Portugal Masters venue

Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course: Vilamoura’s Crown Jewel

To design the course, André Jordan chose the american Arnold Palmer, a living legend of the World of Golf and responsible for the popularization of the sport in the decade of 60´s of the past century. The first contact with Palmer Design happened in January 1999, two months after the decision to build the Victoria, and quickly an agreement was achieved. The foundation stone of the project was laid on June 19th, of the year 2000, with the presence of Jorge Sampaio the Portuguese President of the Republic at that time. The course was opened in 2004, in a debut featuring Palmer himself, offering a golf clinic to all and playing nine holes. On a flat land with 90 hectares, a championship course had just raised and quickly turned into one of the ex-libris of portuguese golf with its wide fairways and undulating design conceived by the pen of Arnold Palmer which demanded huge ground movements. The Victoria has the most varied greens , both in size as in form; 5.5 hectares of well placed bunkers, white sand, and some with artistic shapes, such as the one at 8th hole, a giant octopus-shaped; in some of the bunkers, the sand spreads down all the way to the lakes, a typical Palmer´s signature; and 12 hectares of water surface with waterfalls.