» 09:00am - Tournament, Shot Gun
Format: 18 holes, individual, medal net, full handicap
» 01:00pm - Lunch and prize-giving ceremony
€ 90 - Only Golf Tournament & Lunch Prize-giving ceremony
€ 146 - 1 Night B&B (sharing twin room), Golf Tournament & Lunch Prize-giving ceremony
€ 190 - 1 Night (single room), Golf Tournament & Lunch Prize-giving ceremony
€129 - 1 Night (sharing twin room, 1 golfer + 1 non golfer), Golf Tournament & Lunch Prize-giving ceremony
XXXVI Sir Henry Cotton Trophy 2027
In honour of Sir Henry Cotton, who established golf in the Algarve, the Penina Hotel & Golf Resort will host the ultimate team golfer event on May 29th, 2027. Amateur teams from all around the world are invited to compete in this tournament for the prestigious Sir Henry Cotton International Challenge Trophy.
This par 73 course, which has hosted eight Portuguese Opens, has garnered numerous accolades and has 18 perfectly balanced holes. Players will also enjoy a cocktail reception, gala dinner and the chance to win a variety of intriguing prizes.
The Sir Henry Cotton Championship Course, the first golf course ever constructed in the Algarve, with unmatched topography and aesthetics as well as breathtaking views at every turn. On one of Portugal's most difficult courses, players will find themselves surrounded by immaculately maintained greens.
Golf Competition
Penina Championship Golf Course Portimão, Algarve
Every championship course in the Algarve owes something to Penina. In 1966, Sir Henry Cotton transformed a stretch of rice paddies into the region's first 18-hole course, planting hundreds of thousands of trees to shape the parkland corridors that still frame every hole today. He considered it his masterpiece, and the Portuguese Open agreed, returning here ten times over the following decades.
The course plays flat but never easy. Streams and water hazards, adapted from the original rice-paddy drainage, cross the fairways throughout, and Cotton's raised, subtly sloped greens punish anything hit carelessly. The par-5 5th sets the tone early: a genuine risk-reward hole, tempting with an eagle if you carry the water and out-of-bounds, punishing if you don't quite make it. The par-3 13th is the hole most golfers remember long after they've left, a tee shot played over water to a green that has swallowed thousands of balls over the decades. This is a course built on accuracy and course management rather than power, exactly as Cotton designed it.
Penina's history and visionary design are the draw here, not modern polish. The greens are consistently well-regarded, but the wider course shows its age, and golfers who prioritise pristine, manicured conditioning may find newer Algarve courses a better fit. For anyone who wants to play where championship golf in the Algarve actually began, on a layout still shaped by the hand of a three-time Open champion, Penina remains genuinely worth the round. (...)
Competition Hotel Suggestion
Penina Hotel Golf & Resort Portimão, Algarve
You wake to the hush of manicured greens and distant swings cutting through the morning air. The fairways stretch wide, disciplined and inviting, while the expanded driving range offers twelve covered bays and space for up to seventy players. Here, you refine your time, adjust your stance, and watch each ball trace a white arc against the blue.
Beyond the course, terraces, pools, and attentive service shape unhurried afternoons. Families find space to roam, golfers find precision and challenge, and you find a rhythm that balances play with pause. In this setting, the European lifestyle is not a slogan but a lived experience, measured in sunlight, quiet confidence, and the clean strike of a well-played shot. (...)
