The golf course |
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A 36-Hole Course Under Construction A golf course with two different levels, in order to allow both professionals and amateurs to play, is under construction. The characteristic that best qualifies the Parrano Gold Course lies in the absolute inter-dependence between the project to be realised and the site in which it will be laid. Besides the Golf Course, the project also calls for: a hunting reserve and the development of equestrian activities, in particular, the Eco Endurance Lifestyle event; sports structures all linked to nature; important interventions at the farm with special attention to the development of high quality grapes for wine and olives for oil; restructuring work at the Castello and several of the farmhouses to turn them into an exclusive tourist resort with high-end wellness centre; the further development of the thermal baths area, the driving force and reason d’être of the Wellness Village. A centralised management structure will guarantee the integration and good working order of the service structures so that the thermal baths, the sports, wellness, meetings and congresses, food and wine and nature are not just isolated islands but come together in a truly well-integrated system. It is for this reason that the golf course will have two different levels of courses. The first one will be not far from the Bovorosso farmhouse and will spread out over 120 hectares, much larger than what is strictly needed for a golf course. The second course, also an 18-hole course, will meander along with the river, over fields and hills for some 250 stunning hectares. The vast size of the terrain available for the project is of fundamental importance to our intent to integrate the golf courses with the other activities, an intent which constitutes one the very premises on which the proposal to lay a golf course inside an area of such scenic value was based. The gold courses must not be considered an isolated entity, but one of the several elements that makes up the area, linked to all the other services and to be used in different ways. That will constitute integration in the real sense of the word. Another part of these premises is a reflection on the fact that the objectives that inspire the project, a basic and essential element, is the promotion of activities compatible with the conservation of natural resources, with a particular reference to agriculture and nature tourism, as well as the safeguarding of the countryside as called for by EU directives regarding environmental conservation so as to obtain, when all the work has been done, the CEE certification for quality management. The philosophy of the project is based on the creation of a course that cannot in any way be interpreted as a fracture line in the territory, indeed, it will be one of the territory’s constituent elements. In order the achieve this result, we have attempted to extend the golf course area as much as possible so that it is not concentrated in one specific area but fully and naturally integrated over the entire area. It will occupy an area three times the size, because it is surrounded by woods – which will act as a sort of connection tissue to its surroundings - it will include the hunting reserve, will be crossed by horse paths and go through vineyards and olive groves. This way neither the landscape nor the use of the terrain will suffer negative “fractures” from the gold course, on the contrary, thanks to the golf course their continuity is assured. The course is intended as a course that lies inside the environment that hosts it: those playing the course will move around the territory in all of its glory, walk through valleys that all differ from one another, over open fields, through woods, vineyards and groves. Considering the vast amount of land available, one can reasonably consider designating a large area to natural free growth, without any sort of maintenance and not connected to golf, so that the best possible results can be achieved and nonetheless connected to form a single whole. The idea of placing the Bovorosso course Club House on a clearing in the woods that separates the area of the first 9 holes from the second 9 holes is a clear sign of the project’s intent: the golf course will be laid out in the areas in keeping with its realisation, without forcibly modifying the terrain, and it will be placed in the ambience that hosts it in such a way as not to have to alter this area in any way. The old farmhouses and barns of the Chiani plain will host the Club House of the second course. The same considerations will be applied to the part of the course to be laid in and about the olive grove and vineyard, which the course will cross, without modifying their physiognomy. The construction of the course must be based on the philosophy of creating, with the golf course, mechanisms that will preserve the environment. The larger the surface of the land on which the golf course will be laid, the better the chance of balancing and integrating the latter into the pre-existing landscape and thus creating an eco-compatible golf course. The techniques of the planning we must adopt must benefit the containment of the areas which need to be maintained so that they are limited as much as possible. Maintenance work must be kept to a minimum through preventive measures, as we have already seen, by having a sophisticated irrigation and efficient drainage system. More than half of the rest of the area will be left in its natural state - most of it woodlands - and less than half of it will be areas designated for agricultural activities, such as the olive grove and vineyard. The above is a summary of the studies conducted by the Sezione Tappeti Erbosi of the Scuola Nazionale del Golf of the Federazione Italiana Golf. They say, in essence, that in the area under consideration only 2,2% is in need of high or very high maintenance activity, and that the area in need of a medium level of maintenance is about 11%. The areas subject to low or very low maintenance covers about 19%. 35% of the areas need no maintenance whatsoever, while those areas in the agricultural zones will undergo no changes whatsoever as a consequence of the golf course and are fully assimilated into the normal maintenance these areas undergo as a matter of course. The philosophy of the Parrano Golf Course project is based on the recognition and valorisation of the environmental and scenic importance that will host it. |
