Monte Rei

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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Green Fees in the UK causing valid concern

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£495 for a Round of Golf. Seriously.

Green fees in the United Kingdom have always been climbing. But 2026 has delivered a number that deserves a moment of quiet contemplation: £495. That is the peak visitor green fee at Royal Birkdale this summer — up 24% on last year, and enough to make even the most devoted links pilgrim pause mid-swing.

Royal-Birkdale-Golf-Course-Southport

The Numbers Are Startling

Royal Birkdale is not alone. In 2021, the average green fee across the UK’s top 100 courses was £161. In 2026, that figure stands at £265 — a five-year increase of nearly 65%. The most recent annual rate of increase has outpaced inflation by more than three times. Fifteen courses in Great Britain and Ireland now charge £400 or more for a peak visitor round, up from just eight last year. Add a caddie to your Birkdale round and you are looking at well north of £575 before you have bought a sandwich. 

A Round at Birkdale or a Weekend in the Algarve?

Here is where it gets interesting. £495 is, give or take, the cost of a return flight from London to Faro, two nights in a decent Algarve hotel, and a round at one of the finest courses in Portugal — with change left for a very good dinner and a bottle of Alentejo red. The arithmetic is not flattering to Southport.

Golden-Triangle-Golf-Quinta do Lago

Portugal’s top courses — Quinta do Lago South, Monte Rei, Oitavos Dunes, Vilamoura Old — charge green fees that rarely exceed €180 at peak. They are played in reliable sunshine, on immaculate surfaces, with the Atlantic visible from half the tees. Nobody is suggesting they are Royal Birkdale. But at a third of the price, on a warm May morning with no wind chill involved, they make a compelling case.

The Links Dream Is Not Dead — Just Expensive

To be fair to Birkdale, The Open Championship returns there in July for the 11th time — and playing a major venue in its Open year is a genuine bucket-list experience. The club has also launched a ballot offering UK golfers a round for £99, which is a thoughtful gesture. But for the majority of visiting golfers, £495 is simply the asking price, take it or leave it. 

There Is Another Way

Golden-Triangle-Golf-Vilamoura-Old

For golfers who want exceptional courses, reliable weather, and a holiday that does not require remortgaging, the Algarve, Lisbon, and the Costa del Sol have been making that argument for years. In 2026, with UK green fees climbing past £495, the case has never been easier to make.

Browse our Portugal golf holidays and see what £495 can really buy you.