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.

With its investment of improvements pushing the €9 million mark, there is no doubt that the resort now views the North Course as its golfing showpiece. The South is a more traditional, old-fashioned style of resort course with the primary point of difference being greens that tend to be steeply pitched and quick, but otherwise much flatter by comparison to the North. The McGinley/Welling greens here have a lot more internal shape than the South, and are perhaps archetypal of what golfers might expect of greens designed by a successful TOUR Professional. The greens are not only considerably smaller in overall size, they feature distinct target zones within each green and tough recovery shots if even fractionally off with your approach shot.

Aside from new greens, the €9 million investment in the North Course involved the rebuilding of all the tees, bunkers and cart paths as well as a new drainage and irrigation system. Conditioning across the course is generally excellent, and we liked the fact that some of the rolling holes are quite sparsely, and strategically bunkered, through the fairways.

Among better front nine holes are the long par three 2nd, with its open, accessible green site and the gently undulating par five 7th, a lightly bunkered hole played initially through the pines and out toward an interesting green with a sharp false front.

On the inward half, the par threes are both attractive with particularly tight targets while the 11th and 18th are fun shortish par fives that offer aggressive golfers genuine opportunities to score. The same cannot be said of the almost horse-shoe 12th, which bends so aggressively around a lake that it forces golfers to play a predictable layup shot followed by a short-iron across the water.

Aside from a handful of individual highlight holes, the primary feature of the new Quinta do Lago North are the greens, which are particularly severe on the short par fours, perhaps as a result of McGinley’s mindset that shorter holes need tougher greens. Whilst not suggesting that former Ryder Cup Captains are incapable of designing fun greens for all, these are probably more exciting and interesting for professional standard players than they are for the general green-fee paying public. The course more broadly does provide a memorable golf experience, however, and a nice contrast to the older, traditional South Course.

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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.