Cabo Del Sol

Golf Villas, Homes and Condos

LOS CABOS, Mexico – Bigger is not always better. Especially when location, namely a pair of superlative settings on the Sea of Cortes, trumps size.

With seven holes fronting the turquoise-blue sea, the Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol is the course that placed Los Cabos, the 20-mile corridor at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California Sur, squarely on the global golf map when it debuted in 1994.

The top-ranked international venue on designer Jack Nicklaus’ resume, the Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol is revered as the finest course in Latin America. Like other layouts built in the 1990s and earlier, the club has responded to equipment advances by subtly altering the strategy on a number of holes.

While greens have been reshaped and bunkers re positioned by Nicklaus over the years, his revision of the layout’s back-to-back par threes at holes 6 and 7 and overhaul of the par-four fifth hole represent a complete departure from previous modifications. Not since Pebble Beach acquired a parcel of coastal real estate over 10 years ago and brought in Nicklaus to build a new par-three fifth hole prior to the 2000 U.S. Open has a world-class course made a bigger change to better itself.

The alterations to the Ocean Course fly in the face of conventional thinking. Given the value of prime oceanfront real estate in Los Cabos, most developers have relocated golf away from the ocean. Also, courses seeking to defend par against high-tech equipment tend to lengthen holes, not shorten them.