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LOS CABOS MAGAZINE - Issue 8
| Cabo San Lucas Golf - A Week on the Links A GOLFER’S DREAM COME TRUE By Randy Turner - Article from Los Cabos Magazine - Issue #8 |
| What would it be like to spend a week playing a different championship course every day in the hottest golf destination in North America? A golfer’s dream come true. Being considered a hacker, this was indeed a challenging prospect. The courses in Los Cabos are some of the most demanding one can encounter anywhere. In spite of my love/hate relationship with the sport, I decided to give it a go. Day 1 - Monday - Palmilla Golf Course designed by Jack Nicklaus Day 2 -Tuesday - Eldorado, a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at the Cabo Real Resort Day 3 -Wednesday - The Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol designed by Jack Nicklaus Day 4 -Thursday - The Desert Course at Cabo del Sol designed by Tom Weiskopf Day 5 -Friday - Robert Trent Jones II Course at the Cabo Real Resort. Day 6 -Saturday - Cabo San Lucas Country Club designed by the Dye Corporation Day 7 -Sunday - El Campo de Golf Municipal Course in San José del Cabo |
DAY 1 Monday morning I awoke early overflowing with anticipation of the up-coming day on the links. I had been told that Palmilla was a challenging course but I wasn’t intimidated. I knew I would be able to conquer the flowing fairways and undulating greens. I was soon to discover that everyone has to awaken from his or her dreams and face reality. After a short warm up on the driving range I felt I was ready for the day ahead as I approached the first tee. I would be playing this round with one of the regulars on the course, so being the gentlemen that I am, decided to let him tee off first. His drive was adequate and settled on the fairway 200 yards from the tee. Confident that I could out-drive him, I decided to make a little money. Placing a dollar bet on the longest drive, I set the ball on the tee and with all the confidence in the world proceeded to pound the ball five feet in front of my partner. I do not mean in front of his ball, I mean in front of him. My second shot redeemed me somewhat and I ended with a double bogey. That turned out to be one of my better holes of the day with a few good shots keeping me from tossing my clubs out into the desert. The par four fifth hole was a particular challenge with a deep arroyo ready to swallow my first shot, which it did…twice. I finally made it over and lost another ball in the next arroyo between the green and me. I decided it was best to quit keeping score. When I did that, my game actually improved and my drives straightened out somewhat until I got to the seventh hole. This 560-yard hole had another one of those darned arroyos running the length of the fairway and it ate a couple more balls. This was be-coming a tough day for my cache. Regardless of some frustrating shots, I was really enjoying the beauty and serenity of the course and the en-thralling views of the ocean and desert. The fourteenth was a great hole and it truly made my day. I teed off from the mountain to an island fairway and actually made a great shot and then proceeded to sail the ball onto the green on the next shot as well. My putting was a little erratic but I managed to get my first par of the day and un-fortunately my last. It turned out to be a fabulous day of golf on an awesome course and this was just day one. After turning in the cart and paying off my partner, it was time to head to the beach and soak up some rays. DAY 2 The next morning came a little too early. With a fuzzy head, I left for my second day on the links. I arrived at El Dorado and was stunned by this gorgeous looking course. My aging limbs were a little tight after the previous day’s round so my first hole was a disaster. The good news…it could only get better. The desert holes were tough, with a lot of sand traps. I generally have a tough time getting out of the sand and today turned out to be no exception; I did, however, spend a lot of time trying. They say “practice makes perfect” but I guess I am the exception to that rule. The beauty of the course was inspiring and actually a little distracting as I continually found myself staring at the calm waters of the Sea of Cortez. The sound of the pounding surf and the exquisite sparkling beaches awarded my senses. I managed to visit the beach on a couple of occasions when I hit balls into this ultimate sand trap. My favorite holes at Eldorado were the par threes—either I totally blew them or I managed to par; go figure. I had decided to keep score this day and was rewarded with a 68, but totally fell apart on the back nine. When I returned to the clubhouse, someone asked me how it had gone. I just said it was a great day to be out on such a magnificent course. Since it was still early afternoon I decided to spend the rest of the day at the pool relaxing before dinner and a night on the town. DAY 3 Wednesday I had a late tee time and was able to sleep in and recuperate a little before arriving at Cabo del Sol. I was pretty excited about the day ahead since this was rated as one of the top 100 courses in the world. To say this is a challenging course is an understatement and I spent a great deal of time in the arroyos, sand traps or bouncing off boulders. Even good golfers have trouble with the many obstacles, which made me feel a little better. The day started off better than I anticipated and after two days of golf, I thought I was getting the hang of the game. It seemed, however, that every time my confidence escalated, my game got worse and worse. But then again, playing poorly is not such a terrible a thing while playing on this course. I was with my 15-year-old daughter Katie and since she had only played a few times, I felt assured that I would at least score lower. With accurate drives down the middle of the fairway, Katie proceeded to surprise me with her skill. Our favorites were the oceanfront holes although we did chase down a few balls hit on the beach. We played hole after hole and our scores stayed fairly even. I kept losing the advantage of my longer drives by mixing too many