Golf Information Editor Nick Bayly bypasses the busy streets of Lisbon in favour of extra sedate however equally pleasing journey to Cascais, a captivating seaside city situated simply half-hour west of Portugal’s capital, the place a group of fantastic golf resorts gently mingle between sandy coves and gorgeous seafood eating places
Whereas Portugal has been a well-liked vacation vacation spot for British golfers for nearly 60 years, most club-toting travellers head for the nation’s southern Algarve coast, the place dozens of golf programs cling tightly to the cliff tops that look out in direction of North Africa.
Whereas there’s a lot to admire about this area, with its fantastic local weather, nice vary of programs and luxurious resorts, the identical can very a lot be stated of Portugal’s western shoreline, which is quick catching up by way of top-class tracks and five-star hospitality.
And with the culturally wealthy capital of Lisbon proper in your doorstep, there is a chance for golfers to get a extra authentically Portuguese really feel to their vacation by wanting west and never south whenever you’re trying to guide your subsequent journey to this fashionable Iberian nation.
And whereas lengthy weekend AirBnBers and American vacationers ‘doing Europe’ will fairly rightly make a beeline for the intense lights Lisbon, golfers looking for extra genteel environment are more and more heading west alongside the Estoril coast, the place the gorgeous harbour city of Cascais is proving a vacation hotspot for a rising variety of golfers trying to relax at a group of five-star resorts and residences.
Benefiting from cooling summer season breezes from off the Atlantic Sea, Cascais supplies a welcome escape from the warmth of the town, with its charming yacht-filled marina, surrounded by buzzing eating places and bars, offering a seaside vacation vibe that’s paying homage to the French Riviera.
Like St Tropez, Cascais was as soon as a sleepy fishing village, which through the years, and partially because of royal patronage and Lisbon’s development west, has steadily gained in reputation with Portugal’s monied courses. With the arrival of huge wallets got here severe funding, in property, lodges, marinas and different leisure services, together with a Method 1 circuit, and fairly naturally, a handful of fantastic golf programs.
CASCAIS GOLF PASSPORT – YOUR TICKET TO GREAT VALUE GOLF
Whereas many golf golf equipment compete instantly with their nearest rivals with a purpose to acquire clients, seven golf equipment situated within the Cascais area have taken the much more wise resolution to affix forces and launch the Cascais Golf Passport, a digital platform which permits golfers to learn from important financial savings on the price of inexperienced charges, in addition to permitting all their tee instances to be booked in a one-stop on-line store.
As a sign of price, when reserving by way of the platform, 5 rounds throughout off-season (Nov-Feb and Jul-Aug) will be booked for €320, whereas 5 rounds throughout excessive season (Mar-June and Sept-Oct) will be had for €370. These charges quantity to a big discount over the usual inexperienced charges.
Throughout my journey we had the pleasure of enjoying 4 of the seven programs which are concerned with the Cascais Golf Passport – Quinta da Marinha, Oitavos Dunes, Penha Longa and Belas – however there are additionally rounds to be performed at Estoril, Pestana and Lisbon Sports activities Membership as a part of the money-saving scheme.
The bottom for my keep was Onyria Quinta da Marinha, a five-star luxurious lodge which overlooks the Robert Trent Jones-designed 18-hole course of the identical title – though you have to to make use of the free shuttle to get to the clubhouse. Situated near Cascais, and a 35-minute drive from Lisbon, Quinta da Marinha has featured prominently on {golfing} itineraries to the area ever because it first opened within the mid-Eighties, because of its first-class lodging and high quality golf.
Refurbished in 2020, this contemporary lodge affords all of the services you may want for, together with spacious rooms with balconies, indoor and outside swimming swimming pools, a spa and three wonderful eating places. The breakfast buffet, at all times a key ingredient of any golf journey, was additionally very first rate, with the automated pancake-making machine an enormous hit with our group!
