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ME AND MY TRAVELS: SARAH STIRK

Matt Nicholson — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 15:00:21 +0000

Sarah Stirk Sky Sports Golf presenter reflects on the journeys that shaped her, from discovering golf as an injured teen to playing Augusta National, travelling the world, and finding her favourite courses, cities, and unforgettable travel moments.

When did you first pick up a golf club

I was 17, a tennis player and I had a bad injury. I was studying at Millfield School in the sixth form and my housemaster, Mr Wilson, took me to the driving range one evening, we hit a few balls…I wasn’t addicted straight away, but it got me into the sport, and I started to play more and more.

Little did I know that evening would lead to presenting the biggest tournaments in the game. I currently play off a seven handicap.

What’s your favourite golf resort

There’s so many, I love Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island, playing the 18th with the famous lighthouse, is memorable, it’s also a very playable golf course off the forward tees.

Quinta do Logo is my favourite place to golf, I’ve got a place there, I’ve spent a lot of time there over the past 20 years, I love Portugal the lifestyle, the beaches, and the people.

Old Head in Ireland also needs to get a mention, you can see the sea from every hole and is an experience like no other.

Old Head of Kinsale Golf Links Pic: Getty Images

Who would be your ideal holiday golf partners

Rory Mcllroy, I’ve known him for years and would be great to play with him, Taylor Swift, because she’s amazing, funny, and brilliant for what she does for women and very empowering, and finally Michael McIntyre because he would be hilarious to play with, I think the four of us together would have a good crack.

Michael McIntyre (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Where did you go for your most recent holiday

The Algarve, I tend to go on short haul holidays, now having a family commitment, my plan is to retire over there.

Best memory in golf

Playing Augusta National, the day after the 2023 Masters, they have the media ballot, with Sky Sports being the rights holder, we get one golden ticket a year to play the course on the Monday, my boss handed me the invitation in an envelope on the Sunday as we went into work.

It was great to play with all the scoreboards up, getting up and down from 100 yards on the 18th for a Par was the highlight of my round, it was an amazing experience and I shot and 96 which I was very happy with using borrowed clubs.

Apart from playing Augusta, other great memories include shooting a 74 at Ruddington Grange Golf Club in Nottingham.

Augusta National

What’s your favourite golf course in the UK

That would be the Queens Course at Gleneagles, my uncle had an apartment next to resort and while I was at university, I did a summer season there… and as a staff member we got to play the courses through twilight rounds, so the Queens Course is where I learnt to play the game and it’s one of the prettiest courses in the UK.

I have a give Sunningdale Old a mention too.

Gleneagles

What’s the best hotel you’ve ever stayed in

The Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, I had a private butler service, sound proofed rooms, so you couldn’t hear any noise from the outside, everything about the hotel was exceptional.

It was through a work-based event working on the Gary Player invitational.

What’s your favourite city in the world

That has to be New York, I love the vibe and energy, I think it feels more intimate than London, I stayed with family and friends in Long Island and took myself off into New York for the day, that was my first proper time travelling on my own.

I love The High Line, which is an elevated freight rail line which was transformed into a public park. I’ve been pre and post 9/11 and seen both the Twin Towers and Ground Zero. The whole city has so many cool areas.

Hosting a Nike event with Rory and Tiger was also memorable, it was at night at Liberty National GC and seeing Manhattan lit up in the distance will long live in the memory.

The High Line in New York

Most memorable meal

Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray, it was a bit out there for me but very memorable, the whole meal was pure theatre, taking the lids of the glass bowls and seeing the smoke raising and wearing headphones as you eat, you hear chatter and laughter, waves crashing and seagulls squawking while you‘re eating a seafood course.

My favourite course was the chocolate fondant, that was pure heaven. I would go back there for this dessert alone.

Heston Blumenthal (Pic: Getty Images)

My top travel tip

Is travelling light, I’ve also been so bad at packing, I used to use only a third of the clothes I took on trips, I now only use the cabin suitcase, but it’s taken me years to realise this.

