Each month 10 names are randomly selected from all golfers that have used our online Booking Form. From these 10 golfers a second draw is made for the winner of the prize sponsored by Hotels Le Meridien ***** in the Algarve. The monthly prize includes a standard "weekend break accommodation" with breakfast for two in the Hotel specified, together with a round of golf for two guests on the course attached to the Hotel.

All of the 10 golfers of each month will be listed in our Newsletter and notified by separate e-mail that they now qualify for the annual Grand Draw. In the Grand Draw one person will be the “Lucky Golfer” and receive from our own site www.algarvegolf.net a sum of € 3.000,00. The money can be spent in an Algarve Hotel of the winner’s choice, on green fees, car hire or, a combination.

The 10 nominated golfers who are included in Year 2008 for the month of August and are entered into the "Grand Draw" at the end of December:

Andrew Fyfe - Derek Turner - Elke Parry - Jason Bridge - Jeff Kirby - Karen Gunnell - Melanie Sharp - Oliver Turnbull - Padraig Sharkey - Simon Ffitch

General News
Although August is the height of the summer holiday season, many visitors bring their clubs, endure the heat, and happily take advantage of the more vacant courses.

Pedro Figueiredo won the "The Boy Amateur Champion" for 2008, in Birmingham in England. This promising 17 year old promises to make a note for himself in the world of golf.

The RE/MAX Long Drive Championship of Portugal was held at the Gramacho course in early August. Mariana Martins hit the longest ladies' shot, while the 6 foot 7 inch Finn - quite a tall player as you can obviously note! Antti Saleva won the main event and Brian McCarroll won the seniors and they now go forward to the next stage which will be held in the UK.

The new Seve-designed Quinta do Vale course held a series of summer competitions and was also the venue of a Portuguese PGA tournament sponsored by the Halcon travel agency. António Sobrinho was well ahead and even with a poor 4th round of 77 won with a 2-under-par score of 286, four clear of Hugo Santos who has occasionally played on the PGA European EuroPro and Challenge Tours with his brother Ricardo and Tiago Cruz. Sobrinho established a course record of 67 strokes in his second round.

Both Nick Faldo and Christy O'Connor were here at the end of the month to test the two exciting Oceânico Amendoeira Resort courses they designed individually, and which are now open on an exclusive basis until the official openings take place in October. Faldo's layout has many holes on the arid slopes of an extensive fertile valley and has a Mediterranean semi-desert feel to it, with some expanses of un-irrigated, wasteland areas mixed in with the regular fescue grass rough. The adjacent O'Connor one is flatter, stretching through the valley, with palms trees added to the local almond, olive and orange trees, including also several water hazards, not unlike some Florida courses. The resort also boasts a floodlight 9-hole pitch-and-putt course with separate lengths to comply with UK, Irish and international regulations, as well as well-equipped academy and practice facilities, and two bowling greens alongside the magnificent Moorish style clubhouse.

Coming up in September (5th – 7th) is a new team event, a "Nations Cup" with a Ryder Cup theme. Organised by Golfocus, the publishers of Golf Algarve in Portugal, it involves 12-player teams of mainly local residents from several countries, or, groups of countries such as the Scandinavian ones. It is being played over the Morgado, Álamos and Salgados courses, owned by the tournament sponsors, the CS Hotel Group, with the first round being a four-ball better ball, the second a foursomes and lastly singles, but played in the Stableford format instead of match-play.

Another amateur "Nations Cup" (Taça das Nações) is being staged at Vale do Lobo from the 17th to 21st. Organised by the Portuguese Golf Federation, this follows on from last year's inaugural event and is part of the government tourist sponsorship programme called "Allgarve". It will involve 14 national teams of three players and each with a captain. It is intended as a European warm-up event for World Amateur Team Championships being held in Adelaide, Australia, in October.

Vijay Singh from Fiji shot a final round of two-under-par 68 at the Firestone Country Club to win the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational by a shot from overnight co-leader Lee Westwood and Stuart Appleby. Phil Mickelson tied for fourth place with Retief Goosen. This was Singh's first win since taking the Arnold Palmer Invitational  in March 2007, his 32nd on the PGA Tour and it took him to World Number 4, a improvement of 11 places.

Parker McLachlin won the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open at Montreux Golf and Country Club in Reno. His maiden PGA Tour victory was completed by a comfortable margin of 7 strokes and takes McLachlin to 163 in the Ranking, an move up of 95 places. Takuya Taniguchi birdied the 462 yard 18th hole to win the Sun Chlorella Classic on the Japan Golf Tour by a single stroke from Hideto Tanihara and in the process jumped 193 places to Nº 273.

This week's other winners were Ryan Hietala at the Cox Classic on the Nationwide Tour and Andrew Tampion at the Challenge of Ireland on the European Challenge Tour.

World Number Three, Padraig Harrington, played the closing 9 holes in 32 and with third and fourth rounds of 66, 66 and won the 90th PGA Championship by two strokes from Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis. Harrington became the first European since Scotland’s Tommy Armour in 1930 to win the year’s final Major Championship and the first man since Tiger Woods in 2006 to record consecutive Major wins. Ben Curtis returns to the World Top 50 with a 40 position jump to Nº 37 and earned a place on the USA Ryder Cup Team.

This week's other winners were Scott Piercy at the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open on the Nationwide Tour, Ben Leong at the Worldwide Selangor Masters on the Asian Tour and Jeppe Huldahl at the Lexus Open on the European Challenge Tour.

Vijay Singh overcame Sergio Garcia and Kevin Sutherland in a play-off to win The Barclays, the first FedEx Cup tournament of the year at Ridgewood Country Club. Both Singh and Garcia birdied the 71st hole to force the three-way play-off with Sutherland as all three finished on eight-under-par 276. Garcia and Singh both spectacularly birdied the first extra hole eliminating Sutherland then Singh won with a
birdie at the second extra hole. Singh and Garcia remained World Numbers 5 and 4 respectively while Sutherland jumped 43 places to Nº 57.

Darren Clarke shot a second 66 on the weekend to secure a four stroke victory over Paul McGinley at The KLM Open, with Henrik Stenson taking third place at Kennemer Golf and Country Club. This was Clarke's second win of the 2008 European Tour season after the Ulsterman won the BMW Asian Open in April and he moved to Nº 56, an improvement of 34 places. This week's other winners were Scott Piercy at the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic on the Nationwide Tour, Rick Kulacz at the Brunei Open on the Asian Tour, Seve Benson at the Ypsilon Golf Challenge on the European Challenge Tour and Alex Coe at the Jane Rogers Championship of Mississauga on the Canadian Tour.

Four years on from winning the same tournament to become World Number One for the first time, Fiji's Vijay Singh won the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts with an amazing final round of 63 for a five stroke win over Canadian Mike Weir. By winning his second straight FedEx Cup tournament Singh holds a big lead in the chase for the $10,000,000 prize as well as moving up to World Number 3, an improvement of 2 places.

Gregory Havret got up and down from the bunker at 18 to win the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles by a stroke from Graeme Storm after a round of 70 gave him a 14 under par total. It was Havret’s second victory on Scottish soil, after he won the 2007 Scottish Open. The win took the Frenchman to Nº 85, a jump of 59 places.

This week's other winners were Shintaro Kai at the KBC Augusta on the Japan Tour, Scott Hend at the Pertamina Indonesia President Invitational on the Asian Tour, Antti Ahokas at the ECCO Tour Championship on the Challenge Tour and Kent Eger at the Seaforth Country Classic on the Canadian Tour.