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The Open de Portugal Returns to PGA Aroeira Lisboa

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After nearly thirty years away, one of European golf’s most storied tournaments comes home to the Wentworth of Lisbon

This September, the pine forests south of Lisbon will host professional golf again. The 64th Open de Portugal takes place at PGA Aroeira No.1 from 17 to 20 September 2026, marking the return of tournament golf to a course that has been part of the game’s fabric in Portugal for over half a century. The event is part of the HotelPlanner Tour and carries a prize fund of €300,000, with 156 players competing over four days. (HotelPlanner Tour)

Open de Portugal Returns to Aroeira

A Tournament Older Than the European Tour Itself

The Open de Portugal has been running since 1953 — nearly two decades before the European Tour existed. When the Tour launched its inaugural calendar in 1972, this was one of the events on it. That kind of longevity is rare in professional golf, and it places the tournament in company that very few events on the current schedule can claim. For the Portuguese Golf Federation, this is one of the centrepiece moments of the national golfing calendar.

The Course and Its Reputation

PGA Aroeira No.1 opened in 1972, the work of architect Frank Pennink, and was quickly given the nickname ‘the Wentworth of Lisbon’ by visiting players. The comparison was always a compliment with range — the course measures 6,122 metres over a traditional par 72 layout, winding through dense pine forest, and precision rather than power is the dominant theme, with tall trees doing the work that fairway bunkers do elsewhere. It is a course that rewards patience and punishes optimism.

Aroeira Fairway and Green

In 1996 and 1997, the course hosted the European Tour’s Portuguese Open — and the 2026 return closes a gap of nearly three decades. Portugal’s only PGA National, PGA Aroeira has recently emerged from a period of significant renovation, with new tees, reshaped bunkers, and cleared woodland between fairways opening up the layout and showing the course at its best. The resort was also named Europe’s Best Eco-Friendly Golf Facility 2025 at the World Golf Awards — recognition that the work done here goes beyond the scorecard.

What Brings 156 Professionals to Lisbon

The Open de Portugal is a Road to Mallorca event, awarding 2,000 points in the rankings that determine which players graduate to the DP World Tour at the season’s end. For many in the field, September at Aroeira will be one of the defining weeks of their year. The HotelPlanner Tour has been a reliable launching pad — recent winners at Royal Óbidos and other Portuguese venues have gone on to establish themselves at the highest level.

Aroeira Tee Lined Fairway

September at Aroeira

The conditions in mid-September around Lisbon are, frankly, excellent for golf. The resort sits within a protected pine forest on the Setúbal Peninsula, about 30 minutes from central Lisbon, with the Atlantic close enough to keep temperatures civilised. When the professionals leave, the course will be in tournament shape — and open for the rest of us.

PGA Aroeira No.1 is part of the Tee Times Lisbon Portfolio portfolio. If you would like to play the same course that hosts the 64th Open de Portugal, we can book your round.

The Open Championship 2026: Royal Birkdale Prepares for Its Biggest Week

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Record demand, a stellar field, and links golf at its most unforgiving — July cannot come soon enough

The 154th Open Championship arrives at Royal Birkdale on 16 July 2026, and the appetite for it borders on the remarkable. More than one million ticket applications were submitted for a week that is expected to draw over 300,000 spectators — which would set an all-time attendance record for golf’s oldest major. The Claret Jug returns to the Lancashire coast, and the world, in considerable numbers, intends to be there. (Golf Digest)

Royal Birkdale Golf Course Southport

A Course That Has Earned Its Place in the Rota

Royal Birkdale has hosted The Open eleven times. Only St Andrews has done so more. The course sits within a natural landscape of sand dunes and willow scrub, with fairways running through hollows that create amphitheatre-like conditions — some of the best spectator sightlines in championship golf. Its roll call of champions is a short history of the modern game: Arnold Palmer in 1961, Tom Watson in 1983, Padraig Harrington in 2008, Jordan Spieth in 2017. Birkdale does not flatter the fortunate. It finds out the worthy. (Golf Digest)

Scheffler Carries the Jug In

Scottie Scheffler won the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush in 2025 and arrives at Birkdale as defending champion and world number one. He is the kind of player links golf rewards: methodical, patient, built for the long game. The question is not whether he is the favourite — he is — but who, among a field of 156, has both the game and the temperament to take it from him.

