Quinta Do Lago (North)

My heart was in my mouth as the ball flew low toward the flag, pinged off a rock, and jumped to the bank at the back of the green.

My shenanigans on the 12th were typical of my round on Quinta do Lago’s North Course.

I had struggled after "blobbing" the first and proceeded to play my worst golf in some time.

That reflected my own incompetence, however, rather than the quality of the North, which is widely considered the easiest of the three courses at QDL.

The North was ranked in Continental Europe’s top 100 when my quest began in 2020, and it was the first we played during a lovely, sunny March week in the Algarve.

Quinta do Lago is a bustling resort and remains hugely popular with Brits; as such, we were teamed up with an amiable father and son from near Birmingham.

After a chat with the sociable young starter, we were faced with a dogleg par-four opener, flanked by impressive villas down the left and white-sand bunkers on the right.

I should have fared better after a handsome drive, and the same applies to the second—a testing par-three with a pond lurking on the right and a thick screen of oleander guarding the back of the green.

Avenues of Umbrella Pines make many of the holes on the North appear tight. This is especially true of the par-four fourth—the stroke index one—which requires a strategic drive to a sloping fairway to stay safe.

I was foxed by the speedy, undulating putting surfaces for much of the round, coming a cropper on the par-five seventh’s tiered green and the challenging ninth, a difficult par-four played from an elevated tee.

The day’s "champagne moment" arrived on the 10th, when our playing partner launched a sublime approach over bunkers to the flag. He completed his birdie with a confident eight-foot putt.

Comedy followed on the par-four 12th, which saw three of us find the long lake hugging the left side of the dogleg.

My "pinball" shot over the rocks left a perilous downhill putt from the greenside bank from where I nearly found the water a second time!

My favourite holes came toward the end of the round.

The 15th is a lovely dogleg par-four played to a target perched above a near-vertical false front.

Meanwhile, the view from the 16th tee across the Loulé hills is gorgeous, as is the hole itself—a par-three that falls and rises to a green sloping dramatically from back to front.

I didn’t have a score worth saving by the time I reached the par-five 18th, but that didn't stop me from appreciating the grand finale.

A drive over a lake is followed by a drop toward a target tucked between bunkers and beneath yet more pines.

It would have been a suitable climax to a tense match-play battle, but Mrs. W had long since secured her victory. She truly showed me how the North Course should be played.