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Portugal Invitational 2026: Make a Week of It in the Algarve

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The tournament is five weeks away. The field is confirmed. The Algarve is warm. Here is why all three of these things should matter to you.

2026 Portugal Invitational - Algarve, Porugal
Pádraig Harrington won the Portugal Masters at The Els Club Vilamoura in 2016. On 31 July, he returns to that same course for the inaugural Portugal Invitational — the first PGA TOUR Champions event ever staged in Europe — alongside Bernhard Langer, José María Olazábal, Ernie Els, and a 78-player field with more major titles between them than most tours produce in a decade. Five weeks away. Accommodation in the Vilamoura golf holiday packages in late July does not linger. This is the moment to make a decision.

These Are Not Exhibition Golfers

It would be easy to mistake a senior circuit event for a celebration of the past rather than a contest in the present. Dismiss that thought. Bernhard Langer — approaching his 69th birthday — holds 47 PGA TOUR Champions wins and six Charles Schwab Cups. Harrington has claimed two U.S. Senior Open titles since turning 50 and remains a genuine contender at every major on the calendar. Olazábal, a two-time Masters champion, is competing on his home continent for the first time at this level. Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen, and David Duval are all here to win. The $3 million prize purse — one of the largest on the PGA TOUR Champions schedule — has a way of concentrating minds. Harrington will know every slope of The Els Club Vilamoura. That is not a small advantage.

Aerial view of The Els Club Vilamoura, host venue for the inaugural 2026 Portugal Invitational

What Tournament Week Actually Looks Like

The competition runs from 31 July to 2 August, with the Pro-Am taking place in the days beforehand. Pro-Am packages are available for those who would rather play alongside a PGA TOUR Champions legend than simply watch one — a round at The Els Club Vilamoura in that company is a golf story worth telling. All three rounds are broadcast live on Golf Channel, across 170 countries, but if you are standing on the course rather than watching from a sofa, you will see Harrington walk fairways he already knows, and Langer add another chapter to a career that declines to reach a final paragraph. The Els Club has the 261 Tap Room on site. The marina restaurants are a short drive. The dourada was in the Atlantic that morning.

Vilamoura marina on a summer evening, Algarve, with waterfront restaurants and moored yachts

The Algarve Does Not Begin and End in Vilamoura

Tournament week is the anchor. The Algarve is the destination. Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo are within easy reach — which have been benchmarks for European resort golf for thirty years. Further west, Palmares plays along the cliffs above Meia Praia beach, with the Atlantic visible on almost every hole. The coastline between Vilamoura and Lagos contains some of the finest golf in Portugal. Build the trip around the tournament and there is no shortage of material to fill the days either side.

clifftop fairways of Palmares Golf Course above Meia Praia beach, Algarve

The Portugal Invitational is a five-year commitment — it will return in 2027. But the inaugural edition only happens once. There will be a first winner, a first-round leader, a first eagle at The Els Club Vilamoura under tournament conditions. With Harrington and Langer in the field, a Sunday finish to remember is well within the range of probabilities.

The Algarve has been ready for this for some time. So, with any luck, are you.

Browse our Algarve golf holidays and start building the trip around the Portugal Invitational.


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Europe’s Open: Five Names Worth Backing at Royal Birkdale

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Two majors down. One to go. And it happens to be the most European one.

Royal Birkdale Golf Course Southport

The 2026 major season has been, by any reasonable measure, a European one. Rory McIlroy defended his Masters title at Augusta in April — the fourth player in history to win back-to-back Green Jackets. Aaron Rai won the PGA Championship in May, becoming the first English-born player to claim a major since 1919. Two of the three majors played so far this year have gone to Europe. The fourth, the oldest and the most naturally European of them all, arrives at Royal Birkdale on 16 July. Here are the five names worth backing.

Tommy Fleetwood — The Hometown Favourite

Tommy Fleetwood mid-swing

If there is a script written for this Open, it ends with Fleetwood’s name on the trophy. He grew up in Southport. He knows every gust off the Irish Sea, every quirk of that coastline — and, one suspects, every pub on the high street. The gallery at Birkdale will carry him loudly, and for four days. He finished tied eleventh at Shinnecock Hills last weekend. His links record is exceptional. The only thing Fleetwood has never done is win a major. Birkdale in July, in front of a crowd entirely on his side, feels like the moment that changes.

Aaron Rai — The Man With Momentum

Aaron Rai with the Wanamaker Trophy, Aronimink, May 2026

Three weeks ago, Rai won the PGA Championship at Aronimink. He did it without any of the drama that typically surrounds major week — calmly, methodically, with the composure of someone who had done it before. He hadn’t. He was also tied eleventh at Shinnecock Hills last weekend. The form is there. The belief, clearly, is there. Links golf will suit him. This is a player who could win two majors in a calendar year, and if that thought has not yet crossed his mind, it will have crossed his caddie’s.

