Situated at the tip of the Baja Peninsula, at the place where the Sea of Cortes meets the Pacific Ocean, Los Cabos boasts an extraordinary mountain-desert-ocean environment where golf’s top designers have crafted a dozen courses set back from the shoreline’s sun-drenched beaches and turquoise-blue waters. Led by a superb array of resort hotels and complemented by some of the best sport fishing in the world, Los Cabos has in the span of 20 years established itself as a premier getaway for avid golfers in search of an unforgettable experience.
Opened in 1992, Palmilla Golf Club, set in a box-shaped canyon backdropped by stark brown peaks, is the landmark facility that set a benchmark for top-shelf golf in Los Cabos. The original 18 (Arroyo and Mountain nines), the first Jack Nicklaus Signature Design in Latin America, is a scintillating test that skirts boulder-strewn arroyos, long waste bunkers and several ponds, with forced carries over raw desert required from the back tees. Giant cardon cacti, a cousin of the saguaro and many of them centuries old, stand sentinel beside tees and greens. Ocotillo, palo verde and ironwood trees frame the broad terraced fairways, which feature generous bail-out areas and accessible greens. Palmilla’s Ocean nine, added by Nicklaus in 1999, boasts a 600-foot elevation change from the first tee to the sixth green as it carries players from the mountains to the sea. The club is located five minutes from One&Only Palmilla, a legendary resort founded by the former son of the president of Mexico in 1956. With its epic views, pristine beaches, luxurious guest rooms and superb restaurants, this elegant property, set back from a rocky point that juts into the sea, ranks among the finest hotels in Mexico.
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Known as the ‘Pebble Beach of the Baja,’ the world-renowned Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol, occupying what course designer Jack Nicklaus called “the best piece of golf property I’ve ever seen,” has seven holes touching a rugged coastline marked by golden beaches washed by the Sea of Cortes. The 7,091-yard layout, the most celebrated international course on Nicklaus’ long resume, has risen to the pinnacle of Latin American golf since its debut in 1994. Stretched across a stunning desert landscape and backdropped by stony mountains rising to 6,000 feet, the course weaves around broad sandy arroyos, giant cardon cacti and craggy granite outcrops. Like Pebble Beach, the layout’s ebb-and-flow routing delivers players to the sea on both nines.
Among other refinements, the club in 2010 replaced its back-to-back par 3’s at holes 6 and 7 with a pair of scintillating holes thrust closer to the sea, heightening the drama, challenge and sensory experience for players.
More changes-for-the-better have followed since. At the par-4 fifth, the tees were shifted to allow the cart path to weave through spectacular rock formations en route to the hole, while the green was pushed to the brink of the sandy beach and wave-tossed shoreline. Similarly, at the par-4 16th, the infinity-edge green was shifted to the edge of a cliff above the sea, reinforcing the layout’s connection to the ocean. Finally, at the par-4 18th, which traces the curve of the shore from tee to green, a small pot bunker was added to the left center of the green, forcing golfers to flirt with the sea on their approach shot. Golf packages are available through Cabo del Sol’s lodging partners: Fiesta Americana Grand, Sheraton Hacienda del Mar, and Premier Resorts of Mexico
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Showpiece of a 2,800-acre resort and residential development with 3.2 miles of pristine beachfront, Cabo Real Golf Club features a scenic, challenging course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. The nines were recently reversed to enhance the layout’s flow and drama. Steeply pitched holes chiseled into mountain foothills bristling with desert vegetation are balanced by flatter holes near the seashore. Broad, rolling fairways climb to undulating, well-defended greens benched into hillsides nearly 500 feet above sea level. Strategically-placed bunkers place a premium on accurate drives and approach shots. Host to two PGA Senior Slam events (1996, 1999), Cabo Real offers a firm but fair test with roomy fairways and large, undulating greens.
In addition to recreating sand dunes on a few of the flatter holes near the sea to lend the course a links-like appearance, Jones and his design team artfully contoured the green complexes and containment mounds to mimic the shapes of the richly hued mountain peaks in the Sierra de la Laguna that rise behind the course. From vantage points throughout the course, golfers who visit from December through April can spot gray, blue and sperm whales breaching, spouting and cavorting with their calves in the Sea of Cortes. Among the hotels convenient to Cabo Real are Las Ventanas al Paraiso (“Windows to Paradise”), a superb Rosewood Resort, as well as Casa del Mar, Hilton, Westin, Melia, and Marquis.
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Tucked within a 2,000-acre master-planned resort community on the East Cape 20 minutes from San Jose del Cabo, Puerto Los Cabos features a rare composite design. At present, the club has two distinctive nines designed by Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus. (Each nine offers a preview of a future 18-hole layout to be built by each architect). The Mission Course, a 3,590-yard, par 36 creation by Norman that serves as the front nine and will one day function as a private club, has over 400 feet of elevation change. With large, flashed-faced bunkers used to signpost the holes, the layout reveals Norman’s fondness for Australia’s classic Sandbelt courses.
The club’s 3,871-yard, par 37 Marina Course, by Jack Nicklaus, features rippling fairways, undulating greens and sculpted bunkers. Intended to be the resort course at the development, the Marina Course skirts the new 500-room Secrets Puerto Los Cabos Golf & Spa Resort and brings players to the brink of the sea at the clifftop par-3 15th hole, its target a tiny, windswept green tucked in the dunes. Refreshments (free of charge), including superb fish tacos and hand-shaken margaritas, are served at a pair of on-course palapas.
In addition to its unique composite course, Puerto Los Cabos offers a world-class marina complex, beach clubs, and protected ecological and cultural parks. Wirikuta, a stunning cactus garden, and an art walk are convenient to Hotel El Ganzo, a 72-room boutique hostelry with a beach club, eclectic dining, live music, and a rooftop lounge with a sushi bar and an infinity pool lined with cabanas.
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Want to go check out these amazing golf courses for yourself? Here are two golf specials from Voyages Gendron:
Los Cabos, MexicoBarcelo Grand Faro Los Cabos 4*1/2
Dates: January 17 to January 24 2015
8 days/7 nights/5 rounds
380 $ cad / pers. In double occupancy (sale price book before July 31 2014 if booked after July 31st, prince increases to 580 $ cad per person)
Includes:
- Direct round trip airfare out of Toronto with Air Canada to San Jose Del Caboo
- 7 nights’accomodation in a Deluxe room
- 3 meals per day and drinks
- 5 golf rounds with shared cart on the following courses: 2 @ Puerto Los Cabos Golf Club, 2 @ Club Campestre San Jose Golf Course, 1 @ Cabo Real Golf Club
- Tee time bookings
- Airport transfers
- Taxes
Los Cabos, Mexico, Melia Cabo Real 4*
Dates: January 17 to January 24 2015
8 days/7 nights/5 rounds
395 $ cad / pers. In double occupancy (sale price book before July 31 2014, after July 31st price increases to 595 $cad)
Includes:
- Direct round trip airfare out of Toronto with Air Canada to San Jose Del Caboo
- 7 nights’accomodation in a Deluxe Garden view
- 3 meals per day and drinks
- 5 golf rounds with shared cart on the following courses: 2 @ Puerto Los Cabos Golf Club, 2 @ Club Campestre San Jose Golf Course, 1 @ Cabo Real Golf Club
- Tee time bookings
- Airport transfers
- Taxes
Price are subject to change upon availability. Contact Voyages Gendron today at 800-561-8747 or visit golf.voyagesgendron.com/en
July 2014
