Green Fees in the UK causing valid concern

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£495 for a Round of Golf. Seriously.

Green fees in the United Kingdom have always been climbing. But 2026 has delivered a number that deserves a moment of quiet contemplation: £495. That is the peak visitor green fee at Royal Birkdale this summer — up 24% on last year, and enough to make even the most devoted links pilgrim pause mid-swing.

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The Numbers Are Startling

Royal Birkdale is not alone. In 2021, the average green fee across the UK’s top 100 courses was £161. In 2026, that figure stands at £265 — a five-year increase of nearly 65%. The most recent annual rate of increase has outpaced inflation by more than three times. Fifteen courses in Great Britain and Ireland now charge £400 or more for a peak visitor round, up from just eight last year. Add a caddie to your Birkdale round and you are looking at well north of £575 before you have bought a sandwich. 

A Round at Birkdale or a Weekend in the Algarve?

Here is where it gets interesting. £495 is, give or take, the cost of a return flight from London to Faro, two nights in a decent Algarve hotel, and a round at one of the finest courses in Portugal — with change left for a very good dinner and a bottle of Alentejo red. The arithmetic is not flattering to Southport.

Golden-Triangle-Golf-Quinta do Lago

Portugal’s top courses — Quinta do Lago South, Monte Rei, Oitavos Dunes, Vilamoura Old — charge green fees that rarely exceed €180 at peak. They are played in reliable sunshine, on immaculate surfaces, with the Atlantic visible from half the tees. Nobody is suggesting they are Royal Birkdale. But at a third of the price, on a warm May morning with no wind chill involved, they make a compelling case.

The Links Dream Is Not Dead — Just Expensive

To be fair to Birkdale, The Open Championship returns there in July for the 11th time — and playing a major venue in its Open year is a genuine bucket-list experience. The club has also launched a ballot offering UK golfers a round for £99, which is a thoughtful gesture. But for the majority of visiting golfers, £495 is simply the asking price, take it or leave it. 

There Is Another Way

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For golfers who want exceptional courses, reliable weather, and a holiday that does not require remortgaging, the Algarve, Lisbon, and the Costa del Sol have been making that argument for years. In 2026, with UK green fees climbing past £495, the case has never been easier to make.

Browse our Portugal golf holidays and see what £495 can really buy you.

From Vila Nova de Gaia to the DP World Tour

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Daniel Rodrigues Shines at the Turkish Airlines Open

Daniel Rodrigues Shines at the Turkish Airlines Open

Sunday’s final round at the Turkish Airlines Open in Belek was not supposed to go like this for Daniel Rodrigues. He is 23 years old. He is playing his first full season on the DP World Tour. Six months ago, he was grinding through all three stages of Qualifying School — a six-round marathon at INFINITUM in Spain — just to earn his card. And yet there he was, standing on the 18th green at National Golf Club, finishing tied second on eight under par, two shots behind winner Mikael Lindberg.

Not bad for a debut season.

The boy from Gaia

Rodrigues is from Vila Nova de Gaia — the historic city that faces Porto across the Douro River — and his story is a good one. The former number one amateur in Portugal, he won the Portuguese Amateur title and was national Under-18 and Under-16 champion before crossing the Atlantic to study and play golf at Texas A&M University. He turned professional last summer. He made it through Q-School at the first attempt. And then, in just his second season of professional golf, he nearly won a DP World Tour event on a rain-soaked Sunday afternoon in Turkey.

Drama on moving day

The week was not without its drama. Rodrigues shared the lead heading into the final round, having carded a composed third-round 68 — birdying four of his first six holes — before a two-hour lightning stoppage threatened to break his rhythm. It did not. He and Lindberg went into Sunday tied at the top, the air still damp and the occasion very real.

Turkish Airlines Open at National Golf Club Belek Turkey

When Lindberg held firm

Lindberg, to his credit, was magnificent. The 33-year-old Swede closed with a 69 to take his maiden DP World Tour title, earning himself a debut major appearance at the PGA Championship at Aronimink later this month in the process. But Rodrigues — sharing second with Italy’s Guido Migliozzi — will have taken enormous confidence from the week. These are the results that define careers.

A Portuguese double act

It was, quietly, a fine weekend for Portuguese golf in general. Ricardo Melo Gouveia tied for seventh on six under — a steady, experienced performance from the man who has flown the flag for Portuguese golf on the DP World Tour almost single-handedly in recent years. Now, for the first time in a long time, he has company worth having.

