Top 40 Golf Courses of Portugal 2014
Top 100 updates its Portuguese golf course rankings
14 January 2014
One hundred and seventy golf associations and member clubs are affiliated to the Portuguese Golf Federation and these various societies play their golf across Portugal’s ninety or so courses. Despite the relatively low number of layouts in the country, the average course quality in Portugal is generally a notch higher than in Spain. Consequently we feel it’s reasonable to showcase a larger percentage of the country’s golf courses.
We have only sixty Portuguese layouts on our shortlist, but it was still a real challenge to assemble our 2014 Portugal Top 40. The Algarve region has the lion’s share of courses, but the Lisbon area has four top ten tracks featured and these are among the best in Iberia.
However, no golfing trip to Portugal is complete without sampling the Azores and Madeira where there is some capital golf to be played, especially at Furnas and Porto Santo, where you’ll find both courses riding high in our top ten.
The top ten shows little change, although a former Portuguese Open venue, the Atlantico course at Penha Longa, breaks into the elite top group for the first time.
Frank Pennink originally laid out Palmares in the Algarve in the 1970s but a RTJ II extension and upgrade has enabled the facility to make a bold upward charge – although some golfers preferred the course as it once was.
All three tracks at Quinta do Lago (North, South and Laranjal) make positive upward progress and many golfers feel that this is the perfect golfing base from which to explore the region’s best courses, including nearby San Lorenzo, which moves up one position to 3rd.
However, if you want to play Portugal’s No.1 course you’ll need to head to the Eastern Algarve where you’ll find the Golden Bear’s Monte Rei. We recommend you schedule a little more time in this more relaxed region and try Rocky Roquemore’s pair of Quintas – da Ria and de Cima – which are both located close to the sparkling Gulf of Cadiz.
Two new courses enter our Portuguese Top 40 for the first time – Bom Sucesso (40th) and Royal Obidos (20th). You’ll find Bom Sucesso on the Silver Coast to the north of Lisbon, a layout that Martin Ebert designed when he was attached to Donald Steel and Company. Royal Obidos lies just a few kilometres to the north of Bom Sucesso and it’s the architectural swan song of the late Seve Ballesteros, who sadly died before the project was completed.
We always welcome feedback at Top 100 Golf Courses, so feel free to let us know what you feel about our golf course coverage in Portugal – are there any other layouts in this popular country that are worthy of exposure on the Top 100 website?
Keith Baxter
Editor-in-Chief
www.top100golfcourses.com
Click the link to see the latest Portuguese Top 40 in detail.
