While the professional and modern game has moved to younger and longer venues, Estoril Golf Club continues to present a challenge to those of us not earning a living in the play-for-pay ranks.

Estoril Golf Club is very much one of the founding father’s of Portuguese golf in that it is among the three oldest courses in Portugal after having opened in 1929 before being redesigned in 1936 by renowned Scottish architech Mackenzie Ross, who also designed Southness and Turnberry.

Estoril staged it’s first European Tour sanctioned Portuguese Open in 1953 and won by famed Scot Eric Brown.  The course continued to host the event right up to 1974 with other winners being legendary BBC TV commentator Peter Alliss (1958) and Max Faulkner (1968) who won the 1951 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

Estoril Golf Club – one of the oldest golf courses in Portugal. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

SKY Sports Robert Lee then captured a 54-hole reduced 1987 Portuguese Open at Estoril and the last time the club hosted the tournament.

The Portuguese Open then moved to venues such as Quinta do Lago, Penha Longa, Oitavos Dunes before featuring one last time on the European Tour schedule in 2010 when Dane Thomas Bjorn won at Penha Longa.

One of the joys at Estoril is that the course winds its way among a wonderful array of eucalyptus, pine and mimosa trees.

Estoril Golf Club layout with a main highway dividing the course but not seperating any of the reward of tackling this old-style layout.

The course itself measures less than 5,500 yards and is a mix of just two pars 5s – the fourth and 1oth holes – along with 11 par 4s and five par 3s.

Estoril’s longest hole is the 453-yard par five 10th while the shortest is the 139-yard par three 2nd.

The hardest hole or it’s No. 1 index is the 372-yard par four 11th.

You would be very mistaken given the relative shortness of the course you could overpower Estoril as the course is very much old school golf where a game of golf is more akin to a game of chess as you seek to plot your way from tee to green.

Estoril GC – Stunning house overlooking 11th green.

And given the tightness of the course any deviation away from fairways will materialise into walking off with bogey or worse.

Some of the standout holes include the downhill par four, 3rd hole where you need to be on the rightside of the fairway for any attacking shot into the relatively tiny green with a guard of trees ready to arrest any shot long and through the green.

Then there’s the superb uphill par four 7th where once again you need to be find the right side of the fairway if you are to have any chance of finding the uphill green.

In making you way to the ninth you cross a bridge perched high above a major highway and that divides the course with the 9th to 16th holes on one side of the highway before crossing back over the bridge to play the final two.

As mentioned earlier the 11th is rated Estoril’s hardest but then I found the 345-yard par four 9th a challenge if only because I just got ‘greedy’ in seeking to bite off too much of the dog-leg and paid the price for my indiscretion.

But again herein lies the strength in tackling Estoril as it is all about treating the course the respect it’s due.

Estoril’s ninth hole and the big goal of firstly avoiding the trees and then trying not to bite off too much at this testing hole. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

One of the better par threes is the 16th hole measuring 179-yards where you first need to carry a water hazard before looking to find a sloping green and where a par, at this late stage of the round, is a great result before heading to contest the final two holes.

The 18th brings into view the elegant Estoril clubhouse where some of the greats of the game, including Gene Sarazen, have relaxed after a round.

Having worked the European Tour for over two decades I’ve come to enjoy the pleasure of visiting and playing these traditional old-fashioned style golf courses where a par three shouldn’t have to be 200-yards plus or a par five measuring over 600 yards.

It’s for this reason I just can’t swallow comments posted on websites such as http://www.tripadvisor.com/ proporting Estoril to be ‘tired looking’ or is a ‘poor relation to newer developments’.

Estoril’s one and only relation is the game itself and where to step onto the first tee is to take a step back in time, a time when the game was still young and where you draw on what you learned from your father when you first took up the game and that it’s not always about muscle but more about strength of mind.