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Tee Times Golf Holidays Nominated for Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator 2026

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Tee Times Golf Holidays has once again been nominated for the prestigious Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator 2026 award at the World Golf Awards, one of the most respected and recognised accolades in the international golf tourism industry.

A Record of Recognition

This nomination marks another important milestone in a journey that has seen Tee Times establish itself as one of the leading names in golf travel. Over the years, the company has received multiple World Golf Awards distinctions, including Portugal’s Best Inbound Golf Tour Operator, Portugal’s Best Outbound Golf Tour Operator, and Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator, reflecting its long-standing commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction.

From Vilamoura to the Wider World

Founded in Vilamoura in 1993, Tee Times Golf Holidays has grown alongside the Algarve’s rise as one of Europe’s premier golf destinations. What began as a small local business has evolved into an internationally recognised golf tour operator, helping thousands of golfers enjoy unforgettable golf experiences every year.

Portugal, Spain and Beyond

Today, Tee Times offers one of the most comprehensive golf holiday portfolios in the market, with programmes available throughout Portugal and Spain, from the Algarve, Lisbon and Porto to the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca, Madrid, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. In addition, the company has expanded its offering to include a selection of renowned international golf destinations, giving clients access to some of the finest golf courses and resorts around the world.

Built on Partnership and Trust

Over more than three decades, Tee Times has built strong relationships with golf courses, hotels and tourism partners, earning a reputation for expertise, reliability and exceptional service. The company currently handles around 120,000 rounds of golf annually, a reflection of both the scale of its operation and the trust placed in it by golfers worldwide.

The nomination for Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator 2026 is a recognition not only of the work and dedication of the Tee Times team, but also of the confidence shown by the thousands of clients who choose the company to organise their golf holidays year after year.

How to Cast Your Vote

Voting for the World Golf Awards 2026 is now open and is available to both industry professionals and golf travellers.

If you have travelled with Tee Times Golf Holidays, booked a golf holiday through our team, or simply followed our journey over the years, we would be delighted to receive your support.

Vote for Tee Times Golf Holidays as Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator 2026

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Vote for Tee Times Golf Holidays as Europe's Best Golf Tour Operator 2026 at the World Golf Awards

Every vote is a recognition of more than 30 years of dedication to golf tourism, the trust of our clients, and the strong partnerships we have built along the way. Your support can help us continue to strengthen Tee Times Golf Holidays’ position among Europe’s leading golf tour operators.

Thank you for your trust and support.

Portugal’s Golf Course Rankings Shake Up

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The “King” has been toppled after 15 years. A new course is at the top.

Top100GolfCourses.com has published its 2026 update to Portugal’s Top 50, and it is being called the most volatile edition in the list’s history, with only four courses holding on to their previous position. That is a lot of movement for a country with around eighty-six eighteen-hole courses spread across five regions.

For anyone planning a golf trip to Portugal this year, it is also useful reading: a top spot is not permanent, and neither is a top-ten place secure. At the summit, a course that only opened in 2023 has done something no course outside the Algarve has managed since 2008: taken the national number one spot. (Top100GolfCourses.com)

A New Name at the Top

Fairway through dune land at Dunas Terras da Comporta golf course near Lisbon

Dunas Terras da Comporta, an hour south of Lisbon on the edge of the Sado Estuary, now sits at number one in Portugal. Designed by David McLay Kidd through natural dune land, it has collected a run of international honours since opening in 2023, and this latest placing confirms it as more than a passing trend. It is the first time since 2008 that a course from the Lisbon & Central region has led the national ranking. Five minutes away, the Torre course, designed by Sergio García, gives the estate a second layout worth building a trip around. Play Dunas Terras da Comporta and the case for both makes itself.

Monte Rei Steps Aside

Monte Rei North golf course in the Eastern Algarve

For fifteen years, Monte Rei North held the number one position in Portugal without serious challenge. That run ends this year. The Jack Nicklaus Signature design near Tavira in the eastern Algarve now sits at number two, still firmly inside the country’s elite, still one of the more complete tests of golf on the Iberian Peninsula. Set among cork oak and pine, the course rewards accuracy over power, and its practice facilities are as complete as its ranking suggests. Fifteen years at the top is not a run many courses anywhere in the world can claim, and second place on a list this competitive is no demotion. It is simply Portuguese golf catching up with itself.

Quinta do Lago South Returns to the Podium

Monte Rei North golf course in the Eastern Algarve

Quinta do Lago South climbed three places to number three, reclaiming a podium finish and reasserting its position as the Algarve’s leading traditional resort course. Set within the Ria Formosa Natural Park, it pairs golf with one of the region’s more distinctive landscapes, saltwater marshland giving way to fairways rather than the other way around. The course has long been the benchmark against which newer Algarve designs are measured, and this year’s ranking makes that case with numbers rather than reputation alone.

