The Golf Club’s History
Towards the end of the 1800s, Lake Como was one of the most popular destinations for English-speaking elite tourism, which had found an ideal area between Menaggio, Tremezzo, Cadenabbia and Bellagio, where hotels and villas had sprung up to shelter a community in continuous growth.
They were mainly industrialists and textile traders united by the same business and love for these places. With the aim of recreating the English family environment in a different context, with a decidedly better climate, four English gentlemen, headed by the banker Henry John Mylius, met on the 10th of January 1907 at the Victoria Hotel in Menaggio to found the Menaggio Cadenabbia golf club.
Mylius was the first president: honourary secretaries were W. Lassetter, owner of Villa Margherita in Cadenabbia, and E.F. Eliot, a regular customer of the Victoria hotel.
The other gentleman was Commander C. Buckland of the Royal Navy. A suitable location was found in the town of Croce just above Menaggio, near the villas of two friends. There, an initial nine-hole course was built, expanded in the following years. In 1919, Mr Wyatt, a relative of Mylius, became the club’s president and, by purchasing new land, he extended the golf course to 18 holes.
L’altro gentiluomo era il Commander C. Buckland della Royal Navy. Il terreno adatto, fu reperito nella località di Croce proprio sopra Menaggio, vicino alle ville di due amici. Lì fu costruito un primo percorso a nove buche, ampliato negli anni seguenti. Nel 1919 Mr Wyatt, parente di Mylius, diventa presidente del club e acquistando nuovi terreni amplia il campo di golf portandolo a 18 buche.
Towards the end of the 1800s, Lake Como was one of the most popular destinations for English-speaking elite tourism, which had found an ideal area between Menaggio, Tremezzo, Cadenabbia and Bellagio, where hotels and villas had sprung up to shelter a community in continuous growth.
The presidents of the Menaggio & Cadenabbia Golf Club were:
From 1907 to 1918 Henry Jonh Myluis Esq.
From 1919 to 1920, the office was vacant
From 1921 to 1935, A. W. N.Wyatt Esq.
From 1961, the year in which the Roncoroni family acquired the golf club from the previous English owners, in 1992 Antonio Roncoroni identified his name with the Menaggio Gold club, which to him represented his second life.
Antonio Roncoroni was the founder of the Italian PGA and worked hard to grow this sport in Italy. In Menaggio, he organised the first National Cadet Championship for boys and girls.
The field was completely redesigned in 1965 by John Harris on the initiative of Antonio Roncoroni. “English style” still reigns supreme on the course and in the halls of the circle, punctuated by period prints, such as the one depicting Tom Morris “great” from St Andrews, and the historian of the Scottish Royal & Ancient Golf Club, RAL Burnett, donated in 1985 to Antonio Roncoroni, to seal an authentic friendship between the two associations.
Since 1993 he was President of the Vittorio Roncoroni Circle.
