Three outstanding golf resorts in Los Cabos, the undisputed ‘Golf Capital of Latin America,’ have received a prestigious Editors’ Choice Award for ‘Best Resorts in the Americas’ in the May issue of Golf Digest.

Now in its third year, the publication’s Editors’ Choice Awards annually honor The Best in Golf, with an emphasis on lifestyle properties, products and services across the globe. In the ‘Destinations & Accommodations’ sector, editors examine criteria beyond golf, determining which properties offer a well-rounded, multi-faceted experience.

In the ‘Best Golf Resorts in México and Central America’ category, Los Cabos claimed three of the seven spots, more than any other destination in its region.

Heading the winner’s list is Cabo del Sol, the 36-hole resort that imprinted Los Cabos on the international golf map when its majestic Ocean Course debuted 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 holes across gently sloping terrain creased by sandy arroyos and dotted with tall cacti and tawny rock formations. Very little earth was moved to create this seaside layout, which at full stretch (7,111 yards) asks experts to play a handful of do-or-die shots across swaths of desert or inlets of the sea. The Ocean Course is currently ranked No. 70 on Golf Digest’s “World 100 Greatest Golf Courses” list.

Cabo del Sol’s second venue is the Desert Course, Tom Weiskopf’s first design effort in México. Routed in rolling foothills, all 18 holes on this shot maker’s layout offer panoramic views of the Sea of Cortés. Shoehorned into rugged desert terrain crisscrossed by canyon-like arroyos, the Desert Course presents broad fairways framed by granite rock outcrops and a dense cactus forest. To defend the greens, which feature long slopes and subtle rolls, Weiskopf built large sculpted bunkers with distinctive capes and bays.

Cabo del Sol is anchored by a 40,000-square-foot, hacienda-style clubhouse, its spacious open-air verandas and terraces offering picturesque ocean and fairway views. On-site hotels include Sheraton Grand Los Cabos Hacienda del Mar; and the all-inclusive Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos. Each offers a lovely beachfront setting, excellent accommodations and a superb array of restaurants.

One&Only Palmilla can rightly claim to be the “Grande Dame” of Los Cabos. Palmilla Golf Club, the first Jack Nicklaus Signature course in Latin America, is five minutes from a legendary hideaway built in 1956 by the son of a former president of Mexico. The glamour and ambience of the original resort was carefully preserved at One&Only Palmilla, which opened in 2004 following a $90-million expansion and refurbishment. This ultra-luxe property, a favorite of Hollywood A-listers, is set on a rocky promontory that juts into the sea, its protected sandy beaches fronting azure-blue waters calm enough for swimming.

Palmilla’s Mountain and Arroyo nines, dropped into in a box-shaped canyon walled in by steep stony peaks, set the stage for top-shelf golf in Cabo when the core 18 opened in 1992. Routed around boulder-strewn arroyos and cactus-covered foothills, Palmilla was the first course in the hemisphere to partake of the region’s unique mountain, desert and ocean ecosystem. While tournament-tough from the tips, the layout’s broad fairways and open-entry greens accommodate players of lesser attainment. The Ocean nine, added in 1999, features a 600-foot elevation change from the first tee to the sixth green, carrying players from the mountains to the sea.

Treated to a recent $3.5-million refurbishment, Palmilla’s 27-hole complex is better now than when it was new.  Game improvement? The club recently installed RoboGolfPro®, a new robotic swing trainer endorsed by PGA Tour pros and “Top 100” teachers, at its practice facility.

Golf Digest’s editors had this to say about Quivira Golf Club, the gravity-defying layout grafted onto a dazzling site at Land’s End: “At the tip of Baja (California) Sur is the newest of more than a dozen Jack Nicklaus layouts in Mexico, and perhaps his most compelling, with holes along and atop granite cliffs and sand dunes overlooking the Pacific.”

Nicklaus used every tool in his kit to build a course that ranks among the most spectacular he has ever designed. That claim is validated by the fact that the course, opened in 2014, vaulted onto Golf Digest’s roster of the “World 100 Greatest Golf Courses” at No. 93.

A strategic tour de force marked by risk-reward options and breathtaking drops from tee to fairway, Quivira offers more oceanfront exposure than any other course in Los Cabos. This multi-themed layout starts at sea level, climbs the face of a mountain, tiptoes along sheer cliffs, meanders through massive dunes and rambles across desert foothills. The links-style finish is memorable: the infinity-edge green at the par-4 18^th appears to float on the ocean.

An all-inclusive facility, Quivira serves complimentary food and refreshments at four comfort stations. The club is accessible to guests of Pueblo Bonito Golf & Spa Resorts’ five properties. Golfers gravitate to the nearby Pacifica Golf & Spa Resort, an adults-only enclave where the accommodations, dining options and technicolor sunsets are exceptional.

• Press Release from Brian McCallen, Golf Public Relations for the Los Cabos Tourism Board.
• All images courtesy of Nicklaus Design.

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Saludos from Co-Founders…

Chris Sands – Writer  and Michael Mattos

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We telescope the region’s meteoric golf trajectory in this illustrated timeline.

