Description:
Every championship course in the Algarve owes something to Penina. In 1966, Sir Henry Cotton transformed a stretch of rice paddies into the region's first 18-hole course, planting hundreds of thousands of trees to shape the parkland corridors that still frame every hole today. He considered it his masterpiece, and the Portuguese Open agreed, returning here ten times over the following decades.
The course plays flat but never easy. Streams and water hazards, adapted from the original rice-paddy drainage, cross the fairways throughout, and Cotton's raised, subtly sloped greens punish anything hit carelessly. The par-5 5th sets the tone early: a genuine risk-reward hole, tempting with an eagle if you carry the water and out-of-bounds, punishing if you don't quite make it. The par-3 13th is the hole most golfers remember long after they've left, a tee shot played over water to a green that has swallowed thousands of balls over the decades. This is a course built on accuracy and course management rather than power, exactly as Cotton designed it.
Penina's history and visionary design are the draw here, not modern polish. The greens are consistently well-regarded, but the wider course shows its age, and golfers who prioritise pristine, manicured conditioning may find newer Algarve courses a better fit. For anyone who wants to play where championship golf in the Algarve actually began, on a layout still shaped by the hand of a three-time Open champion, Penina remains genuinely worth the round.

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