The Ryder Cup European Development Trust has helped to fund the first public training golf course for the teaching of golf in Italy.

Working with the Italian Golf Federation, The Municipality of Turin and CUS (Torino University Sports Centre) the Trust has helped to provide funding for this facility, located within a ten-minute drive from the centre of Turin, in order to promote the game of golf at grass roots level within Italy.

The development of this project will enable public access to golf facilities for the first time ever in Italy, where the predominant sport is football, not golf.

The project consists of a full practice range facility, including a short-game area and extensive putting greens, with six artificially surfaced greens to allow for “par 3” golf. In order to introduce children to the game of golf, access to the facility is free for those aged between 8 and 14, with concessions for the local university students, enabling them to gain tuition from PGA professionals at little or no cost.

The facility has been widely praised as being exactly what is required by Italy in order to open up golf to a wider society in order to develop golf in the region and hopefully to serve as a model to be taken forward elsewhere in Italy.