Cabo is a golfer’s paradise with a wide selection of stunning courses to play, each incorporating the unique landscape of the Baja desert and the unparalleled luxury of the city. With smooth sand dunes, rolling hills, crashing waves and towering mountains, Cabo is a must-play destination for those looking to tee up.
Golfweek recently released their Ultimate Guide to Golf Course Living and Great Escapes 2018 which includes the “Top 50 Courses of the Caribbean and Mexico,” with nine Cabo courses making the list and six of those making the top 20.
No. 2: The Dunes Course at Diamante
The Dunes Course at Diamante (pictured) 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.
No. 8: Chileno Bay
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.
No. 11: Querencia
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 Cortez. 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.
No. 15: Cabo del Sol (Ocean)
This 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 Cortez. The Ocean Course was treated to a major bunker restoration last year.
No. 17: Quivira
Nicklaus also built Quivira , 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.
No. 18: El Dorado Golf & Beach Club
Originally built as a resort course in 1999, El Dorado Golf & Beach Club 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.
No. 23: El Cardonal at Diamante
El Cardonal at Diamante, 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.
No. 34: Puerto Los Cabos
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 Cortez. 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.
No. 35: Cabo del Sol (Desert)
Perhaps the most underrated venue in Los Cabos is Cabo del Sol (Desert). 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 Cortez. 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.
For more on the destination, visit: visitloscabos.travel