The main areas for golf holidays in Portugal are located in Madeira, the Algarve and Estoril. This article highlights four of Portugal’s best courses renowned for their great design and scenic views.

For a faultless golf holiday Algarve has the range and depth of courses to satisfy the most fussy of golfers. The Jack Nicklaus designed the Monte Rei golf club around the topography of the eastern Algarve hills on which it is located. The 18 holes mix woodland, blind shots and carefully placed bunkers making no two holes alike. The long 5s can be reached in regulation but even long-hitters will struggle on them when breeze is up.

On the island of Madeira the Porto Santo course is one of those truly unique golfing experiences. The course winds its way across a volcanic hillside and shallow valleys with out-of-bounds invariably marked out by a sheer cliff-face incline to the Atlantic sea below. The greens play well in all weathers thanks to good drainage (volcanic soil) and good course management is the order of the day to navigate the par 4 doglegs and blind tee shots.

Set in some wonderful Estoril countryside the Penha Longa Atlantic course is a links course as challenging as any in the British Isles. The undulating fairways can make for some wayward bounces off of the tee but this is all part of the fun of links golf. The course has some extra character thanks to the old ruins lining some of the holes.

Finally in the south-west corner of the Algarve the Nick Faldo designed Oceanico course is a unique desert-style course. The use of dunes and open, flat fairways was a clever move by Nick Faldo as a great way of making the strong ocean breezes give the course a dynamic nature. The longer par 4 holes can be punishing into wind and do favor those with a low trajectory ball flight. If the weather is too severe then the neighboring parkland course (by Christy O’Connor) plays more benignly.

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