QUINTA DA MARINHA
Initially designed by Robert Trent Jones, and opened in 1984, the course at Quinta da Marinha hosted quite a few skilled tournaments in its adolescence, together with Senior, LET and Problem Tour occasions, though it’s eminently playable for the vacation golfer, with beneficiant fairways and receptive greens blended in with the odd water hazard and a few fantastic views over the seas.
Re-routed in 2016 to make sure essentially the most spectacular gap, initially the tenth, is now the end, the course options cleverly situated bunkering, raised greens with tight, sloping shoulders, and several other fiendish doglegs.
The cardboard of the course affords gap names which purpose to explain every of the 18 particular person challenges, with gap one ‘Gone With The Wind’ precisely alluding to the breezy circumstances you’ll usually encounter on this uncovered a part of the Portuguese shoreline.
The dogleg par-five third is called ‘Atlantic Ocean’ for good motive – it’s one of many prettiest holes on the course with nice views besides. ‘Iron-y’ describes the brief par-four fifth gap completely. Do you lay up with a mid-iron or threat a driver? The selection, as ever, is yours.
The primary half finishes with a pleasant par-five that includes a particularly extensive fairway, but effectively framed by the pines, tightening in direction of the opening because the inexperienced is approached. The par-three tenth options water to the left, bunkers and scrubland to the opposite aspect, therefore its moniker ‘Good Luck’ and is considered one of numerous excellent par threes, essentially the most notable being the thirteenth, which performs over water to a inexperienced superbly framed by numerous greenside bunkers.
The course continues in nice style till your attain the par-five 18th – an excellent ending gap that options lakes that intrude with the tee shot and the method to the inexperienced and is for certain to create loads of tales within the bar afterwards.
OITAVOS DUNES
Our second spherical noticed us make the brief journey to Oitavos Dunes, a course which can also be a part of a a lot bigger lodge and resort advanced.
Offering a hybrid expertise of each hyperlinks and woodland golf, Oitavos Dunes enjoys one of the dramatic settings on the Estoril Coast, with magnificent views of the Sintra Mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and Cabo da Roca.
Kicking off with six tree-lined holes, the programs then opens up dramatically into the dunes for 10 holes, earlier than returning to the woods for the ultimate two. On paper it sounds prefer it shouldn’t work, however in actuality it most actually does.
True to the traditional hyperlinks philosophy, it’s an out-and-back design, with the northerly wind giving and taking away in equal measure.
Precision quite than energy is the order of the day over the opening holes, as something hit mildly offline will virtually actually require a chip out sideways. As soon as safely negotiated, the course as you rise out of the woodland, with an actual alternative to open the shoulders on the back-to-back par fives at 7 and eight. While not lengthy, at slightly below 6,400 yards, this course presents a real problem. It deceives from the tee, because the fairways are beneficiant, but when your ball leaves the brief stuff, wandering into the powdery sand, yow will discover your self reaching into the bag for a reload.
Transferring to the again 9, the choose of the holes are 14, 17 and 18. The 14th is a superb par three that performs for much longer than its 165 yards suggests, with a storm ravine operating alongside the proper hand aspect swallowing something under-hit. The ultimate two holes are stable assessments, each par fours measuring over 450 yards. The seventeenth is barely simpler, because it has a downhill method, however the inexperienced is difficult, and the bunker entrance left should be prevented.
The 18th is a traditional ending gap – a protracted, dogleg left with a slim fairway, and timber and dunes bordering the tough on each side.
The course is basically flat, making strolling a risk, though many will go for a buggy. Both approach, 18 holes round right here is an absolute delight, and can set you up properly to benefit from the wonderful meals and hospitality on provide within the fashionable clubhouse or the five-star on-site lodge, The Oitavos.
PENHA LONGA
Our third spherical of the journey was at Penha Longa (‘Lengthy Rock’), which boasts 27 holes of championship golf set in opposition to a spectacular and ever-changing backdrop of gorgeous countryside and gorgeous coastal views to Estoril and Cascais.
