Sir Henry Cotton Championship at Penina Hotel & Golf Resort

The Sir Henry Cotton Championship Course at Penina Hotel & Golf Resort opened in 1966 as the first championship-standard golf course in the Algarve. Henry Cotton, three-time Open Championship winner, designed the layout on flat terrain that was formerly a rice paddy, transforming the land through extensive tree planting and water management. The course sits inland from Portimão, roughly five kilometers from the coast, and Cotton's design work here helped establish the Algarve as a major European golf destination.

The routing makes strategic use of water hazards and mature tree-lined fairways that Cotton planted to define playing corridors and frame the relatively level landscape. The flat topography means elevation change plays minimal role in the design, with challenge instead coming from precise approach play to well-guarded greens and careful navigation around water features that appear throughout the round. The course stretches to approximately 6,800 yards from the championship tees.

Penina has hosted numerous professional tournaments since its opening, including multiple Portuguese Opens and other European Tour events during the 1970s and 1980s. The resort operates as a hotel property with the golf course as its centerpiece amenity, attracting both resort guests and visiting golfers drawn to the Algarve's climate and Cotton's design legacy. The course remains one of the region's established championship venues, maintaining its reputation as a testing layout despite the emergence of many newer designs along the Algarve coast in subsequent decades.