EDGA Tour Tees Up at Salgados for an Algarve Finale

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Three tournaments, three courses and a season that ends where November still means shirtsleeves.

On Sunday 15 November, close to 60 golfers with disabilities, from across Europe and well beyond, will head out for a practice round at Salgados, between the dunes of Praia da Galé and the Salgados Lagoon Nature Reserve. Championship rounds follow on Monday and Tuesday, and it is the first time the European Disabled Golf Association has brought its EDGA Tour to the course. It is not the last stop of the year, either. The Algarve has kept the final three for itself. (Golf Business News)

Salgados Golf Club in the Algarve, host of the 2026 EDGA Tour event

A First for Salgados

Salgados is the new name on the EDGA calendar. The Troon-managed club sits right beside the resort hotels, and Troon executive Jon Schauder called hosting the event “a great honour” for the club. (Golf Business News)

England’s Carol Grinnell, one of the players making the trip, said she was “very excited to be playing” there. She will find a course that has had more done to it lately than most. (Golf Business News)

Who Plays, and How

EDGA works with 50 national golf federations, and its aim is a simple one: to help people with any impairment start golf, stay in it and succeed at it. Its tournaments are usually played in three divisions, Gross, Net and Stableford, so a player chasing a world ranking and one still finding their feet can share the same tee sheet. (Golf Business News)

Results count towards the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability, the ladder that leads to the G4D Tour, played alongside flagship DP World Tour events, and to The G4D Open, staged by The R&A. The R&A, the European Tour Group, PING and Srixon all back the association. Golf has long called itself a game for everyone. This is where it shows its working. (The R&A)

Freshly Back From the Builders

Pedro Vasconcelos laid out the original par 72 in 1994 and Álvaro Mano reworked it in 2012, but the latest changes are the ones visitors will notice. A €3.2 million renovation between November 2024 and February 2025 brought a new Rain Bird irrigation system across all 18 holes, a full bunker refresh and a new signature par 3 played to an island green. (Troon)

The World Golf Awards duly named it the World’s Best Golf Course Renovation 2025. Water has always been the Salgados signature, so an island green feels less like a gimmick and more like the course finally owning up to its character. (First Call Golf)

Three Events in Twelve Days

Salgados opens the Algarve leg. The EDGA Tour Algarve Open follows at Vila Sol on 20 and 21 November with 79 players from 20 countries, an event the Algarve Tourism Association and EDGA have run together since 2014. It all lands in the middle of the region’s busy winter amateur calendar, which we rounded up in our Winter Tournament Diary. (Golf Business News)

Birds-eye view of Vila Sol golf course in Vilamoura, venue of the 2026 EDGA Tour Algarve Open

The season closes at Benamor, near Tavira, with the EDGA Tour Senior on 25 and 26 November for players over 50. Wales’s Mike Jones arrives chasing a hat-trick of Gross titles. The eastern Algarve sunshine will do its bit. The putting is up to him.

Benamor golf course near Tavira in the eastern Algarve, venue of the 2026 EDGA Tour Senior

Playing Salgados Yourself

The course is part of a resort, so the walk from breakfast to the first tee is a short one. The Algarve Marriott Salgados Golf Resort & Spa looks out over the fairways, the Westin Salgados Beach Resort has the beach on its doorstep, and the Marriott Residences Salgados Resort gives families and groups a kitchen and a little more elbow room. (Hotel Management Network)

Delectable Grilled fish at a traditional Portuguese restaurant in Albufeira

Albufeira’s restaurants are a short drive along the coast, and Vilamoura is not much further, so a week can take in Salgados, Vila Sol and the Old Course, freshly crowned Europe’s Best Golf Course, without much time behind the wheel. Order the catch of the day straight off the grill, raise a glass to the island green, and leave the handicap arithmetic to someone else.

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Browse our Algarve golf holidays and take on the island green at Salgados for yourself.

Tee Times: Europe's best Tour Operator 2026

Hugo Makes It Three From Three at La Manga

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Three starts, three trophies, and a Tour card he very nearly didn’t get.

