It has been ranked in the past as the second best course in Europe. The outward first five holes are through the pine tree forest. Water and good hole layouts provides the hazards that play a big part in players having to select clubs and hit with care. The eighteenth is a tricky par-4 mainly involving a lake that is waiting for the inaccurate shot.

San Lourenzo Golf Course lingers long in the memory of all who play it - a combination of natural beauty, pristine presentation and hole after hole of challenging golf. Measuring 5,837 meters from the regular tees, the course was designed by American golf architect Joseph Lee and opened in 1988, It is considered one of the best courses in Europe and ranked in the top one hundred golf courses world-wide.

While much of the course meanders through typical Algarvian pine woods, it also opens to stunning ocean vistas and distant mountain backdrops. A good part of the course is virtually an extention of the nature reserve of Ria Formosa Estuary with fairways that run alongside salwater marshes and freshwater lagoons. This protectd environment is the habitat of over 70 bird species, including herons, hoopoes, white storks, coots, black-winged stilts and the rare purple gallinule.

Designer: Joseph Lee
Fairways: Bermuda Tifton 419
Greens: Penncross bent
Par: 72
Length: 6420 yards