Remember you can also pick up shampoo and toiletries when you get to your destination.

Sarah and Anton Du Beke’s golf podcast, Putt and Strut, is about to launch its second season in 2026 and will be available to download on all major podcast platforms.

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RESORT REVIEW: Wyndham Grand Algarve, Quinta do Lago, Portugal

Nick Bayly — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 18:31:09 +0000

Golf News editor Nick Bayly pays a flying visit to the always sunny south of Portugal to check out the Wyndham Grand Algarve, a five-star venue in the heart of the legendary Quinta do Lago estate that offers all the facilities and services of a luxury hotel combined with the flexibility offered by self-catering apartments, and is right on the doorstep of some of Europe’s finest golf courses

As someone who has spent the last 15 years or so going on holiday with a wife and two boys in tow – or me rather unwillingly in tow with them – I am fully conversant with the needs of parents with young families when it comes to your traditional two weeks away.

Hopefully it will be somewhere warm and where it is significantly different from home for it to be classed as a break from the norm, but first and foremost it must, absolutely must, involve some level of self-catering. If you’re away for two weeks, or even a week, with young kids, the idea of sitting down to breakfast, lunch and dinner in a restaurant – even it is a different Michelin-starred one every night – fills me with total horror. Excluding the joy that is the bottomless breakfast buffet, the interminable wait for menus, the separate ordering of drinks – ‘Still or sparkling?’ Tap, please – the battles over who can’t eat what, the ordering, the waiting, the eating, the waiting, the ordering, the eating, getting the bill, and paying the bill 30 minutes later, is enough to drive any reasonably sane person to the mad house.

So, I think I’ve made myself clear that self-catering is an absolute must when you are on holiday with a young family. Yes, it’s a pain having to occasionally venture to the supermarket, but the upsides of dining in the privacy of your own accommodation are too many to mention, especially when your kids are too young – or too busy scrolling through their phones – to hold a conversation, let alone cut up their food. Everything else – access to a private or shared swimming pool, decent wi-fi, air con (if you’re going somewhere hot, and a hire car (for early morning escapes to a decent café) is secondary, but nevertheless always on the ‘must-have’ boxes to tick on the holiday requirement checklist.

The Wyndham’s luxury apartments offer 1, 2 and 3-bedroom accommodation, all featuring separate open-plan lounge, dining room and kitchen and garden terraces or balconies

THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS

So, it was perhaps not surprising that envy was the over-riding emotion that I felt during my recent and all-too-brief stay at the Wyndham Grand Resort in Quinta do Lago, a five-star property whose premise is offering self-catering apartments within the confines of what is essentially a luxury hotel. Here, you literally have the best of all worlds. My spacious two-bedroom apartment, which was located just a 75-yard pitch from the main reception area, was kitted out with two bathrooms, three toilets, a large sitting room, separate dining area, outside terrace and a fully fitted kitchen.

I italicised ‘fully’ because while some apartments that I have stayed in that class themselves as self-catering have offered little more than an electric two-ring hob and a kettle, the Wyndham’s apartments provide a kitchen that most Gen Zers would take several years before they had come close to exhausting the different methods there are for creating a meal from scratch. It’s my way long-winded way of saying that it is properly tooled up for those who are willing and able to prepare a meal, should they feel like doing more than shoving a cellophane-topped tray in the microwave – although yes, they have a rather snazzy one of those too – and waiting for the ‘ting’.

The main pool at the Wyndham Grand Algarve

HOME FROM HOME

Designed to offer a veritable home from home, the Wyndham Grand Algarve’s apartments were fully refurbished in 2021, and are split into one-, two- and three-bedroom set ups. Most have already been sold to private buyers – often those with young families, but also a growing number of older couples who are looking to escape from harsh northern European winters, but there some on offer for resale. For longer stays, the self-catering option is a huge attraction, as eating out every day for two months would put pressure on the conservational abilities – never mind the wallets – of even the most in-tune partners.

