- Terras da Comporta named World’s Best Eco-Friendly Golf Facility at World Golf Awards.
- The award was presented at the annual ceremony in Cairo, Egypt.
- Its Dunas and Torre courses both gained GEO Certified status earlier this year.
Terras da Comporta has retained its title as the World’s Best Eco-Friendly Golf Facility. The estate south of Lisbon collected the award for a second consecutive year at the World Golf Awards ceremony in Cairo.
The award recognises environmental work across both of its courses: David McLay-Kidd’s Dunas Course and Sergio Garcia’s Torre Course. Twelve months ago at the same awards, Dunas was named Europe’s Best Golf Course and Torre the World’s Best New Course. In September the estate made its debut in GOLF.com’s Top 100 Golf Resorts in the World.
The estate has worked with the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf since Torre’s inception in 2021. Earlier this year Torre was GEO Certified as a golf development and Dunas as a golf facility. The resort says it is the first venue in Europe to hold both.
What was done on the ground?
During Torre’s construction, more than 18 hectares of native dune scrub were restored and every invasive species on the site was removed, according to the resort. A site protection plan kept a further 9.8 hectares of native ground untouched throughout the build. No plastic drainage went into the course. Seventy per cent of the construction team were local Portuguese nationals.
Both courses are now maintained with hybrid and electric greenkeeping equipment. A new maintenance facility runs on solar power, and more than 80 per cent of its vehicle fleet is electric. The board has banned pesticides on the courses, and sea algae serves as the main fertiliser. Native plants have been chosen to support the surrounding wildlife on a site that borders the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve.
Water first
Two boreholes make the courses self-sufficient in supply. According to McLay-Kidd the source is a deep aquifer beneath the sandy region that drains out under the Atlantic.
Irrigation runs through a computerised system fed by treated domestic and industrial wastewater. A team of engineers monitors humidity levels across the estate so that watering only happens when it is needed. A water treatment station is already operating ahead of the homes and hotels still to come at Terras da Comporta. The plant went in before construction of the first properties, so water reuse is built into the real estate phase from the start.
Rodrigo Ulrich, golf general manager for owners Vanguard Properties, said the award would push the estate to keep raising its standards.
“From restoring native habitats and protecting biodiversity to responsible water management and resource efficiency, sustainability has been central to the development of both Dunas and Torre,” Ulrich said.
Dunas opened in 2023 across 84 hectares of sandy terrain. It measures 6,646 metres from the back tees and was McLay-Kidd’s first design in mainland Europe. Torre, Garcia’s first major design project, was inspired by his fondness for Real Club Valderrama. It was officially opened on 4 October 2025 and measures 6,575 metres from the back tees. Both courses marked their anniversaries last month at an invitation-only event attended by Garcia via video link.
Vanguard Properties bought the estate in 2019. It covers 365 hectares at Torre and around 1,011 hectares at Dunas, with plots set aside for hotels and residential and tourist condominiums.
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Simon Bale
Simon Bale is the publisher of Golf Today. A low single-figure handicap golfer, he was previously a major shareholder and course reviewer for Top100GolfCourses.com for over a decade, starting in 2010. Through this role, he developed extensive knowledge of golf course design and architecture while playing more than 300 courses worldwide.