American golf legend Arnold Palmer, 75, inaugurated Vilamoura’s new Victoria course by playing nine holes in the sunshine last week. The Victoria Golf Club will host the Golf World Cup in November this year.
In the meantime, those responsible for the utilisation of the underused Algarve Stadium have launched two audacious bids to fill the Euro 2004 arena. Together with the Algarve Football Association, Faro and Loulé Câmaras have announced their candidature to stage the Portuguese Super Cup, disputed between the League Champions and the Cup winners, on August 14. The decision to attempt to bring the spectacle south was strongly influenced by the enormous success of the recent Estoril-Benfica game and the proposed date which is in the middle of the Portuguese holiday period.
Further football encounters, already virtually assured to grace the Algarve Stadium, are the mini Guadiana tournament involving Benfica, Sporting, Betis Seville and Borussia Dortmund at the end of July and Portugal’s World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg on September 3.
The second ambitious bid made by the local authorities is that the proposed Lisbon-Dacar Rally is to pass through the stadium on December 31, before crossing over to the African continent. A huge New Year’s Eve party would mark the occasion.
