Playing golf on the idyllic Atlantic island is all about quality rather than quantity, as DUNCAN FORGAN and friends find on an early spring getaway

AN  EARLY alarm call signals the start of our first day on the island of eternal spring. It's pitch black outside as we take a bleary-eyed breakfast in the ornate dining room at the Quinta Serra Golfe, our hotel set in woodland on the edge of the pretty village of Santo da Serra.

However, by the time we reach the Santo da Serra Golf Club, less than a mile away, the sky is brightening rapidly. The ocean spreads out below us and the mist drifting down from the mountains disperses as the sun bathes Madeira's premier course.

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Roberto, the club's director of golf, bounds towards us. "You are going to have a wonderful experience, " he says, "but be sure to stop for a while at the fourth hole. It is a kind of paradise."

It proves exactly that. To the left, the hillside drops away sharply towards the valley floor hundreds of feet below. In front of the tee, a ravine filled with trees, flowers and tropical shrubs carves its way some 200 yards to the front of the green, its benign beauty belying its true calling as a sadistic butcher of score cards. Behind the green, the sparkling waters of the Atlantic lap across Machico Bay towards the Ponto do Rosto promontory and, far beyond, the coast of Africa.

IF PARADISE can be so easily found just over three hours away from Britain, it's a wonder why golf in Madeira remains such a well-kept secret.

Tourists come to hike in the mountains and along the routes of the ancient irrigation channels known as levadas. They come to wine and dine in temperatures that rarely exceed 25C or dip below 20C. An increasing number even come to surf. For the moment, however, they don't come specifically to wield their sticks.

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The reason would appear to be a question of quantity. Madeira's mountainous topography has prevented the rampant course construction witnessed elsewhere.

The island has only two (three if you count the Seve Ballesteros designed layout on the island of Porto Santo, a 15-minute flight from Madeira's capital Funchal).

It more than makes up for this with the high standard of golf on offer though. The Edenic surroundings merely add to the appeal. The course at Santo da Serra was redesigned in the late Eighties by celebrated American course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. I and playing partners Steve and Rob enjoyed a testing time as we wound through avenues of trees and up and down sizeable inclines. I managed just one birdie, on the pretty, relatively straightforward 15th.

After the golf, it was time to experience some Madeiran hospitality. The north of the island is less visited than the south but it's worth making the trip if only to witness the view from the balcony of the restaurant at the Quinta do Furão hotel. Perched high above the impossibly blue ocean, we tucked into a bountiful lunch that featured tartar of espada, a horrifically ugly fish found only in the waters around Madeira, and hulking steaks crusted with herbs from the hotel's garden.

The standards were just as high elsewhere. The Quintas da Madeira hotel group encompasses a range of properties across the island. The Quinta Serra Golfe, our first base, is a refurbished powder-blue-and-grey building dating from the Twenties. It sits within the Laurissilva forest, a World Heritage site, and is a popular spot with hikers due to its proximity to the levadas and veredas (footpaths). Between rounds we explored several of these, cooling off afterwards in the pristine waters off nearby Santa Cruz beach.

FOR OUR last two nights we transferred to the grandeur of Quinta Casa Velha do Palheiro. This five-star hotel, with its elegant cream exterior and red pantiled roof, is in the hills above Funchal and next to the majestic, 200-year old Palheiro Gardens. More importantly for the three of us, it enjoys direct access to magnificent Palheiro Golf. The course feels a little less secluded than Santo da Serra but the pine-fringed holes are no less attractive.

At stake was a wager made the previous evening after a couple of ponchas, a potent cocktail made with Aguardente, a Madeira rum.

The advantage swung this way and that and honours were even as we came to the last hole, before Steve clinched it with a perfect chip to within 5ft. "This is something to boast about back home, " he said, picking the ball from the hole.

As I basked in the afternoon sunshine and reflected on the flawless golf on offer, I had to agree.

GETTING THERE:

Quintas da Madeira (020 7792 3719/www.quintasmadeira.com) offers a seven-night golf package at the Quinta Serra Golfe from E399pp (two sharing), B&B, including three rounds at the Santo da Serra Golf Club; and a three-night golf package at Quinta Casa Velha do Palheiro from E392pp (two sharing), B&B, including a round at Palheiro Golf, airport transfer and one dinner.

TAP Portugal (0845 601 0932/ www.flytap.com) offers return flights from London Gatwick to Funchal from £62pp. Includes an additional 15kg luggage allowance for golf clubs.

Madeira tourism: www.madeiraislands.travel