A Golf Trip to Madeira Can Open the Door to a World of Travel
Birdies and beaches on the Portuguese island.
Watching a golf ball sail 10 yards past the green on the par-3 seventh hole at Clube Palheiro Golfe in Madeira is a dead giveaway that the course sits roughly 500 metres above sea level. In reality, the sweeping views to the ocean and the capital city of Funchal are reminder enough. The 18-hole layout on the grounds of the fantastic Casa Velha do Palheiro hotel was opened in 1993 and sits high on a hillside. The undulating course is a challenge, with steeply sloping greens that encourage, and in places demand, leaving approach shots below the hole. Madeira may not be top of mind when scouting out the next location for a golf trip, but perhaps it should be.
Clube Palheiro Golfe is the closest to Funchal, a great base for any type of trip. About a 20-minute drive away is Clube de Golf Santo da Serra, the oldest club on the island, where golf was first played in 1932. In those days the course was nine holes, but after a 1991 redesign by Robert Trent Jones Sr., Santo da Serra now boasts three separate nine-hole courses and was the primary host of the Madeira Islands Open, a former European Tour event, from 1993 to 2015.
A ferry from Funchal takes you to the smaller island of Porto Santo in about two and a half hours. The island is known for its long, golden-sand beach, a feature mostly lacking on the rocky shores of Madeira itself. Porto Santo Golfe, designed by Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros and opened in 2004, is an 18-hole course that has played host to the Madeira Islands Open. The club also has a nine-hole par-3 course for a less time-consuming, more laid-back experience. It stands out due to its cliffside holes on the back nine, which are directly above the water, whereas Madeira’s two layouts play more inland.
This stellar lineup is set to expand. On Madeira’s westernmost tip, where the only thing in front of you is the Atlantic Ocean’s seemingly endless expanse, a new 18-hole course designed by Sir Nick Faldo is being built at Ponta do Pargo.
It’s hard not to be enamoured with Madeira, where you can play 18 holes, then spend the rest of the day on the beach, in Funchal’s old town, or sampling the local fruits and vegetables. A trip to Madeira underlines that golf travel can be about more than the game alone.
Photographs by James Hogg.
