Golf Development in Los Cabo Continues


Already bursting at the seams with golf courses, Los Cabos at the tip of Baja California Sur, Mexico, has several new projects. At Puerto Los Cabos, a 2,000-acre master-planned resort community on the outskirts of San Jose del Cabo, Jack Nicklaus will soon return to build a second nine at the club's Marina Course.

Like the original nine, the new holes will follow rolling desert foothills framed by the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains. Rippling fairways, undulating greens and sculpted bunkers characterize the design, which will be adjusted to accommodate the new holes. For example, the current ninth hole, a 441-yard par 4 that plays to the clubhouse, will become the 18th on the revised layout.

Expected to be completed in 2016, the Marina Course will serve as the resort venue at Puerto Los Cabos. The Greg Norman-designed Mission Course, which awaits a second nine, will become the community's private club.

Norman is also involved in the design of a new course at Rancho San Lucas, a resort taking shape along a secluded stretch of Pacific coast. According to Brad Wheatley, a project consultant, the layout attached to a new Grand Solmar resort will be carved into gently sloping terrain creased by deep arroyos and canyons, with six holes set in rolling dunes near the sea. "It's a pretty piece of property with beautiful desert vegetation," Wheatley said. Course construction at Rancho San Lucas is expected to begin this summer, with a 2016 opening anticipated.

Diamante, a 1,500-acre private resort community along 1.5 miles of Pacific coastline six miles from downtown Cabo San Lucas, already has layouts by Davis Love III (Dunes Course) and Tiger Woods, whose El Cardonal course marked his architectural debut when it opened last year. Diamante will bring back Woods to build its third course, a parkland-style layout that is still in the early design stages. Tiger has also designed Diamante's new executive course, which is expected to start construction in 2015.

Montage Hotels & Resorts, which has a portfolio of luxury properties in the U.S., is planning a 122-room hotel and 52 residences on Santa Maria Bay, a lovely natural setting with a swimmable beach. Originally, the Montage Los Cabos, scheduled to debut in late 2017, was to build a Fred Couples-designed golf course. Instead, it's planning a pitch-and-putt layout instead.

Another new beachfront hotel in the works is VieVage Los Cabos, an Auberge Resorts property slated to open in 2016. This resort will feature guest suites and beach villas along a 2.5-mile stretch of coastline at Chileno Bay, a natural cove known for its protected swimming beaches.

VieVage Los Cabos guests will have exclusive access to Chileno Bay's Tom Fazio-designed golf course, a superb layout in desert foothills above the Sea of Cortes that opened in 2013. Each hole on the 7,260-yard layout has flowing landforms intended to simulate rolling ocean waves. The course is framed by large sculpted bunkers, broad sandy arroyos and groves of palo blanco trees.

With 14 courses and counting, Los Cabos continues to expand its golf offerings.

For more information about Los Cabos, visit www.visitloscabos.travel.com.