They say that on a clear day — and there are many of those at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club — you can catch a glimpse of St Peter’s Basilica.
As they trudge up a gruelling back nine, elevating 155 feet from the course’s lowest point, those carrying the hopes of Europe and the United States on their shoulders may well want to offer up a prayer.
It may be about 10 miles northeast of one of the planet’s most historic cities but this is no country for old men. Indeed, US vice-captain Stewart Cink, a veteran of five of these transatlantic tussles, called it ‘the most demanding, physically, I’ve ever seen’.
This weekend, the temperature will hover between 28 and 29 Celsius when the old foes step out on to the Italian grass. There is zero rain in the forecast. By Sunday, they will feel every incline of those contours.
For those not on their games this could well be tragedy in Rome. Brutality is spread across 18 holes. Marco Simone offers opportunities but this is an unforgiving landscape where accuracy is not just helpful, it is essential.
Ryder Cup captains Zach Johnson (left) and Luke Donald held the trophy on Monday
Their teams will do battle on a course fit for a Gladiatorial contest at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club
The course is spread across an unforgiving landscape that boasts thick rough, narrow fairways and plenty of hazards to catch out the world’s best golfers
Miss the fairways and you are likely to find yourself in the deepest of trouble — the kind of rough you lose sight of your feet in, let alone your ball.
A word on those fairways. Popular Ryder Cup narrative has it that when the show is in Europe, it is kept tight. Courses are prepared for the canny, rather than the cannons.
Luke Donald has called the shots, including fairway widths, bunker placements and the height of the grass.
While they may well be narrower than the sprawling expanses on offer at Whistling Straits in 2021’s US rout, they are wider than those endured by competitors at the Open this year, at Royal Liverpool.
There are 31.5 acres of fairway, each one precious. On the Wirral that unforgiving figure was 22. Widths vary from 18 to 26 yards across.
There are 76 bunkers split evenly between fairways and greens. As for the greens themselves, they have appeared slightly sluggish. Indeed, as Mail Sport exclusively revealed, Donald’s Europeans have intentionally ensured they are noticeably slower than the billiard-table surfaces often served up across the pond.
Estimates from American officials are that the green speeds register 10 on the stimpmeter — the measuring device — and will be around 11 come Thursday. That is well below the likes of the Masters, US Open and US PGA Championship, where that number is often north of 13.
While on the slightly large side, there is serious undulation. That room for error may well be needed. Get it wrong and it could be murder on the dancefloor.
Challenges lurk throughout. The hills will have sighs. There are as many as nine semi-blind approach shots to elevated greens. A frequent breeze rolls in from the Mediterranean, some 24 miles away.
Xander Schauffele was pictured on the practice green at the golf club on Monday
Collin Morikawa, a captain’s pick for the US team, pictured practicising in Rome on Monday
Missing the fairways will land them in the long and intimidating rough that winds its way around the course
But there will be chances to seize the initiative. There are three drivable par-fours and three par-fives where greens can be reached in two.
Four of those eagle opportunities appear on the back nine. The potential for late momentum swings and Medinah-esque miracles, where Europe staged an incredible comeback victory in 2012, has been noted.
The 16th is, perhaps, one of the most interesting. It is a high bar. At 303 yards — 66 feet downhill — the green can be hit off the tee.
But there is a bunker, helpfully, in the middle of the fairway, a canal across it at 250 yards and a pond down the entire right side of the green for good measure.
Standby for aims at the flag with less than a driver in hand greeted with guttural roars from a fanbase stripped of the opportunity to support their team two years ago.
In Wisconsin it was raw, midwest America. From 6am they guzzled from overpriced cans of beer and sipped shiftily from hip flasks. By 1pm it was a rowdy sea of red. Thanks to Covid and travel restrictions there were no islands of blue.
Here, roles may well be reversed although the strong dollar will ensure a healthy support for the visitors. Crowds of around 50,000 are expected each day, the vast majority of whom will be in the Europeans’ corner.
If it feels like they are on top of the players it is because they will be on top of the players. Many of the viewing areas are etched into a hillside of a course that was created in 1989.
For those of a certain age who used to tune into Channel 4 for their fix of Italian football, the name Marco Simone may ring a bell. However, the venue for the 44th Ryder Cup is not named after a tricky striker who starred in Fabio Capello’s magnificent AC Milan sides of the 1990s.
The Castello di Marco Simone, an 11th century structure, sits on the course and was once the home of astronomer Galileo Galilei
The course has been set up to favour Team Europe and boasts some narrow fairways
50,000 spectators are expected at the tournament this week with towering grand stands dotted throughout the course
Indeed, the Marco Simone was the son of a nobleman who, in the mid-1400s added fine buildings to the 11th-century castle — turning into one of the finest palaces of the era which would subsequently become a home for the astronomer Galileo Galilei.
Fashion designer Laura Biagiotti and her husband, Gianni Cigna, purchased the property in the 1970s and turned it into a country club before the course was added 34 years ago.
Much of the architecture still stands. The dungeon is said to house the remains of fossils estimated to be 300,000 years old.
There may be a few piles of bones to add to the collection by the time nightfall arrives on Sunday.