bad shots with my infrequent good ones. My little girl was starting to test my patience as I listened to her laugh at her dad. Finally on the seventeenth hole I made a great shot and the ball rolled slowly towards the hole. I had brief visions of a hole-in-one but it stopped just short of the pin leaving me a short put for a birdie. All my frustrations melted away as I thought this was just the best sport in the world. We finished the day with Katie making a par on the eighteenth hole. It was a joy to see such a big smile on her face. At this point, Katie decided to give me a few pointers. She invited herself to play with me the next day when I would return to Cabo del Sol to play the recently opened desert course. As we left the course, I decided that my afternoon would include a traditional siesta to rest my weary bones. DAY 4 The next morning, rested and raring to go, Katie and I teed off on the stunning desert course at Cabo del Sol. I was determined to show her how good her dad really could be at this game and decided to play a disciplined round of golf. Katie was playing from the women’s tees while I played from the whites. This was a fun course to play for both of us; the large landing areas and wide fairways helped me out more than once. I conned my little girl into making a bet on the day’s round. Not wanting to loan her the money to pay me, I decided a week’s worth of kitchen duty would be appropriate. I spot her a few strokes and still felt it was a sure thing. Hole after hole we battled each other upon this awesome course and the lead went back and forth be-tween us as the day progressed. Katie was certainly getting better. She started giving me advice making me realize that the game of golf had just acquired a new enthusiast. The day came to an end with both of us supremely satisfied. Oh, and I did the dishes that night. DAY 5 With three more courses to play in my golf odyssey, I had already reached the conclusion that so many others before me had—Los Cabos truly is a golfer’s paradise. On this day, I played with my friend, Randy Scott, one of the marshals at the Robert Trent Jones II course at Cabo Real. Randy was fairly new to the sport so I figured I’d end this day with a bit of my pride still intact. I had been looking forward to playing this course since watching the 1999 Senior Slam on television and I was not to be disappointed. Cabo Real turned out to be a playable course for those of us hacking away from the whites while more than challenging for competent golfers playing from the back tees. The day’s play continued as on previous days, with a few good shots erasing the memories of the bad ones. The rolling fairways had bunkers in all the most appropriate places; yet for me, they were in all the wrong places. Narrow fairways going up hills, into valleys and then back down to the beach combine beauty with difficulty to make this an unbelievably awesome course. The twelfth hole was inspiring as I teed off a high mesa to a distant dot of green far be-low. It seemed miles away but surprisingly, I overshot the green, which I was told, was a common occurrence. Randy turned out to be a fairly good player and to my credit I played as well as he, thereby ending the day quite satisfied. Cabo Real was everything I had anticipated it would be. Although I completed some holes with a smile on my face, most left me wondering why I tried to swing too hard or too soft; or why I shanked it, hooked it or just used the wrong club. We finished the afternoon at the nineteenth hole reminiscing about the challenging day we had just experienced, while strategically planning how we might improve our shots next time. DAY 6 Saturday dawned as another extraordinary day and I was to tackle the Cabo San Lucas Country Club. This 18-hole course designed by the Dye Corpora-tion was the last of the championship courses I would play. Upon early arrival, I warmed up and headed to the first tee. After five days of golfing the toughest courses I had ever played, my supply of balls was dwindling. When I hit my first drive into the lake I started wondering if I should head to the pro shop to purchase more. Feeling hopeful, I refrained. So as I ventured forward after a rocky start I found the course, blessed with wide fairways, to be more suited to my level of expertise. Again, I played from the white tees and later found out that the course record from the black tees was just one under par. Looks certainly can be deceiving. My day was going pretty well as I progressed through the course—I even hit two birdies! One of them was a mud hen but at least I hit it. About to complete another tumultuous eighteen holes, I glanced back across a striking lake to the glorious bay beyond. Although redundant, this day, like the previous five, was remarkable. Only one put left for a par and my sixth day was complete. I lined up on the undulating green and slowly zeroed in, but to my dismay tapped it a bit hard and lost my last ball in that pretty lake. A visit to the pro shop before day seven turned out to be inevitable after all. DAY 7 Sunday morning I awoke looking forward to what I thought would be my easiest day. Campo de Golf in San José del Cabo, the only municipal course in the area, is sometimes overlooked when visitors arrive. They generally want to play other, more famous courses. This is a mistake and those in the know consider this to be one of the most interesting courses around. It was designed for beginning and intermediate golfers and I felt I had found a home. Instead of surroundings of desert and sandy beaches, this course is surrounded by beautiful residential properties and an abundance of bougainvillaea. I did prove that I could lose a ball anywhere but at the same time, I played my best nine-holes of the whole week with a sizzling 54. It was a relaxing day and a perfect end to my golf adventure. Throughout the week I cursed, I cried, I laughed, I celebrated—I guess that’s what makes golf such a great sport, and Los Cabos one of the most awesome golf destinations in the world. |
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Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico - Last revision: 09 April 2004