Golf Porto Santo 13 Golf Porto Santo 14
streets were lit up in a colourful display that
attracted tourists like moths to a flame. In
2019, Madeira celebrated its 600th birthday
and the lights are a reminder of the festivities.
Take a walk along the promenade and soak it
all in. changed. A completely new 27-hole course
was introduced to the world.
It is not often that you get to sleep in a golf
clubhouse… or former clubhouse as is the
case at the PortoBay Hotel on Madeira’s
eastern flank. The hotel is high up in the
mountains and it sits next door to the Santo
do Serra Golf Club. When the club opened in
1937, this was the clubhouse. Today, the 1920s
building is white and pale blue on the outside
with many black and white photographs of
golfers on the insides. It has been a boutique
hotel for 20 years and it is classified as part of
the region’s heritage.
When Robert Trent Jones Senior arrived and
redesigned the course in 1991, everything
At 700 metres above sea level the lush
greenery will tell you that there is plenty of
moisture at Santo da Serra. Most of it comes
in the form of early morning mist which can
blanket the course. There was none the day
we played and the course was on full display.
The vista from the clubhouse is stunning
and the walk to reach the Machico nine’s 1st
tee shows off the woodland that frames the
course below, with views stretching out to
Ponta de São Lourenço, the most eastern tip
of Madeira.
The Machico and Desertas nines are the main
event with some strong slopes to start and
finish each nine, but it is the cliffs that drop
300 metres alongside and beyond the 2nd, 3rd
and 4th holes that capture the imagination
most… and form the course’s signature holes.
Volume 5 • Issue 51
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