In January, Jean Hugo went to Legends Tour Qualifying School and came home without a card. On Sunday 8 November he won the Champions UK plc European Senior Masters on the South Course at La Manga Club in Murcia, his third victory from three starts on the Staysure Legends Tour. Some of you might know La Manga from your own Spain golf holidays, though probably not from the top of a leaderboard. Tour School may want to review its notes. (Legends Tour)

Jean Hugo holding the Champions UK plc European Senior Masters trophy at La Manga Club

Three Behind, Then Eight Birdies

Hugo started the final day three shots behind England’s Van Phillips and wasted no time. Birdies at the second, third, fourth and sixth drew him level on 15 under, and he kept going: one more at the ninth, two at the 14th and 15th, and an eighth at the par-five 18th. That was a bogey-free 65 for a 19-under total and the clubhouse target. (Legends Tour)

Phillips came to the last needing an eagle to force a play-off. The putt slid by, he tapped in for a 69, and missed out by one. The 18th has form for this sort of thing: Arnold Palmer eagled it to win the 1975 Spanish Open on this course by a single shot. La Manga, it seems, saves its best scripts for the final hole. (Golf Property)

Three Starts, Three Trophies

Hugo is a 22-time winner on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour, and he only turned 50 last December. His first win as a senior came at the Reignwood Legends Championship in Beijing in early October, and that earned him the status Tour School had denied him. On 1 November he closed with a 62 at Pinheirinho to take the inaugural Portugal Legends Championship, the Comporta event we previewed in October. A week later came La Manga. (The Scotsman)

He called the China win “a bit of validation after missing out at Tour School”. Two more trophies have rather settled the matter. And in the week the DP World Tour’s own hopefuls are sweating through Final Stage at INFINITUM, he offers some cheer: a bad week at Q-School is not always the end of the story.

A Leaderboard Full of Familiar Names

India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, the 2012 Scottish Open champion, finished third on 17 under. Chile’s Felipe Aguilar led at the turn, dropped shots at the 10th, 11th and 12th, then eagled the last to salvage fourth. Golf giveth, and golf taketh away, usually in that order. (Legends Tour)

Paul Lawrie, the 1999 Open champion and La Manga winner in 2022, shared seventh on 13 under with Stephen Gallacher. Gallacher still leads the Road to Cambodia Order of Merit, but Hugo has climbed to fifth, with three Asian events left, starting in Vietnam on 20 November. (Legends Tour)

Playing the South Course Yourself

The South is La Manga’s flagship: a par 73 laid out by Robert Dean Putman in 1971, later reworked by Arnold Palmer, and 6,499 metres from the back tees. It hosted the Spanish Open every year from 1973 to 1977, and its palm-lined fairways and lakes still ask plenty of a mid-handicapper. (Top 100 Golf Courses; GolfPass)

Aerial shot of La Manga South Course

The North and West courses complete the set, and the resort’s hotel, now the Grand Hyatt La Manga Club Golf & Spa, means nobody has to drive anywhere. Head down to Cabo de Palos for caldero, the Mar Menor’s rice-and-fish speciality, and finish with an asiático in Cartagena. Nobody will expect a 65.

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Tee Times: Europe's best Tour Operator 2026

Europe’s Best Again: Tee Times Collects Two World Golf Awards in Egypt

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Two trophies, our focus title kept, and a heavier bag for the flight home.

The World Golf Awards went to Africa for the first time this year, and Tee Times went with them. At Madinaty Golf Club, on the eastern edge of New Cairo, on the evening of 7 November 2026, Tee Times Golf Holidays was named Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator for the second year running, and Portugal’s Best Outbound Golf Tour Operator for good measure. The hand luggage was heavier on the way home. (World Golf Awards)

Two Trophies and a Title Defended

Director Carlos Ferreira went up to collect both awards in front of a room full of hoteliers, course owners, tourism boards and fellow operators from every corner of the golfing world. Tee Times went to Egypt with four nominations, including a first-ever tilt at World’s Best Golf Tour Operator.

