Le Querce is the seat of the Italian Golf Federation, so it is not surprising to find a championship course of the highest calibre here. What is surprising, however, is that the course is very playable and even a lot of fun for average golfers. And the other suprise is that the Fazios have not produced an American style Tour venue. They actually took care to fit it into the mediterranean landscape and generally resisted going over the top with the hole designs.

That being said, negotiating Le Querce is still a formidable challenge, it nearly maxes out on the slope value. But the diversified routing creates real strategic interest on every hole and the longer stretches are over wide open country.

Scores will suffer, even on a good day, but it's a tremendous round of golf in every respect. To touch the absolute world class it would need an element of quirk and occasionally be a bit more playful. But with Le Querce's championship ambitions this is neither going to happen nor should it.