The resort also offers a luxury spa, with treatment rooms, sauna, steam room, pool and Jacuzzi

SPOILT FOR CHOICE

But if you do fancy eating out, but don’t want to leave the building, then the Wyndham has that covered too, with no fewer than four dining options on site, from the daily breakfasts on offer at the Caravela Restaurant, which has indoor and outdoor seating; to light snacks and drinks at the poolside Oasis Café; lunches; and from the light bites and cocktails at the Grand Bar & Lounge, to gastronomic dinners at the wonderful XXL by Olivier Restaurant, whose concept has been overseen by renowned chef Olivier da Costa – the Gordon Ramsay of Portugal’s high-end culinary scene.

Our group enjoyed meals at three of the four outlets – the poolside café was out of operation in late November – and I can report that they are all excellent, with the breakfasts dangerously good, especially the pastry section, where the pile of pasteis de nata took a big hit from this writer, while the omelette and pancake station also came under heavy fire from our four-ball.

XXL by Olivier Restaurant at The Wyndham

HEAVYWEIGHT DINING AT XXL

While ‘XXL’ is no reflection on the size of its current clientele, it could easily become the case if you ate there every night for a week, with the generously-portioned dishes, moreish bread, and calorie-laden desserts offering the potential to do some serious damage to your waistline. Among some of the show-stopping dishes we tasted was a starter of truffled mushrooms served on a bed of buttery mash topped with a fried egg. Baby food for adults it may be, but it had this kidult scraping out the bowl and asking for seconds. Another must-order, if the budget allows, is a stunning entrecôte steak cooked medium rare served with a kicking chimichurri sauce. Paired with a couple of bowls of frites and a few glasses of Rioja, our party were very happy campers after enjoying a hard day on the golf course.

A couple of sample dishes from XXL, including aged steak main course (centre) an the delicious truffled mushroom and fried egg starter

TRIO OF TOP TRACKS

Ah yes, the golf course. Our two-night trip was sadly somewhat light on golf – the itinerary also included a wine tasting at a local vineyard, a spa experience in the hotel, and a cancelled boat trip on the nearby Ria Formosa nature reserve – but we did manage to squeeze in a round on the 18 fabulous holes that are on offer at Quinta do Lago’s North Course, which, even at the end of a long golfing season, was presented in excellent condition.

Tour pro Ricardo Santos, the Wyndham’s golfing ambassador, gives one of our group a much-needed mid-round lesson

Our golfing experience was considerably elevated by the presence of the Portuguese golfing legend that is Ricardo Santos, a charming locally born former European Tour player, who at 42, is still knocking around on the Challenge Tour and whose claim to fame is being the first Portuguese player to win the Madeira Islands Open, which he did so in 2012 with a stunning closing round of 63. Ricardo, who is a golfing ambassador for the Wyndham Grand Resort, joined are two groups for nine holes and he not only proved great company and a pretty decent player, but also a talented coach and a much-needed guide given that none of us had played the course before.

The pristine fairways of the North Course at Quinta do Lago are framed by tall pines and vast bunkers

Part of a triumvirate of courses on offer on the Quinta do Lago estate – the others being the South Course and Laranjal – the North Course was completely redesigned by American architect Beau Welling and former European Ryder Cup captain and frequent Quinta Do Lago visitor Paul McGinley back in 2014. The resulting €10m facelift – although now a decade old – served to elevate what was already a superb test, while also enabling some vital improvements to be made to the irrigation and drainage systems and some more drought-resistant grasses to be sown in.

North Course at Quinta do Lago

The course itself is a relatively narrow and winding, with a combination of four par 5s, five par 3s and 9 par 4s. Wayward drives are, as I discovered to my cost, severely punished, so a long iron or hybrid off the tee is often the safest – and wisest – choice if you’re looking to avoid running up a cricket score.

The terrain is very undulating, while umbrella pines line most fairways, along with strings of large and well-placed bunkers. The greens were fast and true, and possessed plenty of plateaus, slopes and double breaks to keep you honest and ensure that putts from above the hole had to be dead centre to avoid leaving something much longer back.

