This is the oldest of the three Vilamoura courses that form part of a luxury resort development close to fantastic beaches. The course designer Frank Pennink wanted to create a course in the Algarve that would remind players of those beautiful, challenging inland British courses. He achieved that perfectly.

Opened in 1969, the verdant fairways of the course run through surrounding pine trees. This is a very attractive course, with a great variety of holes. The par 3 holes are all different and visually very beautiful, representing the toughest challenge on the course. They require careful selection of irons and near-perfect ball control. Over the rest of the course trees play a decisive role, lining the dog-legs and punishing any careless strokes. The greens are small, especially on the shorter holes, where there is simply no margin for error.

Two shorter par 4 holes, numbers 1 and 9, can almost be reached from the tee, so tempting the golfer to try for a birdie. Number 8, however, is a long 429-metre hole on a rising slope, and any golfer who plays 4 strokes here should feel pleased with himself.

A unique feature of this course is the fact that par is 73, despite the fact that among its last nine holes there are no less than four with a par 5. Vilamoura Old Course was selected for the Portuguese Open in 1979, in which Brian Barnes was the winner.