St. Vigil Golf Club gallery

St. Vigil Golf Club in the Italian Dolomites is one of the most spectacular golf course settings in Europe

St Vigil Golf Club
(Image credit: Charles Briscoe-Knight)

St. Vigil Golf Club in the Italian Dolomites is one of the most spectacular golf course settings in Europe

St. Vigil Golf Club in the Italian Dolomites is one of the most spectacular golf course settings in Europe, and golf course photographer Charles Briscoe-Knight recently paid a visit....

By Charles Briscoe-Knight:

If there’s a more spectacular setting for us to play our favourite game, we’ve yet to see it. It can be all the more special, if, as we did, you arrive by 'chopper'.

To inspect the Italian Dolomites up close and personal, yet also spy your destination’s fairways from 3,000 feet, is spellbinding.

Laid out on a UNESCO World heritage site, the St. Vigil undulates through idyllic Italian countryside at an altitude of 2,800 feet.

The unheralded course architects Bernd Hofmann & Wolfgang Jersombeck have sculpted a truly spectacular layout here.

St Vigil Golf Club

The beautiful closing hole at St. Vigil with the Sciliar mountain range in the background. [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

St Vigil Golf Club

The 207-yard par-3 15th hole has Europe's biggest drop. [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

St Vigil Golf Club

To make par with this scenery is tricky. One’s mind tends to wander as the eye takes in the wonderful panoramas. [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

St Vigil Golf Club

The par-3 4th is only 136 yards from the tips but will test your nerve. The tee shot has to carry a ravine containing the tumultuous waters of a creek gushing from the mountains, then land softly. [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

St Vigil Golf Club

Leaving via helicoper to get to the golf course.... [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

St Vigil Golf Club

..... and arriving safely at St. Vigil. [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

St Vigil Golf Club

This piece of Italian heaven is a must play for the serious golfing vacationer. [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

St Vigil Golf Club

Not a bad setting for a golf course! [Picture: Charles Briscoe-Knight]

Nick Bonfield
Features Editor

Nick Bonfield joined Golf Monthly in 2012 after graduating from Exeter University and earning an NCTJ-accredited journalism diploma from News Associates in Wimbledon. He is responsible for managing production of the magazine, sub-editing, writing, commissioning and coordinating all features across print and online. Most of his online work is opinion-based and typically centres around the Majors and significant events in the global golfing calendar. Nick has been an avid golf fan since the age of ten and became obsessed with the professional game after watching Mike Weir and Shaun Micheel win The Masters and PGA Championship respectively in 2003. In his time with Golf Monthly, he's interviewed the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Jose Maria Olazabal, Henrik Stenson, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Billy Horschel and has ghost-written columns for Westwood, Wayne Riley, Matthew Southgate, Chris Wood and Eddie Pepperell. Nick is a 12-handicap golfer and his favourite courses include Old Head, Sunningdale New, Penha Longha, Valderrama and Bearwood Lakes. If you have a feature pitch for Nick, please email nick.bonfield@futurenet.com with 'Pitch' in the subject line. Nick is currently playing: Driver: TaylorMade M1 Fairway wood: TaylorMade RBZ Stage 2 Hybrid: Ping Crossover Irons (4-9): Nike Vapor Speed Wedges: Cleveland CBX Full Face, 56˚, Titleist Vokey SM4, 60˚ Putter: testing in progress! Ball: TaylorMade TP5x