Oporto

The Portuguese can thank the British for introducing the game of golf to Portugal in the 19th century when a group of British wine exporters formed Oporto Niblicks Club at Espinho in 1890 laying out a rudimentary nine-hole course on a strip of sandy linksland to the south of Oporto.

The eldest club in Portugal – and the fifth oldest in Continental Europe after Pau (1856), Biarritz and Royal Antwerp (1888) and Dinard (1890) – was renamed Oporto Golf Club in 1901 and it remained an exclusive British preserve for the next three decades.

Remodelled by Philip Mackenzie Ross in the late 1950s, Oporto Golf Club is a traditional affair and the clubhouse is a monument to the history of Portuguese golf but the course itself is rather special too. Oporto is routed across the most authentic links ground in Iberia and the whole experience is a rather surreal British links-like affair except, of course, the sun shines more frequently here in northern Portugal.

With few weaknesses and some pleasant, subtle undulations, the relatively short Oporto is one of Portugal’s unsung courses and should be included on any serious golf aficionado’s Portuguese itinerary.