18th bolthole.

(From Business and Finance)

By: Fearghal O'Connor

The narrow road winds its way through the Portuguese countryside away from the coast. The buzz of the Algarve's nearby beaches seems a long way off as you wind your way through tiny villages that look as if they have changed little in a hundred years.

Although it is just a short spin from Faro airport, it is easy to become convinced that you have taken a wrong turn off the motorway and to start to doubt that one of the region's most exciting new golf and property developments could possibly lie in these quiet hills. But, suddenly, the blue regal signs of Monte Rei appear around a bend and you can relax and start to think about golf.

Monte Rei is very much a work in progress and is set in more than 1,000 acres of dramatic coastal countryside. It will ultimately be centred on two 18-hole championship golf courses. The first, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is already finished. With its gleaming white bunkers and pristine fairways, it could easily be a top US course and is certainly a treat for any golfer to tackle. The second course begins construction early next year.

With the perfect climate for outdoor pursuits, the Algarve is perfect for golf. There are 31 courses in the region and a million rounds of golf are played there annually. To date, the western Algarve has definitely tended to attract the bulk of tourists from Northern Europe (just seven of the 31 courses are in eastern Algarve between Faro and the Spanish border) but Monte Rei certainly shifts the balance.

Realistically, there are only a very small number of courses in the Algarve that even have ambitions to be at the level towards which Monte Rei is aiming. Its real competitors are the very top courses throughout the world - or at least that is what its developers hope.