Salagdos Golf
Morgado Golf
seafood including locally-caught octopus, squid,
prawn and the ubiquitous grilled sardine?
Moving further inland, there’s Loulé’s colourful
weekly market bursting with fresh fish, cheeses,
red chilli peppers, sweet figs and golden honey;
the elegant and picturesque riverside town of
Tavira (with its Roman bridge and 40 churches),
the Sierra de Monchique mountain range
enveloping the hillside spa town of Monchique,
and Silves, once the grandiose capital of the
Moorish province of Al-Gharb surrounded by
lush orange groves and dominated by the ochre
ramparts of its huge castle.
One of the big advantages of an Algarve
golf break is that getting there is easy and
inexpensive. You can fly from most European
cities with all the budget airlines into either
Faro airport or alternatively Lisbon airport (then
hire a car and head south). Here’s a half dozen
selection of places to ‘play and stay’ to get your
Algarve golf break underway...
Penina
This par-73 layout designed by three times British
20 Destination Golf .TRAVEL
Open champion Sir Henry Cotton in 1966 is the
Algarve’s spiritual home of golf and a marvellous
example of golfing architecture. Cotton
transformed what was once an old rice plantation
into lush fairways lined by towering pines and
eucalyptus trees which give the course a unique
character unmatched in the region. The layout
features an unusual grouping of par 5’s, with four
of the five arranged in pairs in the beginning and
end of the back nine, producing a par 38 instead of
a more typical par 35.
A few of the standout holes include the dogleg
5th, with its canal, lake and contoured putting
surface and the 13th (voted one of the best 500
holes in the world), a testing par-3 with water all
the way from the tee to a sloping green, guarded
to the front and left by a pair of dangerous
bunkers. As you head up the memorable closing
hole, the classically-styled and luxurious 5-star
resort acts as backdrop to a three-tiered green
framed by an amphitheatre of trees. Although less
demanding than the main course, there are two
other tracks here - the 18-hole Resort course and a
nine-hole Academy course.
www.penina.com