Terras da Comporta Joins the World’s Top 100 Golf Resorts
Terras da Comporta has reached another major milestone after making its debut in GOLF.com’s Top 100 Golf Resorts in the World.
For a golf destination that only opened its first course in 2023, that is a remarkably quick rise.
The Portuguese resort is one of the new additions to the updated global list, which looks beyond the golf courses alone to consider accommodation, hospitality and the wider destination experience.
At Hashtag Golf Travel, we think Terras da Comporta is one of the most exciting golf developments in Europe right now.
The reason is fairly simple: it already has two genuinely distinctive championship courses, but the wider destination still feels like it is only getting started.
From one new course to a complete golf destination
The story began with the opening of The Dunas Course in 2023.
Designed by David McLay Kidd, the par-71 course was his first project in mainland Europe and immediately attracted attention for the way it sits within the natural sandy terrain of Comporta.
Then, in the second half of 2025, The Torre Course opened.
Designed by Masters champion Sergio Garcia, the par-72 layout is his first signature golf course and sits only around five minutes from Dunas. Suddenly, Terras da Comporta went from being an interesting new course to a proper 36-hole golf destination.
That is an important difference.
One excellent course can justify a day trip.
Two excellent but contrasting courses give golfers a reason to stay.
The Dunas Course
The Dunas Course is the layout that originally put Terras da Comporta on the international golf map.
Built across natural sandy ground among pine trees and dunes, it feels deliberately understated rather than over-engineered.
David McLay Kidd has made use of wide playing corridors, natural contours and large areas of exposed sand to create a course where golfers have room from the tee, but where choosing the correct angle still matters.
That combination is something we particularly like in resort golf.
A course does not need to punish every slightly misplaced drive to be interesting. Dunas gives golfers space, but better positioning creates better opportunities into the greens.
It also has a very different feel from much of the golf UK travellers may associate with Portugal.
This is not a manicured resort course surrounded by villas and hotel blocks.
The landscape is a huge part of the experience.
The course sits within an area of pine forest and sandy terrain close to the Atlantic, and the emphasis throughout the wider Terras da Comporta development has been on keeping that natural character intact.
The awards have followed quickly
The praise for Dunas has not exactly been slow in arriving.
It was named Europe’s Best New Golf Course in 2023 at the World Golf Awards before going on to win Europe’s Best Golf Course in both 2024 and 2025.
That is an impressive progression for a course still so early in its life.
Awards are always subjective, and we would never suggest choosing an entire golf holiday solely because somebody has placed a course at the top of a list.
But repeated recognition from different parts of the golf industry does tell you that this is not simply a new development enjoying a little initial hype.
Dunas has established itself very quickly.
The Torre Course gives golfers another reason to go
If Dunas established Terras da Comporta, we think The Torre Course is what makes the destination much more interesting for a proper golf holiday.
Sergio Garcia’s first signature design opened in 2025 and takes inspiration from the kind of strategic golf he has enjoyed throughout his career.
Garcia has spoken about his affection for Real Club Valderrama, and there are elements of that thinking in Torre: pine-framed holes, strong visual definition and an emphasis on positioning rather than simply hitting the ball as far as possible.
The 18-hole, par-72 course moves through pine forests, golden sandy terrain and wide-open landscapes, with the design intended to feel closely connected to its surroundings.
For us, that contrast is exactly what Terras da Comporta needed.
Dunas is broad, natural and expansive.
Torre feels more enclosed and strategic.
Play them on consecutive days and you should come away feeling as though you have experienced two different interpretations of golf in the same landscape rather than playing variations of the same course twice.
Torre has already made an impression too
Torre has hardly had time to settle in, yet it has already collected its own recognition.
The course was named World’s Best New Golf Course at the 2025 World Golf Awards, which is a pretty strong start for Sergio Garcia’s first major design project.
We are particularly interested to see how the course develops over the next few years.
New courses mature.
Vegetation develops, playing surfaces settle and golfers gradually learn where the best lines actually are.
Dunas has already gone through some of that process.
Torre is only beginning it.
That means golfers visiting Terras da Comporta now are seeing a destination at a genuinely interesting stage in its development.
Why Comporta itself makes the trip different
The golf is only part of why we think this destination has so much potential.
Comporta sits around an hour south of Lisbon on the Alentejo coast, beside the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve.
The landscape is a mixture of pine forests, rice fields, dunes, lagoons and huge Atlantic beaches. The area has deliberately developed at a slower pace than many of Portugal’s traditional coastal resorts.
That gives a golf break here a very different atmosphere from the Algarve.
If Vilamoura is about having a huge choice of courses, restaurants and nightlife immediately around you, Comporta is much more about space, nature and slowing everything down.
