Skip Cancun: The Better Golf is Down the Street

The Greg Norman course at Mayakoba

Haven’t been to the Riviera Maya yet? Maybe this story in Sunday’s Dallas Morning News will convince you to bypass Cancun and head down the road a few miles to the some of the best golf in Mexico.

Here’s the story:

Golf courses on Mexican Riviera Maya

attract attention

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, October 25, 2009

By MICHAEL HILLER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Michael Hiller is a golf travel writer and editor of EscapeHatchDallas.com.

PUERTO MORELOS, Mexico – When the professional golfers of the PGA Tour rolled through this ribbon

of sun-drenched Mexican coastline south of Cancún last February, the pros undoubtedly noticed something

unexpected: really good golf courses.

“This is very, very nice,” said tour player Billy Andrade. “We’re pretty spoiled and go to some beautiful

places, but this ranks right up there.”

A decade ago, this 81-mile stretch of sandy beaches dubbed the Riviera Maya was no more than a series of

sleepy fishing villages punctuating a road dotted with palapas, simple taquerias, tangles of leafy jungle and

limestone rubble.

Now in the throes of a massive construction boom, this tourist corridor of upscale resorts and residential

developments 40 minutes south of Cancún is no longer just a jumping-off point for visits to the Mayan ruins

in Tulum or Chichen Itza. Golf is playing an integral role in that rising popularity.

“We’ve seen the number of golf rounds increase 50 percent since 2006,” said Douglas Goubault, the

president of the area’s golf association. “Cancún is 25 years old and starting to show its age. People want

something fresh.”

Where Cancún is Girls Gone Wild and college refugees, the Riviera Maya is families, flip-flops and

emerald green fairways.

There are only four golf courses within its borders (and nearly a dozen, if you count Cancún), but “within

five years,” says Goubault, “the Riviera Maya will have 10 really good golf courses.”

The four existing layouts are short car or taxi rides apart. All welcome public play.

The star course is Fairmont’s El Camaleon, an 18-hole design by golfer Greg Norman. El Camaleon rolls

and tumbles partly along the seaside site of the excellent Fairmont Hotel in the new, high-end development

called Mayakoba. In 2007, a year after it opened for play, El Camaleon began hosting the PGA Tour’s first

full-field tour event outside North America, the annual Mayakoba Golf Classic.

El Camaleon snakes through thick, leafy jungle, changing its appearance as it winds through brackets of

dense mangroves, wraps around sinuous limestone canals and creeps toward the white-foam and turquoise

edges of the sea. Norman incorporated a couple of cenotes (sinkholes created when the roofs of underground

caves collapsed) into the routing, which you and your shots must negotiate.

The fairways are generous, but tricky greens, tall rough and sand bunkers deep enough to swallow you

whole will toy with your ball – and your score. Most of Mayakoba’s 600 acres remain undeveloped, which

seems to please the egrets and cormorants that fish in the limestone lagoons and preen in the midday sun.

The region’s other darling, the Playa Paraíso Golf Club, is 18 holes adjacent to the sprawling Iberostar

resort. P.B. Dye, the son of famed golf course architect Pete Dye, designed the layout.

The course is meticulously manicured and appears surprisingly mature for having opened just three years

ago and having survived two hurricanes.

Like his father, P.B. often sculpts the contours of his golf courses himself from the seat of a bulldozer. No

fan of flat terrain, Dye incorporated 20-foot mounds, deep greenside bunkers, multitiered greens and plenty

of trees into his layout. Dye built in plenty of rewards for taking the most minimal of risky shots.

“Lay back off the tee so you don’t reach the deep grass bunker” 300 yards away, the course guide coaches

you. What golfer doesn’t feel good about being told to “lay off” a tee shot to avoid a hazard 300 yards

ahead?

This is a course you can conquer and feel good about.

The two other Riviera courses are also worth your attention.

Robert von Hagge designed the Playacar course, the most challenging track in the Riviera. It opened in 1995

as part of the all-inclusive Playacar resort. Tight and unforgiving, its fairways are walled in by trees and

palms or speckled with cenotes and water hazards. From the back tees, the course packs a wallop for anyone

other than a scratch golfer. From more sensible tees, the course is still tough, requiring you to drive straight

and hit small greens as if golf balls were darts. Thankfully, beer is included in the green fees.

If your time or skill is limited, legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus designed El Manglar just for you. Ever play a

276-yard par-3? That’s a tee-to-green distance only a fraction of golfers can hit a drive. Nicklaus

incorporated one into this 18-hole, par-3 course that is no slouch.

More excitement arrives in the next few months as new courses start to come on line.

Capella, from architect Reese Jones, lacks four holes from reaching completion.

The Robert Trent Jones II group is finishing a course built deep inside sections of an abandoned limestone

quarry within the new mixed-use Bahia Principe development. Jones piled giant white boulders the size of

VWs along the treed edges of some of the holes, creating the sense that the rubble was swept off the

fairways by the muscular hand of some Mayan god.

Spend a few days here, and you’ll understand why golf, not Spanish, is becoming the universal language of

Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

Michael Hiller is a golf travel writer and editor of EscapeHatchDallas.com.

When you go

Getting there

Cancún International Airport serves the Riviera Maya with daily flights on multiple carriers. All golf courses

rent high-quality golf clubs. English is widely spoken throughout the region. The official currency is the

Mexican peso, but U.S. dollars are accepted at most resort areas.

Golf courses

• El Camaleon Mayakoba Golf Course, www.mayakobagolf.com. Green fees $102 to $170 (resort guest),

$141 to $235 (public).

• Iberostar Playa Paraíso Golf Club, www.iberostar.com. Green fees $95 to $130 (resort guest), $130 to

$195 (public).

• Playacar Spa & Golf Club, www.palaceresorts.com (click on “Golf”). Green fees $130 to $190.

• El Manglar Riviera Maya, www.grupomayangolf.com. Green fees $79 to $129.

Print PDF