Golf in the Cape Verdes - a Pipedream?

Planned courses never materialised

Golf was played on Sal by South Africans from the airline, but the course fell into decline. There is a Golf Club with18 holes outside Mindelo on Sao Vicente. This held an international golf championship in1906. The club was founded in 1893 by British merchants and was the first sporting club of any kind in Cape Verde.There are a lot of proposals with somewhat undefined plans to build new courses on Sal, Santiago and Sao Vicente, with associated villa developments. These will require large-scale desalination and very special grasses to survive in the arid and saline conditions.

Sal island golf courses

Ernie Els lent his name to this project but has taken all information about the Cape Verdes off his golf design website. His assistant Mike Kelly in Florida will not disclose the names of current backers, suggesting that one or more of the original partners, Cape Verde Development, Turim and Editur may have failed to come up with the required funding. Let us wait and see.

Cesaria Dubai Golf scheme

Investors led by Hanif Patel`s Profile Group of Dubai planned a golf course at the Cesaria Resort on Praia da Calhete Grande in the south of the island of Sao Vicente. The Minister of the Economy Jaoa Pereira Silva approved the scheme after an all-expenses paid junket to Morocco. But Hanif Patel has now gone to ground in Mauritius leaving the project is limbo..

Santiago/Estrela Golf Resort with Nick Faldo

This does not have a golf course at present.Nick Faldo has been asked to design it. But the site has not progressed in ten years, It looks increasingly as though it may not have 36 holes for quite a while as time passes by without any sign of building or land preparation of any kind.

Cotton Bay Golf Course

Gianni Mariani the developer of Porto Antigoo on Sal also proposed a golf course at Cotton Bay resort, which has plenty of land on the West Coast of Sal. Play will be restricted to property owners in the resort. There is no sign as yet of green or bunkers, although there is plenty of sand on site. But the company is now trying to grow grass, experimentally. The development is postponed.

The best place actually to play golf is Porto Santo.

capeverdeinfo.org.uk