Two teams enter, one team survives.

Human civilization has come a long way from the bloodsport that ruled the Coliseum in ancient Roman days. Our bread is better and our circuses are somewhat more refined. Even though we may root for nail-biting drama and heroics, everyone is expected walk away from the 2023 Ryder Cup with their limbs intact.

Still, we crave carnage in our own way, and Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, host of the 2023 Ryder Cup - the first to ever visit Italy - seems primed to deliver golf's version of it. Narrow fairways and undulating greens lined by penal rough - a setup style favored by Team Europe captains on home soil for decades - are likely to give players and viewers flashbacks to Paris in 2018, when the Euros plodded their way around Le Golf National while Team USA languished in the long grass and were ultimately routed, 17 1/2 to 10/12 points.

RELATED: Is Team USA the right fit for Marco Simone?

However similarly Marco Simone may be set up to Le Golf National, it will give millions of fans a distinct, novel taste of golf in the countryside east of Rome. Originally built in 1991 and redesigned by Tom Fazio II and European Golf Design in 2018, the course is laid out over hills, with holes terraced up, down and across broad slopes. Long-range views from some holes will add a sense of grandeur deserving of the Ryder Cup and its throngs of rabid fans. What earth Fazio moved should prove helpful for spectators, as mounding gives many tee boxes and green complexes an amphitheater feel - with and without grandstands.

In addition to the aforementioned, ever-present thick rough, Marco Simone uses bunkers to dictate directional play in areas of milder terrain, with 77 in total spread across its 350-acre tract. Water and wetlands come into play on half of the holes. The medium-sized greens skew in the direction of complexity and occasional chaos, with all manner of ridges, spines and tiers revealing and, more often, concealing hole locations.

The course is routed well for match play, with a stern start giving way to a topsy-turvy final 11 holes that includes all four par 5s (holes 8, 9, 12 and 18) and the latter two of three potentially drivable par 4s (5, 11, 16), where birdies and trainwrecks are both in the cards. For the occasional design awkwardness caused by the property's overall slope, it could be potentially thrilling viewing, especially for matches that reach the volatile closing trio.

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club - Championship Course

Guidonia, Lazio

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A slight reverse camber to the fairway on this uphill, slight dogleg-left will prompt players to shape their opening tee shots from right to left on a hole that promises to be a much sterner starter than recent Ryder Cup host venues have typically offered up. The first of several rippling, tiered greens at Marco Simone juts back and to the left, with distinct upper and lower sections.

A downhill tee shot threaded between trees opens up to the first of many Italian countryside views, although a large bunker narrows the landing area considerably. Large protective mounds feed into the putting surface.

Although Marco Simone's sub-7,300 yard distance is not particularly fearsome by modern standards, holes like this one, whose fairway pinches considerably at driver range, can make it play deceptively long, as it may prompt a layup for accuracy off the tee. Such safe play will leave a long iron to a shallow green that will spit shots that land short 20 or more yards backwards.

Long, slender greens characterize Marco Simone's par 3s. This one curls slightly to the right, with two bunkers protecting middle and rear hole locations, while a broad fronting bunker can obscure views of the front of the putting surface.

From a forward tee position, this could be the first of as many as three drivable par 4s at Marco Simone, with a pond fronting an angled green that is also fortified by three bunkers. There could be fireworks here in the Fourball or Singles sessions.

This shortish, straightaway hole climbs steadily uphill. Playing too far away from the large right-side fairway bunker could leave players blocked out by trees on the left, likely from a thick rough lie. Best to hit two moderate, straight shots and try to make a putt on the elevated green.

Once again, a deep putting surface means that different hole locations will drastically affect players' ambitions on this long, downhill one-shotter. A pond could come into play when the cup is cut front-left, while rear hole locations will likely force bailouts to the right.

Technically listed as a par 4 for the Italian Opens that have been contested at Marco Simone, this fiddly switchback hole with a wide, shallow and wavy green fronted by a lake will likely yield up a roughly equal share of 4s and 5s,. A lone bunker pinches the entrance to the putting surface and will likely catch many long approaches.

The second-longest hole on the course will likely play as the longest, as it drifts gradually uphill. The second of two fairway bunkers may deter some players from hitting driver off the tee, especially since getting home in two is unlikely. Those who do try to push the ball as close to the green as possible will do well to bail out left, into expansive fairway-length pitching areas.

This uphill dogleg-right begins what should be a volatile inward nine. A creek will catch tee shots that stray right, while the amoeba green sits well above the landing area, with three bunkers waiting to snare overly ambitious mid-irons.

Continuing the uphill climb, this short two-shotter will tempt several players to try for the green in one huge swing, but missing on the wrong side will mean par will be the best players can hope for. A central fairway bunker could catch lazy layups.

The sweep of this downhill dogleg-left off the property's high point will have long hitters salivating, but they'll have to sling a right-to-left tee ball with the curve of the fairway in order to hold it as it narrows to less than 20 yards wide past a nest of bunkers. From there, a tree encroaches on the second shot just enough to complicate the approach as the hole twists back to the right.

An old farmhouse serves as the rustic backdrop to this short hole, where a large heave across the middle of the deep green will gather or repel just-misplayed approaches.

The first of two bruising par fours is similar to the 12th in that only a precisely-shaped right-to-left tee ball will do. Otherwise, two nasty fairway bunkers on the inside of this dogleg-left will get a lot of business. So, too, should the right rough, from which reaching the elevated green will be nearly impossible.

This uphill beast is heavily bunkered all the way, with three of them pinching the fairway on the right, a fourth waiting to snare approaches from the rough and three more stair-stepping up the right side of the green. Bailing left may sound like a wise idea, but the gnarly greenside rough there suggests otherwise.

The beginning of a rousing closing stretch presents a momentous choice: lay up to a generous fairway (albeit with two bunkers in play), or brave a pond and three bunkers that guard an angled green? Players who find themselves down in a match could pull off some heroics here.

One more long green could cause players to hit two or three different clubs in as many sessions from the tee. Any miss to the left will sputter downhill to a short-grass chipping area or worse: a stream trickling down the hillside into which the hole is benched.

Matches that go the distance will have no shortage of drama, as this plunging risk-reward par 5 has it all: the prospect of a huge drive, several bunkers, a green that could gather approaches to back-left hole locations set perilously close to a pond. Ryder Cups seldom come down neatly to the final hole of the final match, but if this one does, it will take place at a hole fit for such a stage.

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