Going for Golf

Vila Vita Parc

There’s no denying it, Portuguese courses cater superbly for the travelling golfer. And no area caters for that growing demographic group better than the Algarve.

Serviced by Faro airport – one of the busiest ‘holiday hubs’ – the Algarve is blessed with a mild winter climate and is, unsurprisingly, extremely popular with British ex-pats. Few companies have a stronger foothold in the region than Oceânico Developments. As if five courses at the Vilamoura development weren’t enough, it also opened eponymously named courses at the Amendoeira Resort designed by Nick Faldo and Christy O’Connor Jnr.

Just 35 minutes from the airport, Amendoeira is ideally positioned to take advantage of Brits, Germans and Scandinavians looking to purchase a holiday home on a golf course. And one of the first things they discover upon getting out their clubs is that Faldo is more suited to course design than Ryder Cup captaincy. He is gaining something of a reputation for producing decent courses and the lay-out that carries his name here is no exception.

The two-year-old course, built on the hillier part of the site, is designed to encourage strategic thinking, with rocky outcrops, scrub bunkers and meandering water hazards shaping your approach from each individual tee. Mountains and abundant cacti, olive, fig and orange trees help to give the whole area its character and the course sits well against that milieu. Many holes require carries off the tee over scrub, emphasising the need for good course management while at the same time offering the ever-popular risk/reward temptation.

The 53-year-old, six-time Major winner appears to enjoy designing punishing par-threes – one at Chart Hills, in Kent, sticks in my mind, mainly owing to a wet, triple-bogey six upon my first visit. Here, the 162-yard 11th is equally draconian for the misguided, with a pond, two bunkers and a stream, running along the left side, all ready to gobble up any errant shots.

Some of the greens move more mysteriously than Ann Widdecombe on Strictly Come Dancing – although this is far more enjoyable and, at least with a putt, you can anticipate what’s going to happen. The 542-yard, par-five closing hole, for example, has a two-tiered green fronting a cliff – potentially a card-wrecker. It’s a cracker of a course and deserving of the plaudits which have come its way.

The O’Connor course, in contrast to the Faldo, is laid out in the valley, with its lakes and streams maintained as a wildlife sanctuary. Forget the “Aah, how sweet” comments though, for the course still demands your fullest attention and it’s not quite as soft and fluffy as the wildlife sanctuary tag might suggest.

The character of the genial Irishman shines through, however, with huge greens and generous landing areas. He said he wanted it to be “playable; but there is trouble lurking left and right if you lose a run of yourself…” He’s achieved his aim and you’ll need yours to be just as true if you are to get through unscathed.

Like its sibling, the par-threes on the O’Connor course are quite a challenge. The fourth requires a 163-yard carry off the back tee over a tree, a pond and then a bunker at the front of the green. Challenging? Yes. Memorable? Yes. Enjoyable? Certainly. Like Faldo, O’Connor has included his fair share of risk/reward holes and the designer has enthused particularly about the 10th, a sharp dog-leg right.

“It dares you to cut off 60 yards to the right of a bunker, but if you come undone, you’ll get wet,” he said.

Like many resorts in the region, property sales are, at the very minimum, a major factor in the Amendoeira development, if not the actual raison d’être – and they have been designed in traditional Moorish style which is pleasing to the eye even while golfing. But a lack of property ownership does not preclude the visiting golfer from enjoying these two outstanding courses, for guests at the nearby, multi-award-winning Vila Vita Parc Resort can take advantage of special packages which give access to these courses and more.

Just five minutes away from the Amendoeira resort, the privately-owned, 173-room, five-star Vila Vita Parc is also designed sympathetically to respect – and blend with – the local Moorish architecture. It sits in 54 acres of spectacular gardens, bordered by a dramatic rocky coastline and has its own private white-sand beach.

A choice of excellent restaurants – including the Michelin-starred The Ocean – offers a wide range of dishes ranging from haute cuisine to the regional cooking of the Algarve. And the hotel’s renowned wine cellar houses more than 11,000 bottles of fine vintages, including spectacular reds from Herdade dos Grous, the resort’s own wine estate and farm located in the Alentejo region.

The Vital spa offers steam, aroma and algae baths, saunas, whirlpools and a tepidarium – a thermal bath of the kind used since Roman times. But if you simply want more golf, Vila Vita Parc can sate your appetite there too, as it offers its own, popular, nine-hole, par-three course – free for guests at the hotel – where the resort’s own golf pro is available for tuition.

Just make sure you don’t get so comfortable at the hotel that you can’t motivate yourself to travel five minutes to Amendoeira’s golf courses. It may well be a tough decision.