Including Thrill of Caimans

By the Pacific Ocean, amidst exuberant vegetation, Palma Real Golf Club awaits golfers looking for excitement on a course that has hosted professional competitions like the Canadian Tour.

Located across from Ixtapa’s hotel area, the course was designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones Jr., who, with 72 hectares (178 acres), managed to combine the magic of nature and the thrill of the game in a 6,898 yard course. Broad fairways on an uneven terrain with sand traps and natural lakes, home to peaceful caimans, and a capacity for 250 golfers make it an exotic course unique for its lakes as well as its holes on the beach.

Operating since 1977, this course was a key part of the master plan of Fonatur (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo, governmental agency dedicated to tourism expansion) to develop Ixtapa as a resort destination, attracting golfers wanting to play a round by the sea where they can enjoy a relaxed game on carefully tended fairways and greens that are trimmed daily. With a great respect for nature, the course is watered with odor-free treated water that comes from a high-tech residual water processing plant in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.

 

 

An Oasis

Throughout the course there are coconut plantations and fruit trees, natural lakes, lagoons and the Pacific coast’s characteristic tropical vegetation. Players not only enjoy one of the world’s best golf courses, they are also in touch with nature, especially with the views of the mountains, the Sierra Madre del Sur, which frame the landscape.

Golfers search for birdies but they will also find a variety of birds including flamingoes, cranes, macaws, cardinals and the fishing eagle, which catches fish while flying low over the water. Returning to golf, players must be cautious with their drive because, if the ball lands near a water hazard, they must not get too close because some of the caimans, resting placidly in their territory, might get scared. Do not worry, those who get to a certain size are regularly sent to “La Laguna del Cocodrilario” in Playa Linda, north of Ixtapa, were they become attractions.

 

How to play

Hole 4, par 5: The green is in front of the lagoon and surrounded by sand traps, so a very precise second drive is needed. A miscalculated shot will land the ball in a caiman-inhabited lagoon.

Holes 5 and 6, par 4 and 3: Surrounded by a lake and the jungle. A very precise drive is needed.

 

 

Hole 15, par 4: A relatively short, 350-yard hole. A 200-yard opening shot is needed to pass the lagoon that opens onto the Pacific. The second shot towards the green, generally executed with a short 9 iron, must be accurate to avoid the beach and the sea that lie to the left. The view from this hole is spectacular as one can admire Ixtapa Bay, the hotel area and the white sands of Playa del Palmar.

Hole 16, par 3: With a lake running alongside it, it is spectacular from tee to green. The green is surrounded by water on one side and by sand on the other. Optimum precision is required.

There are lockers and showers, a restaurant-bar, liy up practice field, two putting greens — one illuminated —, five professional tennis courts, two paddle courts, Pro-shop and a swimming pool with a thatched roof palapa.

So the next time you are in Ixtapa get your clubs and look around the course before each stroke… just be careful of hitting a ball into the water!  

 

 

Text: Laura Velázquez ± Photo: FONATUR.