Golfers heading to the idyllic destination of Madeira will be treated to an enhanced playing experience from this autumn after the completion of a major course upgrade at Clube de Golf Santo da Serra – one of three 18-hole courses in the Portuguese islands. The popular 27-hole venue has followed the example of Palheiro Golf and Porto Santo Golf by implementing a new, sustainable eco-strategy, with all the improvements set to be completed in time to reopen in November.
At the heart of Club de Golfe Santo da Serra’s improvement plan on its three nine-hole layouts – Machico, Desertas and Serras – is the installation of a new state-of-the-art irrigation system, reducing its water consumption by around 66 per cent so that just 750m³ a day is now needed to help ensure optimum course conditions all-year round. In addition, the club has renovated the four on-course lakes that it uses for irrigation, installing an interconnecting system between all of them to improve access to water so that all areas of the club can easily be watered whenever necessary. It is estimated that the combined capacity of the lakes is around 40,000m³, a volume that will reinforce the storage capacity of the Lagoa do Santo system.
Ricardo Vieira, sales and marketing director at Clube de Golf Santo da Serra, said: “With the club and the island proving to be extremely popular to golfers this year, we are very pleased to have the full 27-holes open for our peak season from November and are looking forward to welcoming even more golfers back to the club this winter and many new visitors discovering golf in Madeira for the first time. We are delighted with the work carried out so far and can’t wait to see the further improvement in course conditioning following this significant investment.”