The winners are decided by votes from golf industry professionals, the media and the travelling public, which is why this one means so much to the team. It extends a run that began in Vilamoura in 1993 and has so far brought Portugal’s Best Inbound Golf Tour Operator in 2020 and 2021, Portugal’s Best Outbound Golf Tour Operator in 2022 and Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator 2025. To everyone who voted a very heartfelt: Thank You. (Golf Business News; World Golf Awards)

Tee Times director Carlos Ferreira receiving a World Golf Awards 2026 trophy on stage at Madinaty Golf Club, Egypt
Carlos Ferreira on stage at the World Golf Awards Gala Ceremony, Madinaty Golf Club.
Golf Before Gala

The weekend began with arrivals on Thursday 5 November at The St. Regis New Capital, the official hotel, followed on Friday by the networking golf day on Madinaty’s Championship Course. Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed it, Troon manages it, and in 2022 it hosted the Asian Tour’s first visit to Egypt. A ten o’clock shotgun start sent the whole field out at once, which is rather the point. (World Golf Awards)

Networking golf is a curious discipline. Business is discussed between shots, cards are swapped on the tee, and nobody admits to their real handicap. Carlos made good use of the day, sharing fairways with the people who run the courses and hotels our clients play and stay at. That evening the welcome reception and barbecue back at The St. Regis carried the conversation on, smart casual and in no hurry.

Carlos Ferreira of Tee Times talking with two guests during the World Golf Awards networking golf day at Madinaty Golf Club
Talking shop at the networking golf day.

Saturday morning brought the World Golf Awards Classic, again on the Championship Course, before coaches carried guests back to Madinaty in the evening for cocktails at seven and the gala dinner and ceremony at eight. The dress code asked for suits, jackets and cocktail dresses. Shorts, as predicted, did not make the cut. (World Golf Awards)

Chris Frost, Managing Director of World Golf Awards, called the first African edition “a landmark moment for us”. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Robert Trent Jones Jr., whose designs span more than 300 courses in over 50 countries, including the one the guests had been playing all weekend. There are worse ways to honour an architect than handing him a trophy on his own course. (Golf Business News; Breaking Travel News)

Group photograph of the World Golf Awards 2026 winners at the Gala Ceremony, Madinaty Golf Club, Egypt
The class of 2026.
A Big Night for Portugal

Portugal was named World’s Best Golf Destination again, and Portuguese names kept appearing on the big screen all evening. The Silver Coast took World’s Best Emerging Golf Destination, Terras da Comporta won World’s Best Eco-Friendly Golf Facility and Quinta do Lago was named World’s Best Golf Academy Venue. Madeira claimed two world titles of its own: Santo da Serra for the best par 3 hole and Palheiro for the best panoramic clubhouse. (World Golf Awards)

At European level, the Old Course Vilamoura was named Europe’s Best Golf Course, which pleases us more than most, since it sits on our doorstep. Palmares won Europe’s Best Golf Clubhouse, PGA Aroeira the eco-friendly title and Quinta do Lago Europe’s Best Golf Venue. At home, Monte Rei was named Portugal’s Best Golf Course and Praia D’El Rey Marriott Golf & Beach Resort Portugal’s Best Golf Hotel.

Play the Winners

Trophies look fine on a shelf, but they look better as a fixture list. An Algarve golf holiday can take in the Old Course, Quinta do Lago and Monte Rei in a single week, while the Silver Coast pairs Praia D’El Rey with Royal Óbidos and West Cliffs, about an hour north of Lisbon. On Madeira, Santo da Serra and Palheiro come with Funchal’s restaurants in between.

Our team has been booking these courses for more than three decades and knows which tee time suits which flight, which hotel suits which group, and where to eat on the night off. Tell us how you like to play, and we will put the winners together for you.

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Browse our Portugal golf holidays and let Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator — two years running — take care of the details.