PGA Tour Champions

Portugal Invitational 2026: PGA Tour Champions Makes History in Vilamoura

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The PGA Tour Champions is coming to Portugal. From 31 July to 2 August 2026, The Els Club Vilamoura hosts the Portugal Invitational — the first PGA Tour-sanctioned individual stroke play event on Portuguese soil, and the first PGA Tour Champions event staged anywhere in Europe.

Portugal Invitational 2026

A natural milestone for a region that has spent decades building one of the continent’s most compelling golf destinations.

What the Portugal Invitational Actually Is

The PGA Tour Champions is the professional circuit for golfers aged 50 and over — populated by Major winners and some of the most recognisable names in the modern game.

The Portugal Invitational carries a $3 million purse and a field of 78 players drawn from PGA Tour Champions members, World Golf Hall of Fame inductees, and Legends Tour players. It sits within a three-week European swing alongside the ISPS Handa Senior Open and the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship. (PGA Tour Champions official announcement)

The Field: A Who’s Who of Senior Golf

Bernhard Langer — holder of 47 PGA Tour Champions wins and six Charles Schwab Cups — heads a field that also includes three-time Major champion Pádraig Harrington, two-time Masters champion José María Olazábal, host Ernie Els, and Colin Montgomerie.

Retief Goosen, David Duval, Thomas Bjørn, and Ángel Cabrera are also confirmed. A Pro-Am is part of the week, giving amateur participants direct access to players of this calibre. (Golf Circus)

The Els Club Vilamoura: The Course at the Centre of It All

Els Club Vilamoura Portugal Invitational 2026

The Els Club occupies the former site of the Victoria Golf Course — an Arnold Palmer design that hosted the DP World Tour’s Portugal Masters from 2007 to 2022, producing winners including Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington.

Redesigned by Ernie Els, one nine retains its original routing while the other is an entirely new layout. The result is the fifth Els Club in the world and the first in Europe. (Golfweek via Yahoo Sports)

Why Vilamoura Was Always Going to Host Something Like This

Vilamoura is consistently ranked among the finest golf resorts in Continental Europe. Five golf courses, premium accommodation — including the recently arrived Hyatt Regency — and a food scene that takes itself seriously.

Vilamoura Marina View
Faro Airport sits 25 minutes away, with direct routes to 89 airports across 20 countries. Transfers and car hire are easily arranged. The tournament is backed by a five-year partnership between PGA Tour Champions, Arrow Global Group, Turismo de Portugal and Turismo do Algarve — this is not a one-off. (Portugal Invitational)

Planning Around the Portugal Invitational

Tournament week runs 27 July to 2 August, with the 54-hole competition concluding on 2 August. Spectator access and ticketing details will be confirmed closer to the event.

Whether the plan is to watch the professionals and then play the same course, or simply use the tournament as the nudge to finally book that Algarve golf holiday, the summer of 2026 has handed you a rather good excuse.

Retief Goosen Wins Mitsubishi Electric Classic

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— and Completes a 24-Year Double at TPC Sugarloaf

Some courses have a way of remembering you. TPC Sugarloaf, it seems, has a particularly long memory.

Retief Goosen won the Mitsubishi Electric Classic on Sunday in Duluth, Georgia — 24 years after he claimed the PGA Tour’s BellSouth Classic on the very same course. A tidy bit of symmetry for a man who has always made the game look effortlessly unhurried.

Retief Goosen holds the trophy after winning the 2026 Mitsubishi Electric Classic at TPC Sugarloaf

The 57-year-old South African closed with a 14-point final round under the Modified Stableford scoring system, finishing on 39 points to beat Stephen Ames by two. It was his fifth win in 150 starts on the Champions Tour.

The Modified Stableford format rewards aggression — birdies earn two points, eagles five, while bogeys cost you one and doubles three. It is golf with the handbrake off. Goosen entered the final round three points behind 36-hole leader Zach Johnson, then made five birdies in a six-hole stretch between the 2nd and 7th to surge clear. A bogey-free back nine and a birdie at the last sealed it with quiet authority. “The putter this week got me going,” Goosen said, “and that’s how you win tournaments.”

Hard to argue with a man who has been saying that sort of thing since his first US Open in 2001.

But the moment that will linger longest had nothing to do with the leaderboard. Goosen’s son Leo, 23, was there in person to watch it happen — the first time he had seen his father win since the 2004 US Open, when Leo was just one year old. “I think the biggest emotion is that I’ve won in front of my son,” Goosen said. Twenty-three years in the making. Worth the wait.
Zach Johnson finished third on 36 points, with Stewart Cink a shot further back in fourth.

At 57, Goosen is proof that timing, touch, and a hot putter remain ageless. A two-time US Open champion. A Champions Tour winner. And now, a man who has conquered the same course in two different decades.

Some courses, it turns out, remember the right people.