- Madeira’s delegation held more than 200 meetings with pros from more than 35 countries in Cannes.
- Ponta do Pargo, a par-72 Sir Nick Faldo design, will open in 2027 as the archipelago’s fourth golf venue.
- The Madeira Golf Passport offers three rounds at Palheiro Golf or Clube de Golf Santo da Serra from €310 per person.
Sir Nick Faldo’s first course in Madeira does not open until next year, but it has already given the Portuguese archipelago plenty to talk about. At the International Golf Travel Market (IGTM), the golf tourism industry’s largest trade event, held in Cannes last month, the Madeira delegation logged more than 200 meetings with industry professionals from more than 35 countries. Ponta do Pargo was central to that interest.
That total is roughly double the one Madeira reported in May, when the Madeira Promotion Bureau and the three clubs held more than 100 meetings at the IAGTO European Convention in Malaga.
Who went to Cannes?
The Madeira Promotion Bureau led a group that included Palheiro Golf, Clube de Golf Santo da Serra and Porto Santo Golfe, along with representatives of the future Ponta do Pargo course. Golf in Madeira, which operates the Madeira Golf Passport, also attended, as did Porto Santo Line, which handles transport packages to Porto Santo island. Porto Bay, Meliã and Vila Baleira represented the hotels. The delegation targeted new and established markets across the UK, Europe and North America.
The bureau said engagement and the quality of meetings had been strong. It also pointed to the arrival of Ponta do Pargo and plans to expand the islands’ golf further as reasons for confidence.
The Faldo factor
Ponta do Pargo sits high on the clifftops in the south-west of Madeira, with views across the archipelago and out over the Atlantic. The par-72 layout will join a portfolio that already includes Palheiro Golf’s 18-hole botanical-estate course above Funchal, the 27-hole Robert Trent Jones Sr. design at Santo da Serra and Seve Ballesteros’s Porto Santo Golfe on the neighbouring island.
Porto Santo and Santo da Serra both plan to open new nine-hole courses in the coming years.
In 2026 Madeira was nominated for the World’s Leading Island Destination award at the World Travel Awards, and in 2025 it won World’s Best Emerging Golf Destination at the World Golf Awards for the second successive year.
Madeira’s first new course in more than thirty years is growing in. All 18 clifftop holes at Ponta do Pargo are now seeded, with the greens fully covered and fairway lines being marked out. #FaldoDesign #PontaDoPargo https://t.co/fen7lj8PUE
— Faldo Design (@FaldoDesign) November 5, 2026
Getting there and getting a game
The Madeira Golf Passport, which unveiled a new brand identity at the same Cannes show, offers three rounds at Santo da Serra or Palheiro from €310 per person. Transfers between hotel and course are free. Golfers can upgrade the passport to add rounds and a day at Porto Santo Golfe.
Madeira lies about 1,000km from the European mainland. Temperatures range from around 17°C in winter to 25°C in summer, and the islands are a three-and-a-half-hour flight from London, with direct links to major European cities and a direct route to the United States. There is plenty to do off the course too, from levada walks to the UNESCO-listed Laurissilva forest.
Related: Madeira Golf Passport Rebrands at IGTM Ahead of Ponta do Pargo Opening
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.