Los Cabos a Major Presence on Golfweek’s Top 50 Roster
Press Release – Golfweek’s Ultimate Guide to Golf Course Living and Great Escapes 2018 has been released, and once again Los Cabos shines on the publication’s list of the ‘Top 50 Courses of the Caribbean and Mexico.’ Nine golf facilities in Los Cabos, the alluring ‘Great Golf – Perfect Weather’ destination situated at the tip of the Baja Peninsula, appear on the list, with six courses in the top 20.
Golfweek’s updated Best Courses list is clear indication that Los Cabos has established itself as the undisputed Capital of Latin American golf. No other destination in Mexico boasts as many courses on the elite roster.
Ranked at No. 2, the Dunes Course at Diamante is the centerpiece of a 1,500-acre private resort community on the destination’s west coast. Opened in 2010, the Dunes Course is a 7,300-yard behemoth carved by Davis Love III into massive rolling dunes set back from the Pacific Ocean. This windswept, topsy-turvy links, which offers great diversity and spectacular views, rambles past huge blowout bunkers and tufted sand hills on its journey to and from the sea.
Chileno Bay (No. 8), a Tom Fazio-designed golf course characterized by graceful, flowing landforms intended to simulate rolling ocean waves, reopened last year with a new landscape scheme and bright white sand in its formal bunkers. The immaculately-groomed course, framed by desert foothills and sandy arroyos, features a sea view from every hole. The back nine builds to a crescendo at the long par-4 18th, which tumbles downhill to a well-defended, infinity-edge green. The otherwise-private club is accessible to guests of Chileno Bay Resort.
Querencia (No. 11), another brilliant Tom Fazio creation, is the centerpiece of a private 1,800-acre golf community set in rugged desert foothills high above the Sea of Cortes. Loosely translated as “sanctuary”, Querencia, known for its slick, multi-tiered greens, takes players on a roller-coaster ride across steep hills and bluffs, with several holes skirting the edges of deep canyons and rocky arroyos.
Cabo del Sol (Ocean), ranked No. 15 on Golfweek’s roster, is the course that put Los Cabos on the international golf map when it opened in 1994. Intent on producing the ‘Pebble Beach of the Baja’ on what he described as “the best piece of golf property I’ve ever seen,” designer Jack Nicklaus charted grand-scale holes across gently sloping terrain creased by sandy arroyos and backdropped by rugged mountains. Seven holes on this scintillating 7,111-yard layout skirt the Sea of Cortes. The Ocean Course was treated to a major bunker restoration last year.
Nicklaus also built Quivira (No. 17), which opened to acclaim in 2014 and boasts more oceanfront exposure than any other course in Los Cabos. Grafted onto a jaw-dropping site at Land’s End marked by huge dunes, sheer cliffs and rolling foothills, this majestic layout, arguably the most daring, eclectic course Jack has ever designed, is an aesthetic tour de force and an unforgettable test from any set of tees.
Originally built as a resort course in 1999, El Dorado Golf & Beach Club (No. 18) is now a private resort community under the aegis of Discovery Land Co. The Nicklaus-designed layout, featuring rolling saddled fairways, huge bunker complexes and picturesque green sites, meanders through a pair of stark canyons divided by a huge rocky hill. Four interior lakes and dramatic rock formations frame the holes.
El Cardonal at Diamante (No. 23), an inland layout with an “Old California” design motif, marked the architectural debut of Tiger Woods when it opened in 2014. The brawny 7,363-yard course meanders through sand dunes on the outgoing holes. The back nine ascends to higher ground and skirts a series of arroyos. Bold, flashed-face bunkers, reminiscent of the ones built by George C. Thomas at Riviera and Bel-Air in Los Angeles, create strategic options at each hole.
Listed at No. 34 on Golfweek’s Top 50 roster, Puerto Los Cabos will likely get a second look by the magazine’s raters next year. The club currently offers two distinctive nines designed by Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus. Both layouts are etched into foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains and are perched high above the Sea of Cortes. However, a second nine by Nicklaus, slated to open in December, will result in a core 18 of new and reconfigured holes. A second nine by Norman is planned at the 2,000-acre resort community on the East Cape.
Perhaps the most underrated venue in Los Cabos is Cabo del Sol (Desert), which is ranked No. 35 on the list. Routed in mountain foothills high above the Ocean Course, the layout, Tom Weiskopf’s first design effort in Mexico, appears airlifted into rugged desert terrain crisscrossed by canyon-like arroyos. All 18 holes serve up panoramic views of the glittering Sea of Cortes. With its enticing blend of long and short holes as well as strategic risk-reward options, the Desert Course, marked by big sloping greens and large sculpted bunkers, presents a classic test and ranks among Weiskopf’s finest designs.