Rory McIlroy — The Links Specialist

Tommy Fleetwood mid-swing

McIlroy won The Open at Royal Liverpool in 2014. He has six major titles and back-to-back Masters victories. His Shinnecock weekend was painful — a promising start that unravelled over two difficult back nines — but he has already confirmed the next two weeks will be spent playing links golf at home. The Scottish Open follows on 9 July, four days before Birkdale. There is a reason McIlroy talks about The Open the way other players talk about Augusta. The links game is the one he trusts most. He is not the favourite. He is, however, dangerous.

Shane Lowry — The Experience Card

Tommy Fleetwood mid-swing

Lowry won at Royal Portrush in 2019 in conditions that resembled a weather event more than a golf tournament. He won anyway. He is the sort of player who gets sharper when the wind gets up and the occasion gets heavy. Royal Birkdale in July can be both. Lowry will not feature prominently in the early conversations about this Open. That is almost certainly how he would prefer it.

Robert MacIntyre — The One Worth Watching

Tommy Fleetwood mid-swing

The young Scotsman plays links golf as though he was born to it — which, on the west coast of Scotland, he essentially was. MacIntyre has been building quietly toward a major for two years. The ingredients are there: the game, the temperament, the pedigree. Birkdale, with the right wind and the right week, might be where the building finally stops.

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The 154th Open Championship begins on 16 July. If it has you thinking about golf in rather more agreeable temperatures, the Algarve’s coastal courses offer firm fairways and Atlantic winds year-round — the next best thing to a week on the Lancashire coast. Browse our Algarve golf holidays and start planning.


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Wyndham Clark Wins the 2026 US Open at Shinnecock Hills

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A six-shot lead, a hostile gallery, and one of the more gripping Sunday finishes in recent major championship history.

The 126th US Open, played at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, was always going to produce a story. Shinnecock has that effect. It punishes complacency, rewards the scrambler, and creates theatre on the final day. This year was no exception.

Wire to Wire — and Every Inch of It

Wyndham Clark entered Sunday’s final round six strokes clear. He shot a 73. He still won by one. That tells you more about Shinnecock Hills than it does about the champion.

Wyndham Clark with the US Open trophy at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Southampton, June 2026

Clark’s decisive quality all week was scrambling — 16 of 24 saves over four rounds. The most important came on the par-5 16th, when he drove into thick fescue, escaped, and holed a 25-foot birdie to re-establish a two-stroke lead. A three-putt bogey on the 17th reduced it to one. Two putts from 52 feet on the 72nd hole sealed it. Final score: 4-under 276, one ahead of Sam Burns. Clark became the ninth player in US Open history to go wire-to-wire — joining a list that includes Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

The Crowd and the Redemption

This win carries weight beyond the leaderboard. Clark had a difficult 2025, a season that included a well-documented incident at Oakmont and considerable reputation repair. He arrived at Shinnecock with a portion of the gallery openly against him — many rooting instead for Scottie Scheffler, world number one, chasing the career Grand Slam on his 30th birthday and Father’s Day. Clark handled the noise with composure. “Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive,” he said. His father, Randall, having taken a red-eye from Denver to surprise his son on Sunday morning, was waiting by the 18th green. It was that kind of afternoon.

The Chasers

Sam Burns had the round of the day — a 67 — and came within a stroke of a playoff. He birdied four of his first eight holes in a charge that, at one point, appeared capable of overturning a seven-shot deficit.

Sam Burns in action during his final-round 67 at the 2026 US Open, Shinnecock Hills

Missed putts on both the 17th and 18th holes ended the run. It was his third consecutive top-ten finish at a US Open.

Scheffler finished tied fourth at even-par 280. The career Grand Slam remains unfinished business.

Scottie Scheffler on the course the final round, Father's Day, Shinnecock Hills

McIlroy, briefly in contention on Saturday, described the final day as the course “winning the battle.” Tom Kim, ranked 141st in the world and playing as a qualifier, finished a composed solo third at one-under — and earned his exemption into next year’s US Open at Pebble Beach.

What Shinnecock Demands

Shinnecock Hills rewarded one quality above all others this week: the ability to hold a game together when the course is actively working against you. Fescue rough that punishes the wayward shot. Greens fast enough to produce three-putts from anywhere. A wind that changes the arithmetic every hour. Clark’s answer to all of it was definitive.

If Sunday’s final round has put golf firmly back on the agenda — it tends to do that — there are courses rather more welcoming than Shinnecock’s fescue waiting across the Atlantic. Browse our Portugal golf holidays and play in the sunshine, where scrambling is entirely optional.