Balaia Golf Celebrates 25 Years with a Members’ Birthday Tournament

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Twenty-five years Celebration. Nine holes. 20 members. And not a par 4 in sight.

Balaia Golf, the short course tucked into the pine woods of Balaia Golf Village on the eastern edge of Albufeira, has marked its twenty-fifth anniversary with a members’ tournament, a prize-giving and a dinner in the clubhouse. Twenty members played nine holes in sunshine and warm temperatures. The Algarve does not really do anniversary rain.

Balaia 25 Anniversary Golf Tournament participants

The Winners

The French took the honours. Phillipe Cordier won the men’s prize with 20 points, while compatriot Viviane Dujardin won the ladies’ competition with 17. Ian Foulis claimed nearest the pin — the one prize on a par-3 course for which every hole qualifies.

A putting competition for beginners ran alongside the main event, and the trophy went to Belgium’s Marie-Angèle Beeckman. Balaia CEO Ana Bachmann presented the prizes, looking back over the resort’s history and thanking the team that keeps it a place guests return to year after year.

Tournament ladies winner receiving prize from Balaia CEO Ana Bachmann
Tournament mens winner receiving prize from Balaia CEO Ana Bachmann

Two Founders Remembered

The course opened in 2001 within the resort businessman Robert Bachmann had founded some years earlier. The golf, though, was the idea of Gad Ron — then general manager, a friend of Bachmann’s and the man behind every stage of the golf at Balaia. Both have since died, and the evening paused to remember what they built.

There is continuity, too. Maria José Pinto has directed the golf since November 2000, before there was a course to direct. In an industry where managers change more often than pin positions, that is going some.

The Course

Southern Golf laid out nine par 3s among the resort’s pines, ranging from 67 to 160 metres; played twice, the 18-hole card measures 1,968 metres. The course is rated for the World Handicap System and has its own tees for Pitch & Putt competitions. (Visit Portugal)

Players on the green at Balaia Golf, Albufeira

It is short, not easy. Undulating fairways, excellent greens and small targets make it a proper examination of the short game — precisely where most of us lose the shots we later blame on the driver. Its hundred-plus members would agree.

A short par 3 green framed by trees at Balaia Golf, Albufeira

A Busy Anniversary Year

The members’ tournament was not the only celebration. On 26 and 27 September Balaia hosted the Albufeira International Pitch & Putt, three rounds of stroke play over the nine holes. Hugo Espírito Santo of Quinta das Lágrimas won on 150, 12 under par, four shots clear of Finn Gordon from Vilamoura. (Jornal do Algarve)

Back at the anniversary, the prize-giving and dinner were accompanied by live music from Inês Pinto Machado. Twenty-five years of short game, it turns out, deserves a long evening.

A Base with Bonus Holes

Balaia is a resort first: around 480 apartments, tennis courts, pools, a driving range and academy, and the beach within walking distance. The nine holes are on the doorstep, so a quick round before breakfast becomes a daily habit rather than a holiday resolution.

The bigger courses are close by. Pine Cliffs and Salgados are minutes away, and the Vilamoura Old Course is a short drive east. Whatever your preferences, you are sure to find the perfect Golf Course course amongst our listings.

Browse our Algarve golf holidays and book your ideal Golf Getaway with Tee Times.

Gower Comes From Six Back to Win the Super Bock Ladies Open

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Six shots behind, no idea of the scores, and a boyfriend on the bag doing the maths.

Most tournament winners spend the final round with one eye on the leaderboard. Ellie Gower spent hers studiously ignoring it, which turned out to be the better plan. The 24-year-old Londoner began the last day of the Super Bock Ladies Open at Vidago Palace six shots off the lead, signed for a 67 — the joint-best round of the day — and won by two on Thursday 22 October. She found out afterwards. By asking.

Ellie Gower holding the Super Bock Ladies Open trophy at Vidago Palace, October 2026

The Final Round

Starting at three under par in the third-to-last group, Gower birdied the 3rd, 4th and 8th to turn in a four-way tie for the lead at six under. A bogey at the 10th barely registered. She birdied the 13th and 14th back to back, then holed a 15-footer for eagle at the par-5 17th — a nine-iron approach with the wind behind — to go four clear. A three-putt at the closing par three merely trimmed the margin to two. (LETAS)

Her total of 208, eight under par, left compatriot Billie-Jo Smith second on six under after a closing 71. There is some history here: Smith was also the player Gower beat in a play-off for her first LETAS title, at the Calatayud Ladies Open in 2024. As rivalries go, it has so far been conducted entirely in one direction. (O Jogo)

“How Have I Done?”

Gower’s boyfriend, PGA professional John Wilding, was on the bag — as he was in Calatayud — and following the live scoring as they went. When she walked off the 18th and asked how she had done, he suggested she might want to dust off her Portuguese for the presentation. Her parents were there to see it, which they had not been two years ago.

