Penha Longa targets better playing conditions with renovation

Penha Longa Resort in Portugal is starting work on a renovation of its Atlantic course.

Originally designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr, the layout is set among the Sintra Mountains, near Lisbon.

The resort aims to improve the course’s playing conditions and will focus on bunkers and fairways.

The resort wants to improve the overall structure of bunkers to ensure that they perform to a high standard throughout the year, including dry periods and winter months. All 87 bunkers will have their original shape restored and sand will be replaced, using almost 750 tonnes of local white sand.

Regrassing will be undertaken on fairways at the second, sixth, eighth, thirteenth and eighteenth holes, with new bermuda being laid.

“Having last renovated the course before the Portugal Open in 2009, we want to reinstate consistency across the course and elevate the resort to a new level, attracting new golfers from across the world,” said Oliver Key, general manager at Penha Longa Resort. “It is our ambition to bring tournament golf back to the resort and hope that these changes will be the first step on the road to doing so.

“Becoming an environmentally sustainable resort is also a key ambition of ours in the future and no stone was left unturned in the decision-making process undertaken at the start of the project. Our team have taken important steps to research and evaluate the different products that will be used to understand which ones will be most beneficial for the environment at the resort. This will allow us to update the course without being harmful to the stunning natural surroundings that we are lucky to find on our doorstep at Penha Longa Resort.”

Renovation work is expected to be complete before the end of 2021.

Richard HumphreysRichard Humphreys

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