Rankings shift from year to year, this year more than most, with six courses entering the Top 25 for the first time. What doesn’t shift is why golfers keep returning to Portugal: more than three hundred days of sunshine in the Algarve, a growing case for Lisbon & Central, and courses across both regions built for a repeat visit, not a single tick on a list. Browse our Algarve golf holidays and see the courses behind the numbers.


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Tom Lehman Completes a Field for the Ages at the Portugal Invitational

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Six Ryder Cup Captains, Five Hall of Famers, and One Week Until the Invitational Tees Off

Portugal Invitational - PGA banner

With just over a week to go, the Portugal Invitational field has found its final and most decorated piece. Tom Lehman – the 1996 Open Champion, a former World No. 1, and captain of the United States at the 2006 Ryder Cup – has confirmed for the tournament’s first edition at The Els Club Vilamoura, running from 31 July to 2 August. He joins a 78-player field already carrying five World Golf Hall of Fame members and six Ryder Cup captains. For a competition that did not exist twelve months ago, staged on a course a short drive from Vilamoura’s marina, this is no small thing for the Algarve.

Lehman Brings the Claret Jug to the Algarve

Lehman won his Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, a victory that also carried him to the top of the world rankings that summer. Across his career he collected five PGA TOUR titles, and in 2006 he led the United States as Ryder Cup captain. It is a résumé that would headline most senior tournaments outright. At the Portugal Invitational, it simply joins the queue.

Tom Lehman, 1996 Open Champion, confirmed for the Portugal Invitational

He arrives alongside a run of late confirmations: Darren Clarke, Steven Alker, K.J. Choi, Justin Leonard and Y.E. Yang have all signed on this week. They complete a field that already included Ernie Els, Pádraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Miguel Ángel Jiménez. Between a Claret Jug, a green jacket and a Wanamaker Trophy, there is barely a major left uncollected.

The Numbers Speak for Themselves

Seventy-eight players from seventeen countries make up the field, including five World Golf Hall of Fame members and six Ryder Cup captains. Eighteen players have appeared in a Ryder Cup themselves. Between them, they carry 224 PGA TOUR victories, 247 PGA TOUR Champions titles, 20 major championships and 44 PGA TOUR Champions majors. Tournament director Todd Rhinehart said the strength of the field reflects exactly what organisers hoped to build in the event’s debut year. Few would argue.

A Venue fitting the Tournament

The Els Club Vilamoura sits on the site of the old Victoria Golf Course, an Arnold Palmer design that hosted the DP World Tour’s Portugal Masters from 2007 to 2022 and produced winners including Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington. Ernie Els redesigned the layout himself, keeping one nine on its original routing and building the other from nothing. The result is the fifth Els Club anywhere in the world, and the first in Europe.

The Els Club Vilamoura, redesigned by Ernie Els, host of the 2026 Portugal Invitational

The tournament carries similar weight. This is the first PGA TOUR-sanctioned individual stroke play event ever played on Portuguese soil, and the first PGA TOUR Champions event staged anywhere in Europe, backed by a five-year partnership between PGA TOUR Champions, Arrow Global Group, Turismo de Portugal and Turismo do Algarve. It sits inside a three-week European swing, following the ISPS Handa Senior Open and preceding the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship. For a resort that has spent decades building its name on courses like Vilamoura Old Course, Laguna and Millennium, this is the kind of validation that does not arrive often.

More Than a Golf Week for Vilamoura

The Portugal Invitational lands in peak summer, when Vilamoura’s marina is already at its liveliest – boats moored three deep, restaurant terraces filling from early evening, the kind of atmosphere that makes late July here feel like a festival with a leaderboard attached. Visitors staying through tournament week will find themselves within a few minutes of Vilamoura’s other courses – the Old Course, Laguna, Millennium and Pinhal — with Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago not much further beyond.

Vilamoura marina in summer, host town for the Portugal Invitational

A Week Out, and Counting

The tournament will be broadcast live in the United States on Golf Channel, the exclusive home of PGA TOUR Champions, with international coverage reaching more than 170 countries through 25 broadcast partners. Full spectator and ticketing details are available at portugalinvitational.com for anyone planning to watch from the ropes.

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For anyone planning to do more than watch, the timing is worth noting. The tournament plays out at a course, in a town, that welcomes golfers on the same fairways once the crowds go home. Browse our Vilamoura golf holidays and build a trip around it.


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