Dom Pedro Pinhal

The verdict

Every great golf resort needs a course like the Pinhal: the round that does not shout for attention and quietly becomes the one half the group wants to play again. Opened in 1976 as the second course built in Vilamoura, it carries the signature of Frank Pennink, the English amateur champion turned architect who shaped so much of the Algarve's first golf wave, with a 1985 revision by Robert Trent Jones Sr that modernized the greens and bunkering without erasing the original character.

The character is the pines. Umbrella and Atlantic pines line nearly every fairway, framing the shots, scenting the morning air and punishing the crooked drive with a punch out sideways. Water appears on only a handful of holes and rarely threatens a sensible line, so Pinhal's questions are all about placement and angle rather than carry. On a Vilamoura week it slots perfectly between the bigger names: warm up here, then take on the Old Course and the Ryder Cup style examination of the Victoria.

The golf worth the trip

Pinhal opens with a 498 metre par 5 whose rising fairway hides the green until you crest the hill, a gentle statement that this course rewards those who think a shot ahead. The best of the front nine comes at the 4th, a picturesque par 4 played down a falling fairway with water guarding the approach, and the 8th, a 147 metre par 3 across a lake to a green tilted left to right, the prettiest single shot on the property.

The back nine is where the routing earns its keep. The 13th is a 522 metre par 5 played blind over rising ground twice, the kind of old fashioned hole modern resorts no longer build, and the 17th is the round's strategic heart: a 496 metre par 5 with a right angle dogleg defended by pines, where the brave line over the corner sets up a look at the green and the greedy line finds timber. The 18th hides its green beyond a rising fairway, then drops you down to a contoured putting surface ringed by three deep bunkers, a proper finish.

Pinhal also houses the Vilamoura Golf Academy, with the resort's main driving range and short game area, which makes it the natural first morning of an Algarve trip. From here the rest of the central Algarve is twenty minutes in either direction: Quinta do Lago South to the east, the Old Course across the resort.

Where to stay nearby

Vilamoura is built for the golf trip. The marina quarter, ten minutes from the first tee, holds the highest concentration of hotels, restaurants and late evenings in the central Algarve, with everything from five star resorts to apartment blocks that suit a buddies group splitting costs. Dom Pedro's own hotels offer stay and play packages across the resort's courses, which is usually the best value route to 36 and 54 hole itineraries.

Golfers who prefer quiet over marina energy stay east toward the Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo estates, twenty minutes away, and commute in. Either base puts the whole central Algarve rotation, Pinhal, the Old Course, Victoria, Vale do Lobo Royal and the Quinta courses, within a half hour drive.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts in Vilamoura and the central Algarve.