An icon of the Algarve, the Quinta do Lago resort and residential development was established in the 1970s close to the Faro International Airport in Portugal. Featuring three golf courses, hotels, restaurants, a high-end housing estate and range of elite sporting facilities, Quinta do Lago covers an area of around 2,000 acres, adjacent the Ria Formosa coastal nature park.

Golf was part of the resort’s founding in 1974, with the opening of 27 holes by designer William Mitchell. His original 18 hole design of the South Course remains largely intact all these years later, while the 9 holes incorporated into what became the North Course were redesigned, at considerable expense, by Beau Welling and Tour Professional Paul McGinley in 2014.

The third course at Quinta do Lago, named Laranjal, opened in 2009 on the site of a nearby orange grove. A short drive from the main resort, Laranjal was designed by Jorge Santana da Silva, a Portuguese surveyor whose apprenticeship was spent working in the European offices of American architects like Cabell Robinson and Robert Trent Jones Sr. There are some similarities here at Laranjal with the work of Robinson and Jones through the 1980s and early 90s, most notably the use of containment mounding along holes and large, flat bottomed fairway bunkers to provide an artistic distraction on some of the otherwise unremarkable holes.

The Laranjal Course is arranged in two loops, the front nine routed along the outer perimeter of the property and the back nine set within the interior. The playing corridors are a little tight in places, but Santana da Silva used mounds and hillsides at times to give stray balls the opportunity to kick back into play. The course is tough from the back tees, but from other pads is more than manageable and can be set up as needed with either straightforward pins or instead with holes cut into some of the more difficult side wings.

While some of the fairway bunkering is a little loud and dominant, the course is otherwise a pleasant place to play a round and water holes like the short par five 9th and short par four 10th provide opportunities for golfers to take an heroic gamble in the search for a birdie.

Although unlikely to draw visitors to Quinta do Lago by itself, for those staying at the resort and looking for variety the Laranjal Course will provide some enjoyment.

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Aside from its three golf courses, Quinta do Lago is also home to the Paul McGinley Golf Academy and Southern Europe’s only TaylorMade Performance Center. There are also excellent Tennis, Padel, Cycling, Fitness and Watersport facilities at the resort as well as a brilliant multi-sports hub known as The Campus, which is especially popular with high-performance teams and individuals.