The €8,000 winner’s cheque also represents a modest improvement on her last visit. At the inaugural edition in May 2025 she finished 50th and took home €273. Vidago, it seems, rewards a second look. (O Jogo)

Ellie Gower holding the Super Bock Ladies Open trophy at Vidago Palace, October 2026

The Ones That Got Away

Scotland’s Lorna Mcclymont had built a three-shot lead with a bogey-free 65 in strong winds on day two, the second time in three weeks she had led a LETAS event going into the final round. A closing 76 dropped her to third on five under. Czech amateur Anna Ludvova matched Gower’s 67 to share fourth with Norway’s Silje Torvund Ohma, a shot further back.

For Portugal, Sofia Barroso Sá opened with a 71 and became only the sixth Portuguese player to make the cut at a LETAS event on home soil, before a final-round 79 left her tied 47th. Sara Gouveia, back after more than a year out with a back injury, and amateurs Francisca Ferreira da Costa and Laura Santos missed the cut. (Mais Beiras)

What the Super Bock Ladies Open Win Means

With seven Ladies European Tour cards for 2027 going to the top of the Order of Merit, and the top 30 spared the first stage of Q-School, this was a timely win. It lifts Gower from 54th into the top 20 with two events left. She admitted, with some candour, that one fewer week at Q-School suited her nicely.

The season resumes at the Santander Golf Tour – Girona event from 12 to 14 November. (Golf News)

Playing It Yourself

The Vidago Palace Golf Course is open to visiting golfers, and the 17th — the par five where the tournament turned — is the hole to circle on the card. Most of us will not be getting home with a nine-iron.

The par-5 17th hole on the Vidago Palace Golf Course in autumn

Stay at the Vidago Palace Hotel, whose owners, the Super Bock Group, put up the trophy, and a cold Super Bock on the terrace afterwards seems only fair. Add a couple of days on the coast at Oporto Golf Club and Estela, an hour and a bit away, and the north makes a fine autumn trip.

Browse our Porto and Northern Portugal golf holidays and play the course where this year’s title was won.

The Spaniards Are Going Home

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Three Spaniards, one bankruptcy court and a sudden fondness for the DP World Tour.

When LIV Golf set out to buy the professional game, Spain lent it some of its most recognisable names: Sergio Garcia and a then-amateur David Puig at the launch in 2022, and Jon Rahm, the reigning Masters champion, at the end of 2023.

Within a single week this October, all three headed for the exit. The cheques, for the most part, have already cleared.

LIV Golf exodus

How LIV Ran Out of Road

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund decided to stop funding LIV at the end of 2026, having reportedly spent more than $5 billion on the project. On 8 September the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey, owing between $500 million and $1 billion to at least 1,000 creditors — Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau among the largest. (Al Jazeera, Skratch)

The rescue plan, LIV 2.0, promises a shorter schedule, player equity and a new lead investor. It also needs star players to make the sums work. A league built on the idea that money solves everything has discovered the drawback of not having any.

One Week in October

On 7 October Rahm’s lawyer told the bankruptcy court that the two-time major champion had reviewed the LIV 2.0 terms and found them unacceptable. He leaves with three consecutive LIV individual titles and, according to court filings, more than $100 million still owed on his contract. The same court released Garcia that week.

Jon Rahm tees off at a LIV event in 2026David Puig tees off at LIV Houston

The following day Puig, 24, used the first round of the Open de España at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid to confirm he was out too: “I don’t see myself playing in the LIV 2.0.” He holds a full DP World Tour card and intends to use it. (Golf.com, Golf Monthly)

Who Is Left

Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed had already gone. Joaquin Niemann, LIV’s most prolific winner with nine individual titles, is reported to be next, while Cameron Smith and Tyrrell Hatton remain undecided.

The DP World Tour has helped them think it over: chief executive Guy Kinnings says anyone signing for LIV 2.0 will not hold membership next year. Richard Bland, 53, says he is staying. Somebody has to turn the lights off. (GolfMagic, Golf Digest)

Why It Matters If You Play Rather Than Watch

Rahm’s first stop is the Abu Dhabi Championship, 4–8 November, and he is expected to base himself in Europe in 2027. Puig plans a full European season. That puts Spain’s biggest names back on Spanish tees — this year the country staged DP World Tour events at Real Club de Golf El Prat near Barcelona in May and in Madrid in October. (Golf Digest)

Cork oaks line a fairway at Real Club Valderrama in SotograndeWhether LIV ever returns to Valderrama, which hosted its Andalucía event in June, is anybody’s guess. Valderrama is not going anywhere, and nor are the rest of the Costa del Sol’s courses, the October sunshine or the pescaíto frito at lunch. The Spaniards have decided there is no place like home. They may have a point.

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Browse our Spain golf holidays and play the courses the Spaniards are coming home to.