TOURNAMEN TS
AND EVENTS
Mexico hosts one official PGA tournament,
the Mayakoba Golf Classic, held annually
in February at the El Camaleón Golf Club,
Playa del Carmen. It offers the richest
purse of any tournament in Latin America.
The destination also hosts a number of
smaller tournaments and events that can
also be positioned as a sales hook for golf
travel to Mexico. • Punta Mita Gourmet and Golf
Festival, hosted by the St. Regis and
Four Seasons in Punta Mita (April). • Plaza Azul Invitational in Cozumel,
provides opportunities for guests to share
a weekend of golf (April). • The Presidente InterContinental
Country Club Golf Tournament in
Cozumel, with a variety of competitions
(May).
Mexico continues to develop its product and reputation as a premier golf destination with upscale appeal based on the quality, variety and unique geographic appeal of its courses. “As an alternative to Palm Springs, Hawaii and the Caribbean, the Mexican combination of golf and hospital- ity is as good as any in the hemisphere. If you look at what you get, it is really special,” said Brian McCallen, a veteran golf consultant and writer.
In North America, Mexico is the top destination for U.S. golfers, and it ranks second,
after the U.S., for Canadian golfers, said Chuck Kinder, who publishes gol;nmexico.
net. More than 700,000 travelers visit Mexico each year to play golf on the country’s
more than 220 courses, he said.
The golf product in Mexico has evolved over the years with the addition of new
courses, many of them resort-based, and the emergence of new golf destinations within
the country.
According to McCallen, the vision to include a Jack Nicklaus course at the
One&Only Palmilla in Los Cabos, which opened for play in 1993, “set Mexico on its
way as a luxury golf destination. I think the Palmilla course is still probably Nicklaus’s
best course anywhere.”
Today Mexico hosts an annual PGA Tournament (the Mayakoba Golf Classic) and
has many courses designed by greats including Jack Nicklaus ( 25 courses in Mexico)
and Greg Norman. New courses and new golf destinations are on the horizon. The ;rst
Tiger Woods-designed course in Latin America (also his ;rst oceanfront design) is
currently in the works; it’s due to open in 2013 in Punta Brava, a planned residential
community in Ensenada, Baja California, on the Paci;c coast.
NEW COURSES, NEW DESTINATIONS
EL CAMALEÓN,
MAYAKOBA
Even as new destinations—including the Riviera Maya—expand their golf product, Los
Cabos remains Mexico’s undisputed golf capital.
“The Los Cabos scene is unique because of the setting of mountain, desert and
ocean,” McCallen said. “Maybe there’s some place in South Africa that can match that,
but not anywhere else. If you think of a city like Tucson tilted down into the Sea of
Cortez, that would be Cabo.”
Now Los Cabos is just the beginning for upscale travelers who want to play the game
in Mexico.
Puerto Vallarta also has many options; Kinder noted that the Vista Vallarta Golf Club
in Puerto Vallarta includes courses by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. Punta Mita,
a peninsula near Puerto Vallarta, is the site of two Nicklaus courses shared by The St.
Regis Punta Mita Resort and Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, as well as other luxury
lodging choices. Just north of those properties is a new Greg Norman course/commu-nity called Litibu.
Having multiple courses to play is a key attribute of a top-;ight golf destination as
golfers like variety, and seldom play only one course on a vacation. In addition to the
options in and around Puerto Vallarta, course variety in a single locale is now available in a number of places in Mexico and “is most true in the Riviera Maya where you
have a dozen or so courses. That’s where you’ll ;nd the richest and deepest of golf ;;
PGA GOLF ACADEMY OPENS
Golfers are definitely
interested in improving
their game when they
travel, and that opportunity has recently taken a
leap in Mexico with the
opening in January of
Mexico’s first PGA Golf
Academy—and the first
outside the U.S.—
at One&Only Palmilla
in Cabo San Lucas.
The academy is operating two-, three-, and
five-day schools for
golfers at all levels, said
the property’s director
of golf Jason Ballog.
Private, group or family
lessons are available
with PGA or LPGA
professionals. Sessions
are filmed and students
receive a video link to
their lesson. There is
also a golf and health
curriculum that includes
a healthy eating and
fitness program. Resort
guests get a 25% dis-
count on PGA services.
There are other high-
caliber golf schools in
Mexico, including the
Jim McLean Golf Acad-
emy at the Fairmont
Mayakoba, the only
Mexico branch of the
well-known chain. The
school offers individual
instruction as well as
one- and two-day golf
training sessions. Golf
schools are also avail-
able at the One&Only,
commissionable to
agents.
ONE&ONLY PALMILLA,
LOS CABOS