Ricardo Melo Gouveia tied for seventh

Portugal, is producing leaderboard golfers again, which is only fitting for a country that also produces some of the finest golf courses in Europe.

Time to book your piece of Portugal

The Algarve, where Rodrigues cut his teeth as an amateur, remains one of the great destinations for any golfer who takes the game seriously. The courses are exceptional. The conditions are kind. And if watching a young man from Porto nearly win on the DP World Tour has stirred something in you — well, there is really only one thing to do about it.

Browse our Algarve golf holidays and start planning your own Portuguese story.

MADEIRA IS GETTING A MAJOR MAKE-OVER

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MADEIRA IS ABOUT TO BECOME A VERY DIFFERENT DESTINATION

There is a moment in every destination’s story when it stops being a well-kept secret and becomes something rather more significant. For Madeira, that moment may be arriving sooner than most people expected.

The Madeira government has confirmed plans to open 36 new holes across the archipelago over the coming years. That is not a minor adjustment to the programme. For an island currently offering three golf venues and 63 holes, it represents a visionary transformation. And at the centre of that transformation is one of the most eagerly anticipated course openings in European golf.

A CLIFFTOP COURSE TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING

Ponta do pargo golf course madeira cgi render faldo design

The site of Sir Nick Faldo’s course at Ponta do Pargo was originally conceived more than fifteen years ago, before construction was halted by the global financial crisis in 2009. The dream did not disappear — it simply waited. Construction restarted, and the par-72 layout is now in its final stages, perched high on the clifftops of Madeira’s westernmost point with sweeping views across the archipelago and out to the Atlantic.

Faldo himself has been characteristically direct about what he found when he returned to the site. He described it as “a golf course designer’s dream” — a site where the natural landscape does much of the work, and where the designer’s role is as much about restraint as invention. Sustainability has been central to the process from the start. The decision to install Madeira’s native Kikuyu grass — which thrives on natural rainfall without irrigation — is expected to dramatically reduce the course’s water consumption throughout the year.

The course covers 120 hectares of natural landscape and will be supported by practice facilities including a driving range, short game area, a nine-hole pitch and putt course, and a clubhouse, restaurant and hotel. The opening is anticipated for 2027.

SANTO DA SERRA GETS EVEN BETTER

The oldest golf club in Madeira, Clube de Golf Santo da Serra already boasts three nine-hole loops — the Machico, the Desertas and the Serras — all designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr, and has hosted the European Tour’s Madeira Islands Open on ten occasions. An additional nine-hole layout will take it to 36 holes. The project will also include the construction of two new lakes for water collection and sustainable water management, with the stored water used to irrigate the course.

Santo da Serra golf course madeira couple fairway

It is worth noting that Santo da Serra does not arrive at this moment of expansion from a position of weakness. The course was recently named Portugal’s Best Golf Course in the Players’ Choice category at the 2025 Golfamore Awards — an honour decided entirely by golfers, based on more than 160,000 reviews logged across a voting pool of over 100,000 players. It also recently completed a €2.5 million investment programme aimed at enhancing the playing experience for both members and visiting golfers. A course that is already the best in the country, now adding nine more holes. Not bad.

PORTO SANTO JOINS THE EXPANSION

The expansion does not stop on the main island. Porto Santo Golfe — set on Madeira’s quieter sister island, famous for its seven-kilometre beach — is also in line for a new nine-hole addition. For golfers who have already played the existing 18-hole course, that is a significant development. Porto Santo has long been the kind of place you visit once, intend to return to, and somehow never quite manage. More golf holes may finally provide the decisive nudge.

THE DESTINATION RIGHT NOW

Madeira island golf destination Portugal

All of this is coming. But the case for a Madeira golf holiday does not require a building site. International rounds played across the islands rose by more than ten per cent in 2025, with Madeira’s four biggest overseas markets — Scandinavia, Germany, the UK and France — all posting growth. The destination earned the World Golf Award for World’s Best Emerging Golf Destination in 2025.

The Madeira Golf Passport remains one of the most popular ways to experience the destination, offering three rounds of golf at either Santo da Serra or Palheiro Golf from €290 per person, including complimentary transfers between hotel and course. For the value it represents — on an island with this much drama, this much scenery, and this much to do beyond the fairways — it is one of the better deals in European golf travel.

Tee Times covers Madeira in full, with tee times at Santo da Serra, Palheiro Golf and Porto Santo Golfe. Book now, before the word properly gets out.