic farmhouse, which was the first Clubhouse, was 2,900 lire a year, for three years with the possibility of renewal for a further six, with the benefit of income from pasture and fodder. The Acquasanta links was particularly suitable for a golf course, with an extraordinary 360° panorama: on one side the view of the Claudian aqueduct, on the other the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella, and on the western horizon the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano and the dome of St. Peter’s.
“The Rome Golf Club” probably already existed before 1903. The members, mostly British and American diplomats who were keen golfers, played on the lawns of the Roman villas: Villa Doria Pamphilj, Villa Borghese, and a course outside Porta San Giovanni.
In January 1903, as recorded in the earliest available minutes, the Members’ Meeting instructed Mr Arthur Flach, appointed Hon. Captain, to look for suitable linksland in order to have a course that would best fit their needs.
After evaluating a number of alternatives, the Extraordinary Meeting of 28 November 1903 ratified the choice proposed by Mr Flach: the links at Acquasanta, on land owned by the Princes Torlonia. The lease agreed for the land and a rustic farmhouse, which was the first Clubhouse, was 2,900 lire a year, for three years with the possibility of renewal for a further six, with the benefit of income from pasture and fodder. The Acquasanta links was particularly suitable for a golf course, with an extraordinary 360° panorama: on one side the view of the Claudian aqueduct, on the other the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella, and on the western horizon the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano and the dome of St. Peter’s.
To the right of the current hole 1, there are the ancient buildings of the Acquasanta thermal baths that were built in the 15th century by Pope Paul V.
Behind the tee of hole 3, there is a spring of beneficial mineral water that is famous for legends about the nymph Egeria, formerly known as the Acqua Santa Spring. For many centuries, the spring was a sacred place of worship for the Romans.
The gently hilly landscape crossed by the Almone River, on which mythological legends of ancient Rome flourished, and by its small tributaries, enriched the course with precious natural obstacles.
The few dozen members of the early years used to gather in the halls of the British or US consulates. Later, the Grand Hotel became their meeting place, which they would also use for social events.
The minutes of the Members’ Meetings (annual general meetings) were written in English and would remain so until 1929.
Until 1912, the course had nine holes. Over the years, members worked to improve the course by planting elms and maritime pines.
In 1913, due to the increased number of members and players, the Club expanded the land leased from the Princes Torlonia. The course was extended to 18 holes. The design of the course was immediately successful and has remained very similar to the one here today, but with the order of the holes reversed. Due to the proximity of the first Clubhouse, the teeing area of the first hole was approximately where the tee of hole 10 is today. The playing season began in October and ended in May, and in autumn, after being closed over summer, the greens and tees were reseeded, and the fairways were mowed once a year and periodically opened to sheep grazing, which fertilised the course and provided income for the Club.
The Great War caused disruption for both Europe and the social life of the Club. Until January 1923, the Club banned citizens of former enemy nations. After about 20 years, once the war had ended, the economic situation recovered. An increasing number of Italian members joined the Club. Taking into account the more prosperous economic situation, a Members’ Meeting in December 1923 decided to fundraise about 100,000 lire to construct a new Clubhouse, its second one, consisting of a farmhouse next to the first one.
In 1925, the number of Italian members on the Club’s Management Committee began to grow. The Meeting of 23 April 1928 established the Club’s membership of the newly formed Italian Golf Federation within CONI. In 1929, an irrigation system was built for the 9-hole greens. From 1930, the minutes of the Meetings and all the acts of the Club began to be written only in Italian.
By the 1930s, the Club was well established in Roman society. Its accounts were in good health, and improvements were being made to the course with new plantings. The prestige of Acquasanta as the first Club in Italy is confirmed by the list of members in 1935, which includes the names of most of the Italian nobility and the best foreign and Italian intellectuals. The number of Club members registered with the FIG increased from 113 in 1934 to 146 in 1939.
- Golf game at Acquasanta
- Actor Douglas Fairbanks plays at Acquasanta
- International Amateur Championship
- The Dukes of Windsor play at Acquasanta
In 1938, a new Clubhouse, the third one, was inaugurated, which was designed by the Architect Pater. The swimming pool, inaugurated in 1940, is still in use today. It became famous for its icy water that came directly from the mineral water spring. Funding was found by Galeazzo Ciano, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who in those years and until the Second World War had adopted the Acquasanta as an annexe of his ministry. It was an ideal and private location, where English-speaking visitors and their sympathisers were in the majority. The destruction of the Second World War spared much of Rome and the golf course, even though, in order to meet the city’s food needs, some of the holes had to be transformed into “war gardens” and sown with wheat.
