Review of the Month November 2018 – Oitavos Dunes

Review of the Month November 2018 – Oitavos Dunes

Played Oitavos today at the end of a week-long golfing trip to the greater Lisbon area.

Oitavos aspires to be something it frankly is not.

The above statement includes the caveat that I played it in early November 2018 (for whatever that’s worth!).

Don’t get me wrong, Oitavos represents a nice gentle stretch of Portuguese seaside golf at its best, tumbling through coastal sand, pine and native scrubland. All positive.

If you can keep the ball out of the trees and scrubland you are left with sufficient room to generous fairways, which coupled with some really interesting raised green sites cut into the side of the ample sandscape.

Here’s the rub, in fact here’s two rubs. This place purports to be a natural links course. It's not. No run on fairways, hit and stick on the greens, best played through the air and crater plug marks on the fairways. It looks somewhat like a links, but plays more parkland than it should.

I suspect this club also has delusions of grandeur. Suggesting that because Monte Rei (ranked 1 in Portugal on this very website) wasn’t ranked in the 2017 Golf Magazine World Top 100 (and they were) that means they are the best course in Portugal.

By Shane

Review of the Month November 2018 selected by Editor-in-Chief, Keith Baxter – click to read more about Oitavos Dunes.