I arrived at Marco Simone yesterday, venue for September’s Ryder Cup, with some trepidation. I’d not heard too many good things about the course. When the pros played here first in 2021 they were unusually scathing about the course.

A recent No Laying Up podcast eviscerated it. Host Soly declared, on a visit to watch the Italian Open, that he would rather play The Belfry ten times than play here once he disliked it so much.

As if that wasn’t enough, an Italian friend who knows a thing or two about golf courses (he’s building one in Scotland just now) played the course a few weeks ago and he warned me that if the heat didn’t kill me, the rough would.

So with all of that in my mind I stepped on to the first tee. And you know what? I quite liked it. I was more than pleasantly surprised with the course, and it will make for a great Ryder Cup venue.

Marco Simone opened in 1989, a Jim Fazio and David Mezzacane creation, but soon slid into relative obscurity. Central to its winning bid for the Ryder Cup was a total course redesign, led by Dave Sampson and Jeremy Slessor of European Golf Design (owned by the European Tour).

This is a hilly site and that presents challenges. There are virtually no flat holes on the course and the uphill holes often lead to a blind approach. The pros hate this. Although, maybe they should remember a hole is only blind once. And you know what, I’m not sure it’s a bad idea to have a golf course where the best players in the world feel uncomfortable. It happens to us amateurs on most shots!

It’s clear that the Europeans have decided to set the course up in a way which they think favours them. Fairways have been pinched in, often at the 300-330 mark from the back tees. I compared the mowing lines to previous aerials and the landing areas are definitely narrower.

This is all to make the Americans think twice about hitting driver.

McIlroy was of that view when he played the course last year, saying, ‘I think stats-wise, you look at the American team and they are very good from 150 yards in, so we should try to set the golf course up where it's a challenge to get your tee shots within that range. By forcing people to play more conservative off the tee, I think that helps the Europeans a little bit’.

The 15th is a great example. From the tee the fairway is generous until you get to 305 yards from the back tees and then it is only15 yards wide with bunkers deep in hideous rough on the inside of the dogleg to the right. Layup and you have 190 yards still to go up a steep hill.

Horrible rough if you go for the 15th tee shot with a driver and miss right.

I guess the data is telling Donald’s team that this will give them an advantage if they can negate the American’s perceived length advantage.

However, this didn’t really effect me at all, in fact I only missed two fairways all day, and I’m an average 12 handicap. I was hitting into the fairly generous layup areas, even off the yellow tees. That meant that there were a lot of longer approaches up the hill to crown greens, but it definitely wasn’t unplayable.

The rough was another matter. It was pure and utter gunch. This wasn’t uniform US Open style rough. It was irregular, gnarly, horrible stuff. You could lose a ball just a couple of steps off of the fairway. I hate to think how many balls are left out there everyday.

Building a course which you already know is going to host a Ryder Cup means that there are certain ingredients that you can include from the off.

The Ryder Cup is a vital moneymaker for the DP World Tour and the site needs to be capable of holding tens of thousands of fans clustered around the few groups out on the course.

The elevation changes may not find approval with the players, but it will work for the spectators. Many holes have natural amphitheatres where fans will be able to sit on the bank to watch. The 15th and 17th holes will be raucous spots for matches getting that far.

They also have a lot of room between holes here to put up stands, hospitality and food outlets. Like The Open, the Ryder Cup has grown into a monster and that requires a large site to make it work. Take the JCB course for example. The deep pocketed owners would have loved to host the event, and the course is a good one, but when the Ryder Cup team came to do a feasibility test it was deemed to small a site for a modern Ryder Cup.

But oh my goodness, I wouldn’t want to be the project manner in charge of this for the European Tour, there’s a hell of a lot to do! The stands are going up as are the shells of various buildings but they will have to work like mad over the next six weeks to be ready. The good news is that the there were plenty of people working on a Sunday morning, including those laying new roads around the course!

One of the staff there told me that that it was the Italian way to leave things until the last minute to finish but it would be fine. It may be a little bit of a racial stereotype, but I’m sure he’ll be right

But back to the course. Ensuring drama is a key component of a Ryder Cup commission and I think that Slessor has achieved that here. The course builds well to a climax.

The demanding 15th is followed by the short par 4 16th. I didn’t have the length to carry the stream in front of the green so laid up with a 5 iron and wedged in. The pros will be tempted to go for the green but water right will punish a wayward shot. Interestingly, the three tees further back were all out of play to protect them, they are clearly looking for the flexibility to move the tee up and down depending on conditions and Captain Donald’s desires.

The 17th isn’t a long par 3 but with a very narrow three tier green with a tight run off to the left and thousands of fans on the right it will quite a cauldron come the Sunday singles.

Last up is a longish par 5 that plays downhill with water to the left of the green. It’s a hole the pros could go for in 2 if they need to, but not without risk.

I had read some angst from the pros over the shaping of the greens. Frankly I don’t know what they’re going on about. I had 2 three putts all day, and I wasn’t exactly pin hunting believe me.

The 7th, a 203 yard par 3, has caused particular consternation. The relatively narrow green has three tiers with fairly big undulation between them.

The undulating 7th green, source of Fiztpatrick’s ire.

Players have complained that if the flag is at the back you can’t get close to the pin. For what it’s worth I found the front of the green and two putted to a back pin. It was a fun putt to play. Goodness knows what these guys would make of the 16th at North Berwick if it was on the tour.

I think a lot of pros like things to be straightforward, ‘all in front of you’, when they are playing a tournament. Marco Simone doesn’t always do that and therefore they feel discombobulated. So maybe mental fortitude will play even more of a role in this Ryder Cup than on a more straightforward venue.

I came off Marco Simone pleasantly surprised. This is European resort golf which isn’t my favourite style of the game, but they have done a good job. It is a big site with lots of elevation change so it would be a very tough walk on a hot summer’s day and buggies are fairly standard.

As a modern, European, resort course it more than holds its own. If you are ever in Rome and fancy a game of golf then I would absolutely recommend jumping in a taxi for 30 minutes.

I think we’ll get a Ryder Cup with a great atmosphere, lots of drama, and probably a bit of moaning from the players. Sounds good to me!