On 22 January 1944, the Allies landed at Anzio, and the Wehrmacht occupied the Club and the Acquasanta fort.
The Germans set up an encampment along the Almone valley but, to be fair, they respected the greens and didn’t do any damage to the Clubhouse. Allied Spitfires and P-48s also spared the encampment.
Some pilots were later asked why they had not bombed such a visible German settlement. Laughing, they replied, “We’d be mad to destroy the only 18-hole golf course south of Florence!”
On 4 June 1944, General Clark liberated Rome, and, a few days later, play resumed.
The Club was “invaded” by cheering Allies, many of them players. Lord Alexander, Marshal Montgomery, General Clark, and General Patton visited the Acquasanta Club. Officers and members got along well. Life at the Club resumed with the carefree cheerfulness that was a typical feature of the post-war period, even though the war continued fiercely in the north.
Once peace had returned, the happy and long-awaited post-war period saw the Acquasanta as one of the centres of Roman sporting society.
It is said that early one morning in October 1946, in order to compete for the love of a beautiful lady, members Count Piero M. and Baron Carlo A. challenged each other to a sword fight on the paving surrounding the Club’s swimming pool. When the first blood was drawn, their seconds suspended the fight, and the honour of the contenders was saved.
In the post-war period, the Club, which was in a fairly intact condition, resumed life and became a point of reference for Roman enthusiasts and the growing international community, especially English and Americans.
The country’s economic recovery gave the Club a vital boost. Champions from Acquasanta filled the roll of honour in Italian amateur Golf. Franco Bevione and Isa Goldschmid stand out above anyone else.
Moreover, under the patronage of Pietrino Manca, the Acquasanta became the training centre for most of the professionals (usually former caddies) who would later settle at the new courses being built in the north.
A characteristic of the Acquasanta was that almost the entire workforce – course workers, locker room attendants, bartenders, and waiters – was made up of caddies, people who knew and loved the game of Golf and the Club. Almost all of them came from nearby Quarto Miglio. The relationship between members and caddies, all of whom were given fancy nicknames, has always been special. The latter, in turn, with Romanesque wit, have always given most of the members picturesque nicknames, known to almost everyone, but strictly ignored by those concerned!
From the left: Honorary Chairman Piero Taglioni, FIG Chairman Gianni Albertini, Chairman Ermanno Guani
At the end of 1967, even King Constantine II of Greece, who had taken refuge in Rome after the colonels’ coup led by Papadopulos, found relief from his troubles on the Acquasanta course. In 1968, for the victories of its members, the Club received the highest national honour, the gold star for sporting merit. In the same year, the Members’ Meeting approved the construction of the fourth and current Clubhouse, designed by architects Prof. Renato Venturi and Guido di Carpegna. It cost 500 million lire and was inaugurated on 11 November 1971, replacing the one that had been donated by Ciano 30 years before, however maintaining its terrace and swimming pool. The buildings that constituted the first and second Clubhouses are still in existence and well-preserved for the Club’s use. After a difficult negotiation led by Chairman Ermanno Guani and Atty. Alberto Federici, the Meeting of 22 June 1980 approved the plan to purchase the land from Marquis Gerini, who had taken over from the Princes Torlonia. After various attempts dating back to the early 1930s, the dream of having the members own their Club was finally achieved.
In 2013, the Club celebrated its 110th anniversary, with many of its members belonging to the third, and in very few cases, the fourth generation of players.
The Rome Golf Club manages to renew itself while remaining attached to its wonderful roots, to that linksland, to that water, to that historic landscape from which we started.
The Acquasanta Club, as it was designed, endured, and realised by Marquis Vanni, Mr Arthur Flach, Mr R. C. Young, and Mr Hector De Castro, has remained one of the most enjoyable and pleasant golf courses in Italy.
It can be said that as a whole, it is perfect, and like an old painting, it can only be restored and preserved, but not altered.
