The family-owned 27-hole complex, in Lagos - which opens its first hotel, the boutique Beach House, in January - landed the title at the much-vaunted Publituris Portugal Travel Awards 2016.
It was the 13th year of the awards, which were created by the country’s leading travel trade magazine, Publituris - alongside current co-organisers Câmara Municipal de Coimbra and Turismo Centro de Portugal - to reward the best in Portuguese tourism.
The annual ceremony, regarded by those who work in Portugal’s tourism industry as the ‘national tourism Oscars’, also saw awards go to such household names as easyJet, for best low-cost carrier; Europcar, for best car-rental company; TAP, Portugal’s national airline, for best aviation company; and Vila Galé, for best hotel chain.
The award was presented to the resort’s operations director, António Pinto Coelho, who said: “We are naturally delighted and honoured to have been chosen as the recipient of this award for an amazing fifth successive year.
“Portugal has some of the very best golf courses in Europe and to come out on top in such highly esteemed company is an exceptional achievement. It would be wonderful if we could repeat the feat next year with our new hotel elevating our facilities to an even greater level.
“I’d like to thank everybody who voted for us, but most of all I’d like to express my gratitude to the staff at the resort who work so hard, day in, day out, to make it such a special experience.”
The election process began with the creation of a short list of golf courses by the Publituris editorial team, before votes were registered on-line, with the winner determined in a weighted average of votes from both the public and a jury of industry figures.
Earlier this year, the multi-award-winning Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort was ranked in Portugal’s top three, by the world’s best-known golf title, Golf Digest. It was also ranked 21 in Golf World’s benchmark Top 100 Golf Courses in Continental Europe 2015/16, and was cited as a ‘certain’ new entry by the same magazine in its next Top 100 Golf Resorts rankings, once the hotel is opened.
The resort reopened only in 2011 following an extensive redesign by Robert Trent Jones Jnr. The three loops of nine holes - the Alvor, Lagos and Praia courses - enjoy expansive panoramic views across the Bay of Lagos, with each lay-out offering a different kind of golfing challenge in a glorious and natural environment.