Irish pair are ready to reign in sunny Algarve

AUGUSTA National has its Golden Bell, Flowering Crabapple and Pink Dogwood but even the home of the US Masters cannot boast names of the sheer majesty of The Azured Winged Magpie, The Peregrine Falcon or The Purple Gallinule.

They are amongst the golf holes at the Victoria Club in Vilamoura on Portugal’s Algarve which will test the representatives of the 24 nations contesting the 51st World Cup of Golf beginning tomorrow.

The Arnold Palmer designed Victoria course, features 22 lakes with an overall area of 12 hectares. Once water is avoided, the fairways are generously proportioned and if the greens are undulating and more than 11 on the stimpmetre, suggesting very fast, they are both yielding and true and a lot of putts and birdies will be made.