Neither approach is better.
They simply suit different trips.
For golfers who have visited the Algarve several times and want to experience a different side of Portugal, Comporta is becoming a very interesting alternative.
The beaches are part of the experience
One of the biggest advantages of staying in the area is the coastline.
Praia da Comporta sits at the southern end of the Tróia Peninsula and forms part of the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve. The broad sandy beach is backed by dunes and pine forest, with much of the natural vegetation still preserved.
There are plenty of other beaches stretching between Tróia and Melides too.
That makes it easy to build some downtime around the golf.
Play in the morning, head to the beach in the afternoon and finish with dinner somewhere serving local seafood.
It is a fairly convincing argument for not booking 36 holes every day.
There is plenty for non-golfers too
Terras da Comporta is particularly attractive to us because the wider destination works even when not everyone travelling wants to play golf.
Horse riding is a major activity in the region, with routes passing through pine forest, rice paddies, dunes and along the beach. The resort also highlights sailing, wellness, birdwatching and cycling as part of the wider Comporta experience.
The Sado Estuary is also home to a resident population of bottlenose dolphins, while nearly 200 bird species have been recorded around the protected wetland.
That gives couples and mixed groups a lot more flexibility.
The golfers can disappear for a round without everybody else feeling that the whole holiday has been built around waiting for them to return.
Sustainability has been built into the courses
The environmental setting also helps explain why sustainability has played such a large role in the development.
Both golf courses use native planting designed to support local wildlife, while their irrigation systems can be supplied using treated domestic or industrial wastewater.
The wider development also includes lower-density construction, cycle routes and large areas intended to remain protected or undeveloped.
We are always slightly cautious when destinations use sustainability as a marketing phrase without much explanation behind it.
Here, there are at least practical measures golfers can actually point to.
That is particularly important in a sensitive landscape of dunes, wetlands and pine forest.
Terras da Comporta is still developing
One important thing for golfers to understand is that Terras da Comporta is still evolving.
The long-term plan extends well beyond the two courses.
The Torre development alone includes plans for hotels, apartment accommodation, restaurants, retail, tennis, padel, pickleball, a gym, swimming pools and approximately 12 kilometres of cycle paths.
Dunas also forms part of a wider development planned to include hotel and residential accommodation alongside sports and leisure facilities.
That means the destination golfers experience today may look considerably different in a few years.
Usually, we'd be slightly wary of selling a resort based too heavily on what is going to exist.
The difference here is that the most important bit is already open.
The golf is here.
Two championship courses can already anchor a trip, while the surrounding Comporta area provides the accommodation, restaurants and lifestyle experiences needed to make a holiday work.
Everything that follows should make the proposition stronger.
Is it worth travelling from the UK for?
We think so, particularly for golfers looking for something different from their usual Portugal trip.
Lisbon is the natural gateway, with Terras da Comporta around an hour south of the capital.
That makes it possible to build several types of itinerary.
A shorter break could focus entirely on Comporta, with rounds on Dunas and Torre alongside a free day on the coast.
A longer holiday could combine the golf with a night or two in Lisbon.
Or serious golf groups could connect Comporta with other courses around the Lisbon and Setúbal regions.
For us, the simplest introduction would be three or four nights with a round on each course.
Do not overfill the rest of the itinerary.
Part of the attraction of Comporta is that it does not feel rushed.
Who would we recommend Terras da Comporta to?
First, golfers who have already experienced Portugal’s more established destinations.
If you have played Vilamoura, Quinta do Lago and the western Algarve several times, Comporta gives you something genuinely new.
We would also recommend it to premium golf groups looking for quality rather than trying to squeeze six different courses into seven days.
The destination works particularly well for couples too, because the beaches, restaurants, nature and wider activities give non-golfers plenty of reasons to want to come.
And if course architecture matters to you, having a David McLay Kidd design and Sergio Garcia’s first signature course five minutes apart is already reason enough to pay attention.
Our verdict
Terras da Comporta appearing in a list of the world’s Top 100 golf resorts after only a few years tells you how quickly things are moving.
But for us, the ranking itself is not the most interesting part.
What matters is what has been built.
In the space of around three years, Comporta has gone from having almost no international golf profile to offering two distinctive championship courses designed by David McLay Kidd and Sergio Garcia.
Dunas already has major awards behind it.
Torre has barely begun its story.
And surrounding both is one of Portugal’s most distinctive coastal landscapes.
There is still plenty more planned, and the destination will undoubtedly change as new hotels and leisure facilities arrive.
But golfers do not need to wait for that future version to justify a visit.
Terras da Comporta already has the most important ingredients of a great golf trip — and we think it is only going to become more interesting from here.
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