Golfing Italia: Celebrating the 2023 Ryder Cup Rome with Robert Sidorsky

The Italian Radio Hour

The fall of 2023 marked Italy’s debut on the world stage of golf as it hosts the 44th Ryder Cup Matches, played between 12-man teams from the United States and Europe. This year’s Ryder Cup was contested from September 29 to October 1 over the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club located in Guidonia Montecelio, ten miles outside Rome.

It marked the first time that Italy as the hosted country of the Ryder Cup as it continues to expand its international appeal. The event has grown over the years to become an international sporting spectacle attracting the largest worldwide TV audience after the Olympics and World Cup, with the last European edition played in Paris reaching more than 600 million homes in over 160 countries.

To talk about the long standing golfing traditions in Italy, we caught up with Robert Sidorsky, the curator of the Exhibit "Golfing Italy" held at the IIC of New York this past October.

The artwork on display included vintage travel posters and an array of colorful pre-War brochures highlighting the pleasures of golfing in the Italian lake district and the mountain-passes of the Dolomites. The featured historic courses range from San Remo on the Italian Riviera to the glamorous Adriatic Island resort of Brioni, where the golf course has been restored as Brijuni Island in present-day Croatia.

Robert Sidorski is a lawyer in New York City and is on the board of the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA). He has written extensively about golf travel and golf course architecture and is the author of Golf Courses of the World 365 Days and Golf A History 365 Days, both published by Abrams.

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