The Els Club Vilamoura

Ernie Els's championship redesign

The Els Club Vilamoura (formerly Victoria Golf Course) is a completely new golf course built on the site of the former Dom Pedro Victoria. Arnold Palmer's original 2004 design — the course that hosted the Portugal Masters from 2007 to 2022 and the World Cup of Golf in 2005 — was permanently closed in December 2023. Arrow Global Portugal acquired the property, commissioned Ernie Els Design, and invested €17 million in scraping Palmer's layout to the ground and rebuilding from scratch. The result, which opened in 2025, is Europe's first Els Club and the Algarve's first private members' golf club.

Els and senior design associate Greg Letsche reversed the back nine routing entirely, creating a fundamentally different strategic rhythm through the closing stretch. New green complexes, reimagined tee boxes, and sand-capped fairways were built from the ground up. The course measures 6,707m from the championship tees with a Course Rating of 75.5 and Slope of 137, stretched to combat modern equipment after the old Palmer layout yielded a thirty-under-par winning score in its final Portugal Masters.

The Els Club operates as a private members' club. Public access is restricted to stay-and-play packages through the adjacent Victoria Golf Resort & Spa, requiring a minimum three-night booking. This is not a course you can book off the street. If exclusive access, tour-standard conditioning, and a modern championship design matter to you, it's the most ambitious golf project in the Algarve in two decades.

Course design

Els worked with the same open, gently undulating terrain that Palmer had, but approached it differently. Where Palmer designed generous 35–40m fairways to accommodate both resort guests and tournament infrastructure, Els's routing is more selective. Sand-capped fairways improve firmness and drainage, and repositioned hazards create sharper strategic choices. Water comes into play on 11 holes across the layout, integrated into approach decisions rather than simply punishing offline tee shots.

The back nine reversal is the most striking architectural change. The sequence of pars has shifted entirely — holes that were par-4s under Palmer are now par-5s, and vice versa — while maintaining the same aggregate par of 36 for each nine. The new routing changes where the scoring opportunities and pressure points fall, particularly through the closing stretch where the old predictable rhythm has been replaced by a more varied sequence.

Green complexes are entirely new throughout. Els's design philosophy uses bunkering sparingly but effectively to frame landing areas, relying on green contours and water placement to defend par. Els designed the course to be "tournament ready," and the PGA Tour Champions has already selected it to host the inaugural Portugal Invitational in July 2026.

Natural setting

The course occupies open ground on the eastern edge of Vilamoura, with the Algarve hills visible to the north. The immediate landscape is sculpted rather than natural: refined lakes, mounding, and ornamental planting rather than the mature umbrella pine corridors that define the Old Course and Pinhal next door.

The openness means wind remains a factor. On days when the prevailing westerly picks up, club selection shifts by one or two clubs on exposed holes. Summer afternoons are hot with limited shade, making early tee times worth securing. The wall-to-wall Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass keeps the course green and playable year-round, greening up earlier in spring and resisting dormancy later into the mild Algarve winters than standard Bermuda strains.

Signature holes

The 12th (par-4, 298m): the hole the Els redesign is built around. Short on the card but heavily defended by water, this is where the new routing makes its strategic statement. Distance is irrelevant — precision and decision-making define the score. Under Palmer, the 12th was a par-5 of 532m playing in the opposite direction. The transformation is total.

The 15th (par-5, 533m): one of the new par-5s created by the back nine reversal. Under Palmer, this was a short par-4 of just 290m. Els stretched and reimagined it into a genuine three-shot hole that plays to a Stroke Index of 7, with water influencing the approach. The transformation illustrates the scale of the redesign: a completely different golf hole on the same land.

The 18th (par-4, 433m): the closing hole remains a par-4 in both the Palmer and Els iterations, though its character has shifted. Under Palmer it was one of the hardest finishing holes on the European Tour at 418m with water running the entire left side. The Els version plays to a Stroke Index of 11 — still a serious finishing hole, but the redesign has redistributed the difficulty across the back nine more evenly.

The experience

The Els Club is a private members' club. Membership is extended by invitation or through proposal by existing Founder Members. For visiting golfers, access requires a stay-and-play package at the adjacent Victoria Golf Resort & Spa with a minimum three-night stay. These packages, which typically include one round at the Old Course and one at The Els Club, are priced in the range of €880–1,080 per person during peak season. There is no public green fee.

This is a fundamental shift from the old Victoria model, which charged €180–220 as a daily-fee resort course. Restricted access keeps traffic low, protects conditioning, and ensures unhurried rounds. Golfers staying at the resort who want a premium round alongside a broader Vilamoura trip will find real value in the packages. Those looking to play one round should consider the Old Course (peak fee €274) or the other Vilamoura courses that remain publicly accessible.

Conditioning

This is where the €17 million investment is most visible. The entire course is grassed wall-to-wall with Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass, a genetically advanced hybrid selected for superior cold tolerance. Sand-capped fairways provide consistent bounce and run, greens are fast and firm, and the bunkers are maintained to a standard that matches the membership pricing.

The old Palmer-era irrigation system was replaced with computerised precision irrigation fed entirely by treated wastewater from the Vilamoura treatment plant, insulating the course from municipal drought restrictions that affect other Algarve venues. The maintenance fleet has been electrified through a partnership with Toro. In the context of Vilamoura, the conditioning is a clear step above the other courses in the portfolio. In the broader Algarve, only Monte Rei operates at a comparable level.

Last reviewed: 7 March 2026