Four courses in Los Cabos, Mexico, have been selected by Golf Digest on its annual list of the “World 100 Greatest Golf Courses.”
The list includes courses from Abu Dhabi to Vietnam.
Golf Digest’s story claimed that Los Cabos reaffirmed its position as the reigning “Golf Capital of Latin America.”
The courses from Cabo on the list include the Dunes Course at Daimante Luxury Resort, the Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol (pictured), Quivira Golf Club and Querencia Country Club.
Diamante’s Dunes Course rose five spots from last year to No. 47 in the top 100.
“Mexico’s first true links (was) fashioned by Davis Love III and his design team … from a fantastic set of white sand dunes along the Pacific Ocean, huge portions of which are without vegetation and seem like enormous snow drifts,” Golf Digest wrote.
“Holes hug the flowing terrain with little artificiality. Two holes on the back nine once played around a long lagoon, but have been replaced by (the) new 12th and 13th holes on the beach. Now all of the second nine is adjacent to the ocean, amidst the tallest dunes. … No other links in the world sports cactus.”
The Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol is credited with establishing Los Cabos as a world-class golf destination in 1994 and remained at No. 70 on the list.
“When Jack Nicklaus first saw this Baja Peninsula site, what can best be described as Scottsdale-meets-the-Sea of Cortez, his thought was: ‘This is my chance to design a Pebble Beach.’
“He took full advantage of that chance, developing an exciting routing that plays from highlands of desert cacti over dry washes and down to the sea on both nines.”
When the course opened in 1994, Nicklaus said it had the three finest finishing holes in golf, and Golf Digest noted: “That might still be true 24 years later, given that the greens at 16, 17 and 18 are all perched atop rocks above the crashing surf of Whale Bay.”
Quivira Golf Club is new to the list at No. 93, an epic Land’s End layout grafted by Nicklaus onto a jaw-dropping site marked by huge dunes, sheer cliffs and rolling foothills.
“To see photos of Quivira’s cliffhanging fifth and sixth greens, one would expect this to be a mountainous golf course,” Golf Digest said of Quivira, which opened in 2014. “But a majority of its holes are on Pacific coastline sand dunes close to sea level or along the flank of a high desert plateau dotted with torote and cardon trees.
“Still, what earns the attention here is the par-4 fifth, its tee at 278 feet above sea level and its green at the far end of a ribbon fairway 107 feet below. Designer Jack Nicklaus calls this location, ‘one of the great pieces of property in the world,’ and he can be forgiven for requiring long cart rides between several holes. Such is the price to link together 18 truly sterling golf holes.”
Querencia Country Club’s course, designed by Tom Fazio, opened in 2000 and is set within a private 1,800-acre golf community.
“The routing wanders the rugged high desert plateau on the outward nine, toward the Sea of Cortez, hopscotching a dramatic canyon on the par-3 eighth,” Golf Magazine stated. “After reaching the far point on the par-5 ninth, the course turns for home over similar terrain, via two more outstanding par 3s, the 11th and 14th. Other holes have humpbacked fairways and greens tucked beneath huge rock outcroppings.”
Los Cabos also dominates Golf Digest’s list of the best golf courses in Mexico. Ten of the courses on the 16-course list, including five of the top six venues, are located in Los Cabos, the hemisphere’s most celebrated golf getaway.
The Dune at Diamante, the Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol are ranked 1-2, followed by Quivira (No. 4), Querencia (No. 5) and El Dorado Golf and Beach Club (No. 6).
Also on the Best in Mexico list are Chileno Bay Resort, El Cardonal Course at Diamante, the Desert Course at Cabo del Sol, Palmilla Golf Club and Cabo Real Golf Club.
Los Cabos, located at the tip of the 1,000-mile long Baja Peninsula, is home to numerous award-winning hotels, resorts, championship golf courses, rejuvenating spas and world-class sport fishing.
