Scotland and Ireland won’t be supplanted anytime soon as Europe’s most popular golf destinations, but an increasing number of enthusiasts who venture to the continent for golf and adventure have come back raving about an ancient and yet very new locale — Lisbon, Portugal.

You’ve probably heard of this Maine-sized country’s sunny southern province, the Algarve, which hums with tourists and two dozen resort courses that would be at home in San Diego. But farther north, surrounding the worldly capital and its medieval castle-studded charm, is a bounty of eclectic and demanding golf venues that Europeans have been keeping to themselves.

With some 20 post-’80s golf courses tucked among tawny foothills and along the Atlantic Ocean, the Lisbon area might qualify as the best-kept golf secret that continental Europe is keeping from the rest of the world. True enough, when I played there recently, I heard Brits, Swedes, and Dutch cruising along the well-maintained, uncrowded layouts (all priced between $40 and $80, U.S. currency) that feature seaside links, pine-lined country clubs, and rolling, sheep-filled parkland, but very few Yankee twangs.

Culturally, don’t mistake Portugal for a smaller Spain, though both share similar languages and histories of great sea explorers, colonization, and 20th century fascism. Proud and progressive, Portugal is the only nation in the European Union where women in the public sector earn more than men and where you’ll find some of Europe’s toughest environmental laws. Your English will be more useful than Spanish, bluesy melancholy fado stirs the heart (not flamenco), and everyone still loves long, late dinners over seafood and wine. Lisbon and its two million citizens reside on the 40th parallel, across the Atlantic from Philadelphia, but the Gulf Stream and warm Saharan winds keep it balmy and golf-friendly all year.

Your must-do list:

• You’ll feel like Antonio Banderas when you stay at one of the 44 luxury pousadas (www.pousadasofportugal.com) scattered about the countryside. They might be 12th century Moorish castles with walls as thick as retired NBA great Charles Barkley or modern wonders with chic Euro baths and cutting-edge cuisine, but each pousada is unique and impossibly romantic. My favorite is the castle at Palmela, built circa 1136, high in the Arrabidian foothills.

• The suburban Belas Country Club, opened in 1998 and designed by U.S. golf course architect William "Rocky" Roquemore, is surrounded by eucalyptus trees and red-tiled homes. The two nines are quite hilly and tough (at 6,380 yards from the tips), having been carved from the foothills of the Sintra Mountains.

• The mist-covered hillside town of Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage village that inspired poets such as Lord Byron. Its ornate parks and gardens, touched by Gothic, Egyptian, Moorish, and Renaissance elements, have greatly influenced landscape architecture throughout Europe.

• Perhaps Portugal’s only true links course, the Praia d’El Rey Golf and Country Club (www.praia-del-rey.com) was designed by American Cabell B. Robinson, who has produced courses in Cyprus, Morocco, and Spain. An hour west of Lisbon, the 7-year-old layout flows beautifully beside a great Atlantic Ocean surfing beach and also offers parkland holes lined with stately pines and grapefruit-colored mansions. "We call it links golf with sun," says director of golf Eduardo Johnston da Silva. (Be wary of the shoulder-ripping ice plant clinging to the dunes.) Four other excellent nearby courses: Penha Longa Hotel & Golf Resort (www.penhalonga.com), Quinta da Marinha Golf Course, and Aroeira I and II (www.aroeira.com).

• After playing Praia d’El Rey, experience Obidos, a whitewashed village behind 14th century walls that was conquered from the Moors. It’s a bit touristy, but impressive, and the main castle is one of the better pousadas.

• Quinta do Peru Golf Course (www.golfquintadoperu.com), "turkey farm" in Portuguese, feels like Florida and California, and where the pines meet the Arrabida mountain backdrop, Colorado. Americans will feel right at home, and the golf is good enough that the Portuguese, Welsh, and Irish national squads sometimes practice here.

• Even on a weeknight, Lisbon’s invigorating Avenida Liberdade is alive with open-air cafés and musicians that make the streets feel like Dublin or Glasgow. Plan on walking downtown some evening. Try dinner at the Castelo de Sao Jorge, another Moorish castle with exceptional views of Lisbon. (The green cabbage soup is better than it sounds.)

• The Troia Golf Course (www.portugalgolfcourses.com), about an hour from Lisbon, is reputed to be the toughest in Portugal. Robert Trent Jones Sr. spread this delightful 1980s layout over an ecological preserve on a peninsula that evokes the coastal Carolinas. The secluded beaches, with glimpses of dolphins in the waves, might look more inviting than dealing with the constant wind. During the 1983 Portuguese Open here, only Scottish native Sam Torrance finished under par.

• Remember this name: Ammaia, the Marvão Golf Club (www.portugalgolfcourses.com). By far my favorite, this delightful hilly course — designed by Jorge Santana da Silva, a Trent Jones student — is all I want in a European golf trip. After a night of smoky fado nightclubs and octopus appetizers, we drove deep into the interior through groves of cork trees (the bark is only harvested every nine years) to what was a first-century Roman settlement and now a national park. Seven years old and barely discovered, Ammaia sees barely 10,000 rounds a year. From the cork benches in the locker room to the gregarious German couple, Christine and Max, who run the grill and pub, Ammaia is friendly, unpretentious, and steeped in history. It’s like playing golf at someone’s farmhouse. Immensely challenging at 6,600 yards, it’s a rolling parkland layout for 11 holes, with ponds here and there, tall hardwoods, and a pasture of belled goats. Then No. 12 takes you up some foothills until it becomes a pine forest with an achingly beautiful par-3 (No. 13) over a pond that creates an essential photo opportunity. I’d be proud to call this my home course. If I were returning to Portugal and wanted a more rural, less hurried experience, I might come to Ammaia first, play it often, and use the captivating UNESCO World Heritage town of Évora, just eight miles away, and the stunning Pousada de Vila Vicosa as my headquarters. Then, big, bustling Lisbon, 87 miles to the west, could be treated as a day trip.

A few more tips: Avoid Lisbon’s glacial rush hour at all cost; enjoy the fado and jazz festivals in July and August; visit some of the two dozen downtown museums; sample the Angolan coffee; see the "Monument to the Discoveries" (honoring the likes of Magellan and Vasco de Gama); and experience one of the world’s great 19th holes, the 650-acre Fonseca vineyards and their gigantic barrels of port.

Austin, Texas-based Bruce Selcraig is a former Sports Illustrated writer and U.S. Senate investigator who writes for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Harper’s, and other publications.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Golf information and green fees: www.portugalgolfcourses.com
www.portugalgolf.pt
Lisbon tourism: www.atl-turismolisboa.pt
National tourism: www.portugal.org
"Blue coast" area: www.costa-azul.rts.pt/index_i.html
Pousadas: www.pousadas.pt