The Quinta da Marinha golf course (5870 m, par 71, green fee 95 Euro) is located 25 km west of Lisbon and 6 km from the resort towns of Estoril and Cascais. Built by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. thirty years ago, it is in a mature, mature age. Despite heavy golf traffic (groups start in 10 minutes), the February fairways are in good condition here and the putting greens are beyond praise. The holes are varied and fun and offer players a variety of options to play. On the thirteenth, the corporate one, overlooks the ocean.
Despite the fact that the golf course is surrounded on all sides by residential buildings, and some houses are located almost next to the fairways, this is not annoying or distracting. A dense green wall of vegetation hides them from the players’ eyes.
The Quinta da Marinha course is the center of the golf resort, which offers its guests two hotels: Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort 5 * and Onyria Marinha Edition Hotel & Thalasso 5 *. The first is located next to the driving range and the first green. The second is a hundred meters from the first tee and sixty from the new clubhouse. However, some golfers prefer to stay in separate resort villas located close to the clubhouse.
The resort is one of the few on the Lisbon golf coast, where not only hotels, but also a clubhouse caters to golf lovers at a five-star level. They will help you get the clubs out of the car, put them on the car or cart, take you to the driving range, talk to you at the start, after the round they will wash the clubs and give you a glass of beer in the restaurant.
Quinta da Marinha Golf Resort is also remarkable for the fact that the Oitavos Dunes golf course (6303 m, par 72) is located half a kilometer from it. Or as the Portuguese call it Oitavush. This relatively new (2001), designed by American architect Arthur Hills, the field has already acquired a rich history. It is the only one in Europe to host all five European Tour events. The PGA tour-Portuguese Open stage was played here three times. The club is especially proud of the fact that it was ranked 68th in the prestigious list of the top 100 courses in the world by the American Golf magazine in 2011. All this testifies to the quality of the architectural design of the field and the level of its content.
The Oitavos golf course is also known for being the first course in Europe and the second in the world, which has received the right to be called “Certified Gold Audubon Signature Sanctuary”. With this prestigious title, Audubon International honors golf courses for outstanding achievements in the protection and maintenance of the environment. The fact that the current owner of the course, Miguel Champalimo, a member of the wealthiest Portuguese Champalimo family, is sensitive to the land on which the course was built became clear as soon as I got into the golf cart. Looking around the “dashboard” I noticed some kind of blue test tube, the purpose of which was not clear. Having removed the tube from the mount, I found the inscription “Dear golfers. Please don’t throw your cigarette butts on the field. Put them in this jar. “
Another ecological “find” of the owners of the course was the very price of golf carts. I managed to persuade a golf shop employee to provide it for half the price, and in general, in order to discourage golfers from using equipment on the course, the price of the car was deliberately raised to 70 Euros for 18 holes. And this with a green fee of 110 euros.
All over the field, under the trees and bushes, there are numerous blue plaques with the names of the plants that grow here. On these boxes, at special stands, one can get acquainted in more detail with the botanical and zoological features of the area. And the tee eleventh hole offers a magnificent view of the ocean and the wide strip of unspoiled dunes that separates the course from the water. All these environmental charms create a very pleasant environment in which the game takes place on this extraordinary field.