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The "Golf Academy“, which has
multilingual staff, bases its teaching methods on years of
professional experience. Designed by the renowned English golf
course architect Howard Swan, the academy offers optimum conditions
for practise and that all-important “short game”. |
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 The
maritime province of the Algarve, often called the Garden of
Portugal, is the southwesternmost part of Europe. Its coastline
stretches 160km (99 miles) from Henry the Navigator's Cape St.
Vincent to the border town of Vila Real de Santo António, fronting
once-hostile Spain. The varied coastline contains sluggish estuaries,
sheltered lagoons, low-lying areas where clucking marsh hens nest,
long sandy spits, and promontories jutting out into the white-capped
aquamarine foam.
Called Al-Gharb by the Moors, the land south of the serras (mountains)
of Monchique and Caldeirão remains a spectacular anomaly that seems
more like a transplanted section of the North African coastline than
a piece of Europe. The temperature averages around 15°C (60°F) in
winter and 23°C (74°F) in summer. The countryside abounds in
vegetation: almonds, lemons, oranges, carobs, pomegranates, and figs.
Even though most of the towns and villages of the Algarve are more
than 240 Kms. (149 miles) from Lisbon, the great 1755 earthquake
shook this area. Entire communities were wiped out; however, many
Moorish and even Roman ruins remain. In the fret-cut chimneys,
mosquelike cupolas, and cubist houses, a distinct Oriental flavor
prevails. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, and
Christians all touched this land. |
