Discover the magic of golf on the Algarve where outstanding courses go hand in hand with delightful weather. In 2006 the Algarve was awarded the title of ‘Best Golfing Destination in the World’ by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO).

It was the legendary Henry Cotton who put the Algarve on the golf globe. In the mid-sixties, at Penina, he designed the first proper grass course. It was the first of three he designed in the Algarve, a place he loved and made his home for almost 30 years.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s and on into the first half of the 1990’s, golf courses mushroomed all along Portugal’s southern coast. Although none of the existing courses are more than 15km from the coast, the terrain varies from the steep hillsides of Parque da Floresta to the near sea-level flatlands of Vilamoura III and Salgados, which in common with Palmares, includes links holes.

The mainly arid Algarve countryside, familiar to summer visitors, gives way to verdant oasis at each of the golf complexes thanks to large, state-funded water catchments and distribution schemes, as well as private boreholes which tap into subterranean water sources for irrigation. Holes made tricky by water hazards are, therefore, not an infrequent feature on the Algarve courses.