For me, the standout holes were 12 and 18. The former is a beautiful dogleg par 4 with water all down the left side and right in front of the green that demands two career shots to have even a slim chance at making birdie, while the 18th is dogleg par five that provides a suitably strong finish to what is already a memorable experience.

HOMES IN THE SUN

If your golf game isn’t up to scratch, and even it is, you can raise your envy levels even higher by checking out the dozens of massive private mansions that sit safely far enough back from the fairways but high enough to enjoy commanding views over the area.

The variation in architectural styles, from traditional Spanish haciendas to contemporary, glass-framed, minimalist masterpieces is jaw dropping. With massive swimming pools, rows of sunbeds, shady verandas and spacious barbeque areas, it’s all very Sexy Beast – without the constant threat of violence, of course.

The Paul McGinley Academy offers a state-of-the-art practice facility

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

As well as the two other great courses to play on site, Quinta Do Lago is also home to the Paul McGinley Academy, a state-of-the-art practice facility which includes a huge driving range, short game area, bunker practice zone (where each trap has a different type of sand) and a variety of putting greens. The academy also includes the TaylorMade Performance Centre which is kitted out with the latest technology for coaching and club fitting.

An aerial view of The Campus, Quinta do Lago’s sports performance centre

FANATICAL ABOUT FITNESS

Quinta do Lago is not just for golfers, with miles of cycling and hiking trails attracting a wide variety of active types, while The Campus, a state-of-the-art performance centre is filled with Lycra-clad gym bunnies working out to pumping beats. Outside, there are tennis and padel courts, a swimming pool and a full-size AstroTurf football pitch which is popular with international football and hockey teams.
The Campus is a veritable hive of activity, which is distinctly not my style, and it was a welcome relief when were shuttled off to the nearby Casa do Lago, a beachside fish restaurant where bowls of fresh prawns and bottles of crisp white wine went down a treat as the sun began to drop into the Atlantic Ocean’s distant horizon.

Casa do Lago is a wonderful beachside fish restaurant

BUCKET-LIST DESTINATION

All told, Quinta do Lago is an ideal destination for anyone looking to jump on a two-hour flight from the UK and grab a bit of sunshine at any time of the year, whether it be for golf, sailing, cycling or simply sitting around the pool and enjoying a glass of something cold.

While you could splash out €10m and buy yourself a plot of prime real estate and build yourself a plush mansion, you could also save yourself a few quid and buy or rent an apartment at the Wyndham Grand Resort and spend the rest on wine and Pro V1s. I know which I’d rather do, given the choice.

For more details on the Wyndham Grand Algarve, where apartments start from €550,000, with a range of ownership packages available, and for details rental bookings, visit wyndhamgrandalgarve.com.

For details about the other great golf courses to play in the Algarve and more about the region in general, visit https://visitalgarve.pt/en/

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Join Ricardo Santos in Portugal’s sunny Algarve

Nick Bayly — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 15:00:56 +0000

Wyndham Grand Algarve has announced the launch of The Grand Cup, a charity golf event hosted by former European Tour player Ricardo Santos to be held at two of the Algarve’s most popular courses.

Santos, 41, who is the hotel’s first golf ambassador, and won the Madeira Islands Open in 2012 and represented Portugal three times in the World Cup of Golf, will welcome teams of four to Wyndham Grand Algarve on December 1 for a relaxed three-day tournament experience that will include a golf clinic, two rounds of golf, charitable on-course challenges, prize giving and auction.

Commenting on the inaugural event at the newly refurbished Wyndham Grand Algarve Hotel & Residences, Santos, said: “I was hugely keen to create a small, relaxed and friendly team charity event that amateur golfers can enjoy and I look forward to personally welcoming participants for what will be a fantastic few days.

