Golf in the Algarve Portugal

The Algarve coast stretches over an area consisting of 150 km of endless white sandy beaches. Golfers can also enjoy other places that provide them with moments of pure leisure and a wide range of different entertainment, as well as a great variety of water sports for which the facilities are provided by the regions excellent hotels and tourist villages. Currently because of its unique conditions for tourism, its diversified quality and the geographical concentration of its courses, the Algarve region is one of Europe's main golf destinations.

In 1999, the Algarve was elected World Golf Destination of the Year by the International Golf Travel Awards. In the traditional biennial poll of the "Best Golf Courses in Continental Europe", organised by the highly regarded British Golf World magazine, ten Algarve courses were included in the Top 100.

Many new projects are currently being studied for the area and other new golf course area due to open in the near future, which will make the regions supply even richer. A New golf course for June 2004 is the Victoria club at Vilamoura, with 18 holes, designed by Arnold Palmer, another 18 holes at Pinheiros Altos (this will be the fifth course at Quinta do Lago) a third 18 hole course of par 3 holes at Vale de Lobo, a second 18 hole course at Castro Marim; as well as 18 hole courses at Vila do Bispo, Silves, Monchique and Tavira.

Portugal's main golf competition, the Portuguese's Open, has long been played in the Algarve region under the name of the Algarve Portuguese Open. The Algarve region has a number of cities that are full of history, such as the cosmopolitan city of Faro, which is served by an international airport, as well as Lagos, Silves, Sagres and Tavira. Further ahead lays the headland of Sagres, the point from which the Portuguese navigators set sail under the watchful eye of Prince Henry the Navigator, who was the great genius behind the Discoveries.