Three tournaments, three courses and a season that ends where November still means shirtsleeves.
On Sunday 15 November, close to 60 golfers with disabilities, from across Europe and well beyond, will head out for a practice round at Salgados, between the dunes of Praia da Galé and the Salgados Lagoon Nature Reserve. Championship rounds follow on Monday and Tuesday, and it is the first time the European Disabled Golf Association has brought its EDGA Tour to the course. It is not the last stop of the year, either. The Algarve has kept the final three for itself. (Golf Business News)
A First for Salgados
Salgados is the new name on the EDGA calendar. The Troon-managed club sits right beside the resort hotels, and Troon executive Jon Schauder called hosting the event “a great honour” for the club. (Golf Business News)
England’s Carol Grinnell, one of the players making the trip, said she was “very excited to be playing” there. She will find a course that has had more done to it lately than most. (Golf Business News)
Who Plays, and How
EDGA works with 50 national golf federations, and its aim is a simple one: to help people with any impairment start golf, stay in it and succeed at it. Its tournaments are usually played in three divisions, Gross, Net and Stableford, so a player chasing a world ranking and one still finding their feet can share the same tee sheet. (Golf Business News)
Results count towards the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability, the ladder that leads to the G4D Tour, played alongside flagship DP World Tour events, and to The G4D Open, staged by The R&A. The R&A, the European Tour Group, PING and Srixon all back the association. Golf has long called itself a game for everyone. This is where it shows its working. (The R&A)
Freshly Back From the Builders
Pedro Vasconcelos laid out the original par 72 in 1994 and Álvaro Mano reworked it in 2012, but the latest changes are the ones visitors will notice. A €3.2 million renovation between November 2024 and February 2025 brought a new Rain Bird irrigation system across all 18 holes, a full bunker refresh and a new signature par 3 played to an island green. (Troon)
The World Golf Awards duly named it the World’s Best Golf Course Renovation 2025. Water has always been the Salgados signature, so an island green feels less like a gimmick and more like the course finally owning up to its character. (First Call Golf)
Three Events in Twelve Days
Salgados opens the Algarve leg. The EDGA Tour Algarve Open follows at Vila Sol on 20 and 21 November with 79 players from 20 countries, an event the Algarve Tourism Association and EDGA have run together since 2014. It all lands in the middle of the region’s busy winter amateur calendar, which we rounded up in our Winter Tournament Diary. (Golf Business News)
The season closes at Benamor, near Tavira, with the EDGA Tour Senior on 25 and 26 November for players over 50. Wales’s Mike Jones arrives chasing a hat-trick of Gross titles. The eastern Algarve sunshine will do its bit. The putting is up to him.
Playing Salgados Yourself
The course is part of a resort, so the walk from breakfast to the first tee is a short one. The Algarve Marriott Salgados Golf Resort & Spa looks out over the fairways, the Westin Salgados Beach Resort has the beach on its doorstep, and the Marriott Residences Salgados Resort gives families and groups a kitchen and a little more elbow room. (Hotel Management Network)
Albufeira’s restaurants are a short drive along the coast, and Vilamoura is not much further, so a week can take in Salgados, Vila Sol and the Old Course, freshly crowned Europe’s Best Golf Course, without much time behind the wheel. Order the catch of the day straight off the grill, raise a glass to the island green, and leave the handicap arithmetic to someone else.
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Browse our Algarve golf holidays and take on the island green at Salgados for yourself.
