Vilamoura Golf Trip Review

8 messages

Neil Cartwright

19/04/2012 at 10:47

We have recently returned from an excellent golf trip to Vilamoura on the Algarve on a bespoke 4 night & 4 round package booked with Yourgolftravel.

We stayed at the Tivoli Victoria Golf Resort & Spa on a bed and breakfast basis, the hotel was definitely 5 star with spacious rooms and all the necessary modern conveniences, unfortunately the slippers and robes didn’t flatter the larger members of our party.

The hotel was about 10 minutes drive from the Marina but a courtesy bus was available although the pick-up times and bus size were fairly eratic.

We played 4 of the Oceanico courses on our trip, buses were provided to and from all the courses and every course, except the Old Course, included buggies and free range balls on the grass driving ranges.

Please see below a brief description of the courses which we played:

<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Victoria Course: a fast running course with 2 distinctive nines, unfortunately we played the far more interesting second nine first which included the majority of the thought- provoking water holes, therefore the front nine felt a bit drab and uninspiring in comparison (6/10, 7.5/10 if played in the correct order).

<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Vilamoura Old Course: a beautiful mature tree lined course which meanders through an umbrella pine forest, the carpet like fairways and pristine greens provide a colonial feel to the course.

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Neil Cartwright

19/04/2012 at 10:49

cut & paste from word doesn't seem to work & cut off the 2nd half anyone know how to fix it?

Neil Cartwright

19/04/2012 at 13:25

We have recently returned from an excellent golf trip to Vilamoura on the Algarve on a bespoke 4 night & 4 round package booked with Yourgolftravel.

We stayed at the Tivoli Victoria Golf Resort & Spa on a bed and breakfast basis, the hotel was definitely 5 star with spacious rooms and all the necessary modern conveniences, unfortunately the slippers and robes didn’t flatter the larger members of our party.

The hotel was about 10 minutes drive from the Marina but a courtesy bus was available although the pick-up times and bus size were fairly eratic.

We played 4 of the Oceanico courses on our trip, buses were provided to and from all the courses and every course, except the Old Course, included buggies and free range balls on the grass driving ranges.

Please see below a brief description of the courses which we played

Victoria Course: a fast running course with 2 distinctive nines, unfortunately we played the far more interesting second nine first which included the majority of the thought- provoking water holes, therefore the front nine felt a bit drab and uninspiring in comparison (6/10, 7.5/10 if played in the correct order).

Vilamoura Old Course:a beautiful mature tree lined course which meanders through an umbrella pine forest, the carpet like fairways and pristine greens provide a colonial feel to the course.

We found that the course suited the more accurate shorter hitting golfer and the grip it and rip it brigade spent a lot of time playing out from under the trees, there was always an easy shot back to the fairway which became riskier the closer to the green you aimed. (9/10 the favourite course of a couple of the party).

Ian

19/04/2012 at 13:27

No idea, one of the Mods usually fixes!

But, many on here have played Vila' Old and we know about the umbrella pines!

Neil Cartwright

19/04/2012 at 13:30

Continued

Faldo Course, Amendoira:

Wow, what a course, the majority of the well travelled party felt this was the best course they’d ever played and was totally different to anything they’d seen before. The perfectly manicured tee boxes look over a desert style course with waste areas and orange rocky outcrops which contrasted with the green fairways and white bunkers.

The course meanders through the hills with a number of winding fairways and blind tee shots punctuated by a myriad of bunkers, often right at the landing area and sometimes in the middle of the fairways.

The course plays a lot longer than its yardage due to the elevation changes and unless you are a low single figure handicapper I wouldn’t suggest venturing past the yellow tees and would definitely recommend taking a buggy as there are some long walks between greens and tees.

This is undoubtedly a course you have to plot your way round as the tight fairways, fast greens and well placed bunkers place a premium on ball striking and accuracy.

The highlights for me were the par 3’s which although not long required precise placement and the long winding par 5 13th which has a drop of about 100 yards and plays over 670 yards from the back sticks. (10/10 the whole of the party were blown away by the course from the 1 to last hole, Mr Faldo does like his bunkers).

O’Connor Course, Amendoira: The course is situated at the same resort as the Faldo Course, about 25 minutes drive from the Victoria Hotel and shares the same brilliant practise facilities. The course is in total contrast to its sister course with water on most holes and covering fairly flat terrain, the fairways are wide but feed towards the lakes which are generally positioned on the right hand side.

We felt that although a lot of the individual holes were very good the course suffered from the way the holes played being very similar, surprisingly a lot of the people we spoke to thought this the better course of the 2. (6/10 least favourite of the majority of the party, possibly due to being golfed out on the 4, one of the more capable golfers lost 8 balls on the back nine alone).