There, in Los Cabos, in South Baja California desert, in front of the mountain range La Gigante, the Top of World Golf has been made up, offering a lot of courses for the best ones, signed by great designers such as Jack Nicklaus.

Fairways and greens have filled of green the scenario, where there was nothing but cactus in the middle of desert landscapes; there are artificial lakes, full of precious water, even though it is so scarce in those latitudes.

Besides the “Golden Bear”, from Tom Fazio, Pete Dye, Robert Trent Jones and Tom Weiskop, among others, well known designers have gone through the desert to design dream courses, which most of them let us see the Sea of Cortez.

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As a whole, Los Cabos offers 126 holes in eight world style settings, all of them in excellent conditions, ready to be walked by, with a great variety of topographies, twisting fairways that doesn’t permit a poor centre, and the best: unforgettable landscapes, where blue sea and golden deserts blend, surrounded by huge saguaros and a great diversity of cactaceae.

Through out the 33 kilometres of the Transpeninsular Road, that joints Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, courses are ready to receive desirous players for showing their skills with clubs in world championships scenarios. 

This began in San José

The early stages of golf in Los Cabos were nine holes at San José Golf Club, nowadays owned by Mayan Palace, acquired in April, 2004. It is located in the quite small town San José del Cabo, where Mario Schjetnan and Joe Finger designed a 35-hole par golf course of 3.141 yards. Lately, Jack Nicklaus was hired to designed the Palmilla Golf Club, a 27-hole setting, divided in three courses -Sea, River and Mountain- that give the game a different dimension.

Each hole in Palmilla represents a challenge for players, with huge cactus and deep rivers, besides the incredible view to the Sea of Cortez. The course has five spaced tees, impressive fairways, four lakes, and challenging elevations that guarantee a passionate and unforgettable game. Palmilla Golf Club has been classified among the 100 best world golf courses in a well known golf magazine, included the 6th hole, a double dogleg 4 par of 460 yards.

When designing the 27 holes, Nicklaus informed his staff how and where the greens will be, as well as the landing zone of the ball. Skilfully, a designer made drafts and showed him. It was necessary then to move out huge cactus and saguaros, and therefore get enough space. Months later, Nicklaus came back to supervise the work, and lately he returned back to Los Cabos for the inauguration, that included a “lesson” of how to play each of the holes.

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The Bear’s Trace

Nicklaus came back to Los Cabos in 2000, in order to design the Ocean Course of Cabo del Sol, lately called the “Pebble Beach of Baja”, taking advantage of the craggy slopes and the presence of the Sea of Cortez for two and a half kilometres, where he made seven holes, and the set of the last three ones is called “Last Best Three” of Los Cabos. Reason why, he is ranked 68 among the 100 world best, in a well known golf magazine.

The master plan of Cabo del Sol included the construction of four golf courses, so Tom Weiskopf was hired to create the Desert Course of Cabo del Sol. Among canyons and lakes, ample fairways are zigzagging the desert. From any part of the course we can see the Sea of Cortés, and the design includes many outlets for all level golfers.

The third course in Cabo del Sol, The Vista Course, will be built by Mark Parsinen (who made up the Kingsbams Links at St. Andrewa, in England), along with Tom Doak.

Nicklaus came back to Los Cabos and made up one of his master pieces: El Dorado (The Golden). The winner of more than 100 tournaments around the world, built a very special course, with six holes in front of the sea, as well as the practice zone. There are four lakes in the course, with ample fairways, which permit small precision mistakes with drives and clubs. You must be careful in the, “engraved” in rock, 8th hole, par 3.

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The design of Cabo Real Golf Club was not for Robert Trent Jones II, a setting where the first six holes stand out, some of them are in front of the sea. The course has received some distinctions of specialised tourism magazines, due to the three holes in front of the sea and the first nine (six of them in the middle of mountains). They are considered the most difficult ones of Los Cabos, where, a couple of times, the setting for PGA Tour Champions Senior Slam was made. Before going to the last shot in the 9th hole, enjoy being in a place where the green is between the lake and the sea.

Another important setting in this place, known as the place where sea and ocean blend, is Dye Corporation, with Cabo San Lucas Country Club. A setting of 18 holes in 300 hectares, which includes the largest 7th hole, par 5 of Mexico, of 615 yards, where making a birdie is less probable, as well as the 5th, of 446 yards, a double dogleg with a water obstacle in the fairway.

Tom Fazio took great advantage of the 340 hectares in Los Cabos, to create “Querencia”, a private setting with two golf courses, one of 18 holes and the other one of 9. There are only 350 membership, which are offered to the same associates.

This is not all of what golf at Los Cabos offers. There’s even more! The setting in Puerto Los Cabos, at Punta Gorda, will have two golf courses. The first one, of 18 holes is being made up. The Australian Greg Norman, the famous “White Shark", will design 9 holes, and the other 9 will be Nicklaus’ work, who has more than 260 designed working courses in 27 countries and 37 United States’ cities. 

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Text: Laura Velázquez ± Photo: Proyecta Publicidad, CSP, Archivo