1987

Golf in Los Cabos starts modestly with the unveiling of a 9-hole municipal course in San José del Cabo. The Mario Schjetnan designed layout at Punta Sur was later renamed after the nearby Mayan Palace resort, and is now managed by Mexican hospitality brand Vidanta.

1992

Jack Nicklaus is the unquestioned godfather of golf in Los Cabos, with six magnificent courses to date on his Land’s End résumé. Developer Don Koll brought the Golden Bear to Los Cabos in the early 1990s, a move that first paid dividends in 1992, when Nicklaus crafted 9-hole Mountain and Arroyo courses opened at Palmilla.

1994

Nicklaus’ masterpiece, however, came two years later, when the Ocean Course debuted at Cabo del Sol. This stunning loop, which Nicklaus himself called “the best golf property I’ve ever seen”, has been rated one of the 100 best in the world for 15 consecutive years and counting.

The only course with views of the granite monuments at Land’s End also premiered in 1994. That was Campo de Carlos, a course designed by Roy Dye and his son Matt that was later rebranded as the Cabo San Lucas Country Club.

1996

Robert Trent Jones Jr. helped to put Los Cabo on the golfing map in 1996, when television cameras pick up whales breaching near seaside greens in a Senior Slam at his newly designed Cabo Real course. Cabo Real is now one of three local courses managed by Questro Golf.

1999

Nicklaus returns to add a 9-hole Ocean layout at Palmilla, bringing his portfolio there to 27 total holes; and, taking advantage of his time in Baja Sur, adds another full course at Eldorado, an exclusive private club in a residential oasis home to big-name actors and athletes.

2000

Tom Fazio’s superb Querencia is a creeper. For the better part of a decade, diabolical yet picturesque challenges like the dogleg, dual-bunkered, par-5 fourth were known only to millionaire members. That changed in 2016, when Golf Digest finally let the cat out of the bag, naming it one of the world’s 100 best in their annual rankings.

2001

Inevitably cast as the lesser of the two Cabo del Sol courses, former British Open champion Tom Weiskopf’s Desert Course nonetheless deserves, and has received, numerous plaudits. It’s currently rated by Golf Week as one of the 50 best courses in Mexico and the Caribbean. Those wishing to compare it to Nicklaus’ neighboring Ocean Course can do so at two yearly pro-am tournaments:  The Los Cabos Pro-Am, and the Jim Flick Invitational.

2007

Club Campestre was Nicklaus’ 4th Los Cabos loop, a 6,966-yard challenge that boasts all the master’s traditional touches:  forced carries, water hazards, loads of uneven stances, and even more bunkers. But that’s not all. So scenic is this downtown San José jewel that it has also served as an event venue, most notable for the Sabor a Cabo food and wine festival.

2008

The world’s only composite design from Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus opens at Puerto Los Cabos, a luxury development just outside San José del Cabo. Norman sculpted the front-nine Mission course, Nicklaus the back-nine Marina. Ask a local who prevails in the battle of the sport’s best nicknames, and the consensus is the Great White Shark narrowly edges the Golden Bear; thanks in large part to the incredible par-3 6th, where the tee box sits on the equivalent of a 10-story building, and features views of miles of gorgeous coastline.

2009

In Los Cabos, only Nicklaus landmark Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol has achieved the same sort of acclaim as Davis Love III’s links style Dunes Course at Diamante; and even that falls short when it comes to the opinion of the sport’s premier tastemakers. Voted top new international course in 2010, GOLF Magazine declared the Dunes Course the 52nd best course in the world in 2013, the highest ranking ever achieved by a Los Cabos golf course. It has since ascended, and now sits at 38. Greater glories are still to come.

2014

Jack Nicklaus triumphs again with a breathtaking cliffside layout at Quivira, a resort and residential development from Pueblo Bonito founder Ernesto Coppel Kelly. The 7,139-yard tour de force was voted the world’s best new international course in 2015 by GOLF Magazine, and has since earned additional acclaim for its on-course comfort food stations.

The biggest news of the year, however, was the first completed course from Jack’s closest rival for career major championships, Tiger Woods. Tiger’s parkland style El Cardonal at Diamante also made its debut in 2014, and although it lacks Quivira’s majesty, it continues to attract loyal adherents.

2016

Querencia designer Tom Fazio scores again with the long-awaited Chileno Bay, a seaside jewel nestled between the Sea of Cortés and the Sierra de la Laguna mountain range.

Tiger Woods also came back for a command performance, albeit an insouciant one. His 12-hole Oasis short course at Diamante is a fun-filled little lark, a one-of-a-kind golf experience that bucks the traditional model.

2018

A new course from two-time major champion Greg Norman is scheduled to open in Spring 2018 at Rancho San Lucas, a Solmar Group development on the Pacific Coast north of Cabo San Lucas; and the Twin Dolphin Golf Club, designed by former Masters champion Fred Couples, is expected to follow later in the year in the tourist corridor that connects the cape cities.

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