Vale do Lobo is one of the two courses that are part of the trip

“Not only will the golfers have the opportunity to play on two championship golf courses, which are always in such fantastic condition, we will be raising money for Grupo de Amigos de Salir, a not-for-profit charity dedicated to supporting the elderly, children and families within the local area that is very dear to me and does so much great work.”

To give this charity event a special VIP feel, places are strictly limited to 10 teams of four amateur golfers, priced at €300 per person.

The Grand Cup includes:

A welcome pack for each participant
A golf clinic with Ricardo Santos
Two rounds of golf
- One on the world-renowned Ocean Golf Course at Vale do Lobo, which features a selection of iconic holes and spectacular views
- One on the South Course at Quinta do Lago, which was crowned Europe’s Best Golf Course and Portugal’s Best Golf Course at the 2022 World Golf Awards
A charity auction at XXL by Olivier restaurant
Post golf drinks
Prize giving ceremony

Alexandre Maia de Carvalho, general manager at Wyndham Grand Algarve, added: “We are proud to have Ricardo Santos as our golf ambassador and it has always been our intention to involve him in an open-to-all event that any golfer can enjoy. We hope it will build over the coming years to become a must-attend tournament experience in the golf calendar.”

Alongside the world-class golf, Wyndham Grand Algarve Hotel and Residences, located close to one of Europe’s finest pristine coastal locations, is a prestigious real estate offering. The one-, two- and three-bedroom properties at the Wyndham Grand Algarve offer 5-star hotel living in a highly sought-after destination for investors and lifestyle buyers alike. One of the only developments ready for immediate occupation in Quinta do Lago, residences start from €550,000 with a range of ownership packages available.

Wyndham Grand Algarve

The Grand Cup, hosted by Ricardo Santos, takes place from December 1 – 3, 2023. To reserve a space, visit www.wyndhamgrandalgarveresidences.com/events/the-grand-cup

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Sophia shines at Telegraph Finals

Nick Bayly — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 10:22:17 +0000

Some of the UK’s most prodigious young talents showcased their skills at the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship at Quinta do Lago in Portugal last week.

A dozen players in each category took to the resort’s South Course – the first major event hosted on the layout since it underwent a €7 million renovation project last year.Despite threats of a late comeback from a number of high-quality opponents, 17-year-olds Dylan Shaw-Radford and Sophia Fullbrook – who had led their respective tables heading into the final round – managed to hold on for victory.

Fullbrook, a member of the Melbourne Club at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire, had established a strong lead after two rounds and held her nerve to win by two strokes. Shaw-Radford, from Huddersfield Golf Club, also won by two, demonstrating remarkable consistency with scores of 69, 69 and 70.

Over 17,000 entrants were narrowed down through qualifying to the 24 finalists, including reigning boys’ champion Harley Smith. With a plethora of experienced competitors in the field, it came as no surprise that both Fullbrook and Shaw-Radford needed to keep their focus until the final hole to ensure their respective victories in the Algarve.

Seventeen-year-old Jack Lee, of Rochester & Cobham Park, came closest to knocking Shaw-Radford from his perch with an exceptional round of 68 on the second day. Meanwhile, the finest individual performance of the tournament came from 15-year-old Amelia Wan from Nottinghamshire. Her stunning opening round of 65 – seven-under-par on the par-72 layout – made her the early favourite to top the girls’ division. However, the class of Fullbrook and second-placed Rebekah Gardner, of Clandeboye, eventually told and saw Wan slip to third.

Shaw-Radford said: “This means a great deal. Just look down the names who have won it – Justin Rose himself, Andrew Coltart and a fellow Yorkshireman in Matt Fiztpatrick, ten years ago. What a way to finish 2022.”

Fullbrook added: “I guess we both held commanding leads today and only made sure of it on the 18th, but that is testament to the strength of the fields. I am very pleased, as well as being relieved, and I am sure Dylan is, too.”

The Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, is open to any golfer aged 18 or under at the turn of each year. Quinta do Lago is regularly entrusted with hosting duties, having staged the event six times in eight years.

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