Le Robinie Golf Club

Le Robinie is one of northern Italy's most celebrated golf destinations, designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1999. The course unfolds across the Lombardy countryside near Varese, where the glacially shaped terrain and mature woodland create a landscape that feels distinctly apart from the industrial corridor that surrounds it. Nicklaus brought his signature thinking — generous fairways that reward positional play, approach angles that punish the greedy, and greens with enough movement to make club selection a genuine conversation — and the result sits comfortably among Italy's finest layouts.

The club carries a genuinely private, members-first character, though it has welcomed competitive play at a serious level. Its reputation in Italian golf circles is strong: this is a course discussed with the kind of quiet pride that doesn't need to shout.

Solbiate Olona sits close to Malpensa airport, making Le Robinie surprisingly accessible to visiting golfers arriving from across Europe. The robinia trees — black locusts — that give the club its name line the property throughout, framing holes and dropping white blossoms across the fairways each spring.