This course was built on a wooded hillside overlooking the exclusive resort of Punta Ala and the island of Elba just off the Tyrrhenian coast. Since the holes are cut out of a densely treed and steep terrain, the natural expectation is for a short and tricky round of golf. However, what awaits the player is a long, difficult and unrelenting beast whose course record after nearly half a century of play is a mere 69.

The views are certainly splendid, but the routing does not make much of an effort to compensate for the severe terrain. When one hole goes down the hill, the next one goes straight up again and a nagging feeling arises that not much progress has been made. In addition to being long, most holes are also rather tight and their green complexes hard to make sense of.

For the competetively inclined golfer Punta Ala should be of supreme interest, because it simply is one hell of a challenge. The more recreationally minded player will probably miss strategic options and may find it hard to get into the flow.