Dwelling to a five-star Ritz-Carlton Resort, it’s a peaceable spot during which to check your abilities on the famed Atlantic North Course.
With its requirement for daring drives, brave approaches and suave placing on the quick greens, Robert Trent Jones Jr’s design is each an adrenaline rush and a soothing journey by way of considered one of Portugal’s most inspiring landscapes.
With half the holes framed by timber, and several other lakes to deal with, straight hitting is required to attain effectively, though there are many birdie alternatives on the market on an undulating course which isn’t lengthy by fashionable requirements.
The Atlantic South Course is a much less difficult, however nonetheless entertaining possibility, with its 9 holes winding by way of a number of the most historic elements of the property.
The Ritz-Carlton lodge boasts 194 visitor rooms, six eating places, indoor and outside swimming pools, tennis courts, a spa and health centre, jogging observe and a youngsters’s exercise centre.
A particular point out should even be given to the Michelin-starred LAB by Sergio Arola restaurant at Penha Longa, which is, no doubt considered one of the finest golf club-based eating places I’ve ever been to.
Our six-course tasting menu featured dishes that had been bursting with Mediterranean flavours, with a fragile pink prawn salad, creamy jamon croquettes, and a superbly rendered sirloin steak being specific highlights, whereas the ganache-filled chocolate, designed to appear like a golf ball, together with dimples, was an excellent finish to a memorable meal. Situated in a trendy glass-fronted house overlooking the golf course, it’s a must-book for anybody who significantly likes their meals.
BELAS
Our remaining spherical was at Belas, which is ready within the lovely Carregueira Mountains, a brief drive from Cascais. The Rocky Roquemore-designed course is demanding 6,700-yard championship check that provides implausible views of the encompassing hills and valleys past.
The format options gently mounded fairways – a number of of them set in deep valleys – giant, scalloped bunkers, loads of important rises and falls, and a liberal variety of streams and lakes to keep away from.
There’s a nice number of holes on provide, together with a sexy number of par threes, together with a few drop holes, whereas the closing stretch is each difficult and memorable, with the downhill par-5 fifteenth, the par-4 seventeenth, with water on each side of the inexperienced, and the par-four 18th, which requires a carry over a U-shaped lake together with your method, all including to the drama of an entertaining spherical.
THINGS TO DO
Cascais itself is a pleasant seaside city that’s eminently walkable, the place you may spend hours simply mooching alongside the slim lanes and aspect streets stopping at cafés for robust espresso and some Pasteis de Nata (one isn’t sufficient) or a relaxing glass of white wine, doing a bit of sunshine procuring, or admiring the yachts within the marina at any variety of cool bars and eating places.
Historical past lovers ought to take a guided tour across the Palácio da Cidadela de Cascais, commissioned as a summer season palace in 1870 by King Dom Luís I, this fascinating museum stays the official residence of visiting heads of state in Portugal.
And if strolling will get an excessive amount of, why not rent considered one of 1,200 bikes provided by way of the BiCas free bike-hire scheme, which can be found from 76 stations between Parede and Estoril, and hit the cycle path that runs the whole 9km stretch from Cascais to Guincho.
For a little bit of nature within the uncooked, cease off on the Boca do Inferno to observe the Atlantic waves pummel the craggy ‘Mouth of Hell’, 2km west of Cascais.
Right here you’ll find the marvellous Mar do Inferno, a family-run restaurant specialising in all of the delicacies of the ocean – from hake fillets served with cockle rice, Cascais crabs and monkfish to the seafood cataplana wealthy in flavour and freshness. If you happen to can’t select then a secure wager is the ocean platter, with grilled sea bass and gilthead sea bream, prawns, mussels, potatoes, carrots, and broccoli drenched in good olive oil.
For extra particulars on issues to do, native occasions and bookings for the Cascais Golf Passport, go to www.visitcascais.com.
HOW TO GET THERE
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