Espiche Golf

The Algarve is well endowed with golf courses so it may have come as something of a surprise when the 18-hole Espiche layout opened for play in 2012. Truth be told, it had endured a long gestation because construction on the course began in the 1990s but a succession of serious problems – not least the global financial crisis of 2007-8 – held the project up until it eventually made its debut.

Designed by South African architect Peter Sauerman, the course is set in an Ecological Reserve, where the landscape has been left as undisturbed as possible. Holes have been sympathetically routed around woodland and wetland areas, allowing golfers to connect to the stunning natural environment of the Western Algarve, and the real estate element to be developed will remain separate from the golfing ground.

The small lakes, streams and indigenous planting of olive, fig and almond trees around the course all contribute in their own way towards enhancing the player’s connection with the local landscape, allowing golfers to trade the external sightlines of intrusive residential buildings found at other Algarve venues with views of the nearby vineyards and the marvellous Monchique Mountain range.

Located on a hilltop in the middle of the property, the stunning clubhouse – which has won a number of architectural awards – is built on the site of an old farm house, with stone from the original building used in the lower walls to preserve a little of the local identity. It’s a fabulous contemporary building, designed by Nadine Berger, which offers sensational views across the entire course from the top floor.

The course measures 5,862 metres from the back tees, playing to a par of 72, and it’s configured with two returning nines, each of which starts with a relatively straightforward par five and ends with a difficult par four. It’s a lightly bunkered layout with sand hazards confined to mainly greenside traps (apart from holes 14, 16 and 17 which feature nests of fairway bunkers) and water in play at fewer than a handful of holes.