The course has two architects: The American William Mitchell designed holes 1 to 5 and 15 to 18 in 1974. These holes (as with the other course) share a unique character. The terrain is typical of the area: sandy and stewn with pine trees, heather, gorse and wild flowers.
The fairways and tees are basically ?Bermuda? with a cool season mixture of grasses, hybrid, which provides year-round and a top quality swards. The greens are sown with ?Creeping Bentgrass Penncross?, giving a fast, true putting surface, which provide good all-year round putting surfaces. These holes have more cross falls on the fairways than the other layouts and all the Par 4 and 5 holes are doglegs, demanding precise tee shots, to set up straightforward approaches. Like the ?Quinta do Lago South? course, it is an anti-clockwise loop and favours the player with a draw.
Holes 6 to 14 were designed by Joseph Lee with the collaboration of Rocky Roquemore, both from the USA, and opened in 1989. The terrain is superb, sandy and littered with umbrella pines. In the spring, the rough is covered with a blanket of wild flowers.
The bunkering is incomparable, both on the fairways and surrounding the greens and gives the course an advantage over many of similar quality and design.
All the famous male and female players who have experienced this course, including ?Ryder Cup? and ?Curtis Cup? team members, have been euphoric in their praise for this course, which will soon take its place among the great European layouts.
