The PGA Tour Champions is heading to Portugal.
Officials from PGA Tour Champions, Arrow Global Group, Turismo de Portugal and Turismo de Algarve announced Monday a five-year deal to host a new professional golf tournament in Portugal. The Portugal Invitational will debut the week of July 27, 2026, and will feature a field of 78 players, including World Golf Hall of Fame and PGA Tour Champions members, as well as Legends Tour members.
It will be the first PGA Tour-sanctioned individual stroke play event to be held in Portugal and will feature a purse of $3 million USD. It will follow the ISPS Handa Senior Open and precede the Staysure Senior PGA Championship on the Legends Tour in a compelling three-week swing of European golf featuring some of the game’s most iconic players.
“We are thrilled to partner with Arrow Global Group, Turismo de Portugal, Turismo de Algarve and Ernie Els to announce this exciting, first-of-its-kind PGA Tour Champions event in Portugal,” PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady said in a release. “This Tour is a global showcase of the game’s legendary players, and we know the great golf fans in Portugal and throughout Europe will welcome the opportunity to watch them compete in person at The Els Club Vilamoura.”
The event will be contested at The Els Club Vilamoura, designed by Els – a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions and World Golf Hall of Fame member. The newly-redesigned Els Club hosted the DP World Tour’s Portugal Masters from 2007-22, producing winners such as Shane Lowry (2012) and Padraig Harrington (2016). Portugal’s only prior hosting of a PGA Tour-sanctioned event came at the 2005 World Cup of Golf, a former team competition.
“Whenever our firm designs a golf course, we always have an eye on what makes it a successful tournament venue, so this was always a big part of our plans for The Els Club Vilamoura. It’s wonderful to see those plans now coming to fruition and we’re grateful to PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady, the team at Arrow Global Group and Turismo de Portugal and Turismo de Algarve, for sharing in our vision and bringing this exciting new tournament here,” Els said. “Working with Arrow Global and everyone at Vilamoura has been an absolute pleasure these past few years; they had a clear vision and mission from the get-go, which allowed us to focus our efforts on creating the very best golf course that we could. We’re very proud of this course; it looks incredible. There are a lot of great holes, a lot of memorable holes, and overall, it’s a really well-balanced test of golf. The practice facilities here are world-class, too. Everything about The Els Club Vilamoura makes it the ideal tournament venue. The players are going to love it, not just the golf course but this whole destination. It’s such a beautiful part of the world.”
All three rounds of the Portugal Invitational will be televised on Golf Channel.
Longtime PGA Tour executive Todd Rhinehart, who ran a number of the Tour’s biggest events and most recently oversaw PGA Tour Latinoamérica as Vice President and Executive Director, was announced as the tournament director of the Portugal Invitational.
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