Salgados Golf Course
After two exciting days in the NAU Morgado Golf and Country Club and many great new memories, I had to say good bye already. My little trip around the Algarve coast led me to my last stop Plajas del Sagados, where I stayed at the NAU Salgados Palace with its accompanying resort course. Salgados is a 18-hole Par72 with a total length of 6140 meters from the white tees.
Tee 1 and 10 are exactly one minute away from the breakfast buffet and the hotel pool so theoretically your non-golfing family could give you the occasional „good job tiger!“ cheer, if it weren‘t for all the palm trees. Which brings me to the essential and very characteristic part of Salgados Golf Course right away:
Every fairway is lined with dozens of palm trees and you can’t afford bad drives on the left and right. On top of that I had two goners, that got stuck in the trees. Two shots extra on the score card each time. Whoever might still thinks it‘s only a harmless flat piece of land will be proven wrong immediately. Loads of little vegetated streams run along and across the fairways and there are bigger water hazards aswell.
On top of that rather flat layouts don‘t really let you see all the possible problems from the tee box right away. If you manage to avoid all of the above you have a good chance of shooting a decent score here, if it weren‘t for all the bunkers and the wind. The Salgados Course was built right next to the beach and a big lagoon. Super relaxing with the fresh sea breeze, but boy when it picks up.
What’s a little bit of a hassle is that the course is usually fully booked and you have to play kinda fast. That isn’t really a problem though, because you won’t waste too much time looking for balls. It’s either right there or never to be seen again in a water hazard or up a palm tree. The greens were amazing, except for lots of pitch marks. Also the fairways had way too many divots. Come on people! Clean up after yourselves.
My favorite holes were No. 7 and 15, which are both directly by the lagoon and beach and therefore have this special aura. It’s probably best to play late in the afternoon after a beach day or super early so Salgados can show its full beauty with those amazing long shadows.
The Salgados Golf Course and the accompanying hotel are definitly worth a visit and together with the super close beautiful beach this a real allround family and golf vacation hotspot without a very long journey to get there.