The Els Club Vilamoura used soil-moisture mapping and targeted irrigation to prepare for the inaugural Portugal Invitational, which begins in the Algarve today.
The 54-hole tournament marks PGA Tour Champions’ first European stop of the 2026 season and Portugal’s debut as host of a PGA Tour-sanctioned individual stroke-play event. Its 78-player field will compete for a $3 million purse, with $450,000 going to the winner.
For head greenkeeper Luís Pinto, the tournament represents the end of a development process that began while the course was still under construction. He joined the project in 2024 and has overseen its preparation for competitive play.
“It’s a great feeling to finally have the tournament here,” Pinto said. “Everybody is excited, we’re super happy, the team is happy, and we want to have a good week.”
TurfRad Maps Moisture Across the Fairways
The Els Club Vilamoura is the first course in Portugal reported to have introduced TurfRad, a sensor system fitted to mowing or other maintenance equipment.
As a machine moves across a fairway, the sensor records soil-moisture readings and produces a spatial map of the playing surface. The data connects with the club’s irrigation software, helping the agronomy team identify where individual areas require more or less water.
“Every time the machine is working, it’s taking readings,” Pinto said. “That connects to the irrigation software and adjusts the irrigation for us. The machine tells us, ‘OK, we need more here, less here,’ and then we can adjust the irrigation.”
According to TerraRad Tech, the company behind TurfRad, the sensor measures naturally emitted microwave energy to estimate moisture in the top 10 centimetres of soil. It can gather about 10,000 measurements from one fairway during a normal mowing operation.
That provides a broader picture than isolated manual readings. The resulting maps can also help staff detect possible pressure problems, blocked sprinkler nozzles or leaks.
TurfRad says courses using its system may reduce water consumption and pumping electricity by as much as 30%. Those figures are estimates from the technology provider, rather than results measured at The Els Club Vilamoura.
POGO Sensors Guide Work on the Greens
Pinto’s team uses POGO sensors for point-based measurements on the greens. The equipment can record moisture and salinity, along with canopy and soil temperatures, while GPS logs the location of each sample.
The readings allow the greenkeeping staff to compare different parts of a green and identify places requiring hand-watering. They can also track how conditions change during tournament week, when green speed and firmness must be managed against heat, wind and player traffic.
Greenkeeper judgement remains central. Moisture readings must be assessed alongside temperature, salinity and the course’s chosen performance targets before water is applied.
That precision becomes more valuable during the final preparation period. Pinto described the tournament workload as “a lot of hand-watering, a lot of mowing and a lot of long days”.
A New Course on a Familiar Tournament Site
The Els Club Vilamoura opened in July 2025 following the redevelopment of the former Victoria Golf Course. The Arnold Palmer layout previously hosted the DP World Tour’s Portugal Masters from 2007 to 2022.
Work on the new course included rebuilt greens and tees, redesigned bunkering, reshaped playing surfaces and replacement irrigation and drainage systems. The back-nine routing was reversed as part of the Ernie Els design team’s changes.
The Portugal Invitational setup measures 7,335 yards and plays to a par of 72. Els contributed to the tournament yardages and has continued working with the agronomy and design teams on bunker surrounds, native areas and other setup details.
Els will is competing in the tournament alongside Pádraig Harrington, Retief Goosen, Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie. Langer arrives with a PGA Tour Champions record of 47 victories.
Wind and Fast Greens Form the Main Defences
Pinto expects green speed and defined bunkering to provide much of the course’s defence. The Algarve wind could alter the playing test from one round to the next.
The par-three 14th may become the most demanding hole if the prevailing southerly wind arrives as expected. Water and extensive sand protect the hole, leaving little margin when crosswinds affect distance control.
“If the wind is blowing as it’s supposed to normally here, 14 should be the most challenging hole,” Pinto said. “It’s a challenging par three and the wind plays a big role. There’s a lot of water, a lot of sand and a lot of bunkers.”
The tournament begins a five-year agreement intended to keep the event at The Els Club Vilamoura through 2030. It also sits in a three-week European run for senior golf, following the ISPS Handa Senior Open and preceding the Staysure Senior PGA Championship.
All three rounds will be shown in the United States on Golf Channel, with international coverage available through PGA Tour Champions media partners. The inaugural champion will be crowned on Sunday, 2 August.
Pinto has a clear scoring range in mind for the new course’s first tournament test: “Ten to 12-under on Sunday would be perfect.”
Related: Portugal Invitational: A first look at The Els Club Vilamoura ahead of Portugal’s PGA TOUR Champions debut
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.