Open Championship Claret Jug Trophy

The European Case Has Never Been Stronger

The 2026 major season has already produced a compelling storyline for European golf. Aaron Rai’s victory at the PGA Championship — the first by an English-born player since 1919 — announced a depth of European talent that the big events are no longer able to ignore. Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Robert MacIntyre complete a contingent that thrives in exactly the conditions Birkdale will provide. Fleetwood, who grew up in Southport, will be playing The Open in his own back garden — a fact the crowd will remind him of, loudly, at every opportunity. (Tee Times)

Spieth Returns to the Scene

Jordan Spieth won The Open at Birkdale in 2017 with a final round that remains one of the great modern major performances. He returns this July still chasing the PGA Championship — the one title that would complete golf’s career Grand Slam. The venue has history for him. Whether that history helps or haunts remains to be seen.

Jordan Spieth Winner 2017 Open Championship

Something New for 2026

The R&A have introduced a Last Chance Qualifier on the Monday of Open week — twelve players competing over Birkdale’s links for the 156th and final spot in the championship. Drama before the main event begins. It is, as additions to major weeks go, a good one. (Today’s Golfer)

The Open has a way of reminding golfers why links golf is the purest version of the game. If it has you thinking about that kind of test in warmer climes, the Algarve golf courses offer firm fairways, coastal winds, and conditions that prepare you for whatever Birkdale might throw at a field in July. Browse our Portugal golf holidays and see what the Iberian peninsula has waiting.

Challenge de España Returns — This Time, Isla Canela Takes Centre Stage

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A Ryder Cup veteran, a five-time Major champion’s ghost, and Spain’s hottest young talent — the 27th edition has a field worth watching.

The Challenge de España arrives at Isla Canela Golf Links in Huelva this week, 28–31 May. It is the HotelPlanner Tour’s first official event at the venue. With a prize fund of €300,000 and DP World Tour cards on the line, the stakes are higher than the scenery — and the scenery is already remarkable. (HotelPlanner Tour)

A links test with serious teeth

Isla Canela Golf Links sits between natural marshlands and the Atlantic Ocean, with views across the Guadiana River towards the Portuguese Algarve. It is one of the few genuine links-style layouts on the 2026 Road to Mallorca schedule.

Spain Canelas Links Course

The course is flat — but do not mistake flat for forgiving. Strong winds and undulating greens are the real examiners here. Creativity, patience and adaptability will separate the contenders from the also-rans.

Experience meets ambition in the field

The 2026 field is a study in contrasts. On one side: seasoned DP World Tour winners chasing a route back to the elite. On the other: a generation of young Europeans who have not read the memo about waiting their turn.

Chris Woods 3 DP World Titles

Chris Wood arrives with three DP World Tour titles, a Ryder Cup appearance in 2016 and a career ranking of world number 22. His compatriot David Horsey has four European Tour victories to his name. Alejandro Cañizares, Julien Quesne, Tom Lewis, Justin Harding and Steven Brown complete a core of players who know exactly what is at stake — because they have been there before. (MyGolfWay)

Pablo Ereño Challenge de Catalunya

Facing them: Pablo Ereño, fresh from winning the Challenge de Catalunya two weeks ago and currently sitting second on the Road to Mallorca standings. South African Wilco Nienaber, the powerful MJ Viljoen, and emerging talents Tiger Christensen, Anders Emil Ejlersen and Frank Kennedy are also in the mix.

Joel Moscatel adds a further local subplot. The Spaniard won this very tournament at Real Club Sevilla Golf in 2024 and arrives at Isla Canela with unfinished business.

Spain’s golfing generation is making noise

The Challenge de España is backed by the Royal Spanish Golf Federation, the Government of Andalusia, the Royal Andalusian Golf Federation and the Spanish Sports Council. It is a serious investment in the next generation of European professional golf.

RFEG Vice President Jaime Salaverri put it plainly:

“The level on the HotelPlanner Tour keeps getting higher, and the Challenge de España has established itself as a tournament that prepares players for the leap to the DP World Tour.”

Ereño’s recent win was cited as exactly that kind of evidence. (TenGolf)

 The DP World Tour cards are very much up for grabs

The top 15 players on the Road to Mallorca at season’s end earn DP World Tour cards. The standings entering this week are as tight as they have been all season. A single strong performance can move a player several places in either direction.

DPT World Tour Logo Stars

For the veterans in the field, this is a chance to reclaim status they know well. For Ereño and the younger contingent, it is the next step on a journey that is very much in progress.

Somewhere in this field, a career is about to change direction. That is what the HotelPlanner Tour does — and why this week at Isla Canela matters.

And if golf in southern Spain sounds like your kind of week, you do not have to watch from a screen. Browse our Costa de la Luz golf courses and put yourself in the picture. Or, the Algarve sits just across the river — close enough to see from the Spanish fairways and just as easy to book with Tee Times.