Major champions, a Ryder Cup captain and free admission. Comporta has rather outdone itself.
For a stretch of coast long described as Portugal’s best-kept secret, Comporta is making an increasingly poor job of keeping it. From 30 October to 1 November 2026, Pinheirinho Golf Course hosts the inaugural Portugal Legends Championship, the newest stop on the Staysure Legends Tour. Entry for spectators is free. In golf, that is practically unheard of.
Who’s Teeing It Up
The field is expected to include Michael Campbell, who held off Tiger Woods to win the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst, and Paul McGinley, Europe’s winning Ryder Cup captain at Gleneagles in 2014. Two of McGinley’s team from that week, Jamie Donaldson and Stephen Gallacher, are also slated to play. Donaldson hit the wedge to the 15th green that won the Cup, and there is a plaque on the fairway to prove it. (Golf Business News)
A Course Brought Back From the Brink
Pinheirinho has had a more eventful life than most golf courses. Designed by Jorge Santana da Silva as part of an ambitious tourism and property project, it closed not long after it was first unveiled. A change of ownership brought eighteen of the original twenty-seven holes back into play, and the course reopened in 2022.
The second act has been kinder. The layout threads through secondary dunes and pine forest, with heavily sculpted bunkering and a 3.5-hectare lake for those who like their jeopardy wet. The clubhouse is by Jacobsen Arquitetura, and Six Senses Comporta, the brand’s first resort in Portugal, sits on the same estate with access to 60 kilometres of Alentejo coastline.
Two More Reasons to Stay the Week
Three days of watching legends is a fine start, but nobody flies to Lisbon to keep their clubs in the bag. Down the road at Terras da Comporta, David McLay-Kidd’s Dunas Course has long been the headline act, and it now shares the bill with the Torre Course, the first signature design by Sergio García. Torre opened in the summer of 2025, plays to par 72 over 6,790 yards, and was named the world’s best new golf course at the 2025 World Golf Awards. (Golf Monthly) (Rus Tourism News)
That makes three serious courses within a short drive of one another, all about an hour south of Lisbon. Dunas is the bold links-style test, Torre the more strategic thinker’s round, and Pinheirinho the woodland interlude between them. A week here does not repeat itself.
Rice Fields and Long Lunches
Comporta is rice country, and the paddies that line the road in from the north are not decoration. Order the arroz de marisco at lunch and you are eating the local crop. The village itself remains resolutely low-rise, all thatched roofs and barefoot beach restaurants, which is precisely why people who could go anywhere keep coming here.
How to Watch
The Portugal Legends Championship runs over three rounds, from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November 2026. Tickets are free; spectators simply register their interest on the tournament page. The autumn timing suits the Alentejo nicely, with the summer crowds long gone and the light rather better for it. (Legends Tour)
Browse our Lisbon golf holidays and build a Comporta week around the Legends, or come later and play the courses in peace.
