Lisbon venue's long-awaited return to Portugal's flagship event crowns a tournament-record champion
PGA Aroeira Lisboa brought the curtain down on a landmark week after Sebastian Friedrichsen produced a tournament-record performance to win the Open de Portugal, the country's flagship professional golf tournament, on the resort's PGA Aroeira No.1 course.
The 23-year-old Dane closed with a brilliant final round to finish on 28-under-par, three strokes clear of the field, to seal his maiden HotelPlanner Tour title in front of galleries at the historic Lisbon venue, which welcomed the Open de Portugal for the first time in three decades. Scot Marc Warren, the leader going into the final day, finished second ahead of Julien Sale with Matthew Southgate and MJ Daffue completing the top five.
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“It feels great," said Friedrichsen. Having played his way into contention with a string of back-nine birdies, the Dane closed out the tournament in style to move into the top ten of the Road to Mallorca Rankings with the season entering its closing stages.
Created in 1953, the Open de Portugal is one of the oldest events in European golf and was part of the founding schedule of the European Tour in 1972. It remained on the main tour until 2010 and is now part of the HotelPlanner Tour, a feeder to the DP World Tour.
This year’s tournament included a strong line-up from home and abroad, with top Portuguese players Tomás Melo Gouveia, Tomás Bessa and Pedro Figueiredo joined by the likes of DP World Tour regulars Southgate, Daffue, Warren, England’s Tom Lewis and Yannik Paul from Germany. In addition, the tournament also featured two-time Masters winner José María Olazábal, who returned to the Open de Portugal to caddie for his nephew Joseba Torres 29 years after competing as a player in 1997.
The details
Designed by Frank Pennink and meandering through tall avenues of pine forest and surrounded by wildlife, PGA Aroeira No.1 – which opened in 1973 and is situated 30 minutes outside Lisbon – is considered one of the best layouts in continental Europe. Like its younger sibling PGA Aroeira 2, the course has undergone a significant recent maintenance programme to enhance the golf-course experience being offered to members and guests.
Nuno Sepulveda, co-CEO at Details – Sports, Hospitality, Leisure, PGA Aroeira Lisboa's management company, said: “It has been an honour to welcome the Open de Portugal back to Aroeira 30 years on from our first staging of the tournament, and to see it deliver a week of this quality and excitement only reinforces what we always believed this venue was capable of hosting. The standard of golf on show, and the record set by Sebastian Friedrichsen, will live long in the memory, and we're proud of the role PGA Aroeira Lisboa played in making it happen for players, fans and the wider destination alike.”
Beyond the leaderboard, tournament week brought a series of activations to PGA Aroeira Lisboa. At the par-four fourth hole, amateur players took on the Beat the Pro challenge, tasked with matching or besting a professional's tee shot – a feat that proved beyond every participant across the week.
Elsewhere, Aroeira Collections by Missoni welcomed visitors to a dedicated space at Aroeira Village throughout the tournament, where design, lifestyle and golf came together in a relaxed setting. Featuring an exclusive lounge, a mini-golf experience and a series of interactive activations, the space offered guests the chance to discover the brand's vision for its forthcoming residential project at Herdade da Aroeira, with a five per cent discount on the acquisition price available until September 30.