David McLay Kidd-designed course opens in Portugal

Architect David McLay Kidd has partnered with Vanguard Properties – the largest real estate developer in Portugal – to launch his first golf course in mainland Europe. The Dunas Course at Terras da Comporta opened for play this month.  

Situated one hour south of Lisbon, The Dunas Course has been created over 207 acres of natural, sandy terrain on the coast in a secluded setting on the edge of the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve. McLay Kidd first started work on the par-71 links course in 2008 before experiencing a series of delays.

“I think after 15 years of effort, we are actually there. There’s now no pandemic and no worldwide recession,” said McLay Kidd, whose designs include Bandon Dunes, Queenwood, Beaverbrook, Machrihanish Dunes and the Castle Course at St. Andrews.

“I first came here in 2008 and it’s absolutely stunning. If you look at any top 100 list, it is peppered by golf courses that are through pine, barren sand dunes – from the courses in Melbourne, Australia, to the courses in Long Island in the U.S. and the stuff around the British and Irish coastline, they are generally through sand and through vegetation, and so here we are in southern Europe in Portugal with exactly that type of terrain, and yet no golf course has really capitalized on that. This is a massive opportunity for golf to build something that is unique in southern Europe.

“I’ve been asked how I would characterize the course and I would say it’s easy to categorize, it’s a links course. It’s not links-style, it’s not links-like, it’s a links course. You’re playing as close to the beach as you can get in Portugal, you’re in pure sand, you’re playing on fescue grass with a golf course that wants you to read the ground, bounce the ball and run it around, using the contours to your advantage, so I don’t know if there’s anything out there that wouldn’t tick the box as a links course as a definition that a Scotsman would give you.

“The thing that is really great for me is that this is open to the public. I get to build courses but, more often than not, they are very, very private and no one gets to see them, so being able to build something like this that’s unique, so natural and is open to all at a reasonable price is great. I’m hoping that the course will fill with golfers quickly and be a showcase for links golf in southern Europe.”

The Dunas Course is one of two 18-hole championship layouts that is planned at the Terras da Comporta development. The layout opened to the public for play on June 1, with the official course inauguration set for the beginning of October.

Vanguard Properties took ownership of the Terras da Comporta development in 2019 and the site features two plots: Torre, comprising 902 acres in the Alcácer do Sal municipality, and Dunas, which occupies around 2,498 acres in the Grândola municipality.