Cabo del Sol (The Ocean Course)
Los Cabos, Mexico
From the game's inception along the North Sea, golf course architects have found ways to adapt to different environs. Few have done so as well as Jack Nicklaus did here along the Sea of Cortez.
Some of the key tenetsofgolf coursedesign are in seeming conflict with one another.For example,holes of any great golf course have to feel that they belong together, that one leads into another as opposed to being in competition. That virtuethough has to be balanced by the desire for diversity. The more varied the challenges, the more compelling the golf, provided that the course works well as a whole.
Essentially, this was the challenge that faced Jack Nicklaus and his design team led by Jim Lipe when they became involved in the Cabo del Sol project in 1990. On the one hand, Nicklaus was given over 1,600 yards of sea frontage with which to work. On the other,theinterior land was little more than decomposed granite with no soil or nutrients for growing grass. Various active arroyos fed down the mountain side across the resort’s 1,800 acres. In addition, the vegetation was thick and inhospitable, consisting ofvarious cacti (including the cardon which is the largest in the world),palo blanco, palo verde, ciruela, tabachin and mequite.
How to make these seemingly incongruent elements come together was the task. If successful, Nicklaus Design would blend the appeal of several different types of golf (mountain, desert, and sea) into one eighteen hole course, a unique opportunity. Certainly, the underpinning for the course’s immediate success was the 1,600 yards of coastal frontage. Consisting of jagged granite rock formations, the coastline wasn’t linearand provided the opportunity forseveraltees and greenstojut (seemingly at least) into the sea. Holes were routed in crescent shapes, meaning that tee balls could be played over the rocky coastline and even over a sandy cove at the seventeenth.
Upon its opening in 1994, photographs of these ocean side holes quickly captivated the public’s imagination and the course has enjoyed great fanfare ever since. The six holes that feature their greens along the coastline (the fifth, sixth, seventh, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth) compel golfers to get on a plane and come to the east tip of this cabo(or cape).
Though the greens of the final three holes are no more than twenty feet above sea level, the elevation changes coupled with the arroyos and desert setting of the interior holes provide their own playing excitement. Indeed, it’s the strength of the inland holes that makethisMexico’s only world-class course. In particular, the imaginative use of the arroyos lends the inland holesa similarintense playing interest asthat found withthesea holes.
Some of this drama is createdfor the interior holesby the use of half par holes. Overall,five (!) of the twelve interior holes can be termed as half par holes, three in the form of reachable par fives and two as drivable par fours under certain wind conditions. Although, without a doubt, trying to reach any of these greens in one shot less than regulation calls for some form of gallantry.
The par five fourth and fifteenth holesdescend toward the sea and provide enticing prospects for eagles of the sort that rarely exist. They also act as an important bridge in transitioning the golfer from the higher desert holes down to the coastline ones. Pete Dye wasn’t as fortunate at Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog where the interior holes play across flatter ground that didn’t yield holes of the same golf quality ashis famouscoastline ones. Also, the transition from the par five fourteenth to the fifteenth par four along the cliff line at Casa de Campo is much more abrupt – one moment the golfer is playing an inland hole along a lagoon and the next (after a long cart ride), he is standing on a dramatic cliff top tee. Though the golfer delights in finding himself there, there is no sense of graceas tohow it was accomplished.
Nicklaus Design pulls off the transition with greater aplomb. Similar to Casa de Campo, Nicklaus designed two nine-hole loops, each with several holes touching the Sea of Cortez.A par five takes the golfer from the desert to the ocean on each nine. The beauty behind such a routing plan is that it leads to a well-balanced course with spectacular holes on each side. In any such case, credit has to go to the developer for allowing Nicklaus to reach the sea on both nines. Unlike other developers in the Cabo San Lucas region where some sea holes are being sacrificed for the sake of residential lots, such is patently not the case here.
When all was said and done, some of the holes captured the flavor of mountain golf with their attractive backdrops of hills and the use of arroyos (theBaja California Suranswer to mountain streams). Other holes play off the delightful contrast of the scrubby desert floor against the green prepared playing surfaces for golf. Finally, the ocean holes themselves provide thematchless exhilarationthat is experiencedonly when the game is played next to(and over!) a large body of water.
The sight of cacti framed against the vivid blue sea is unique to this part of the world. The photograph is taken 160 yards from the sixteenth green.
As seen below, the course and its holes are chock full of drama (!) from tee to green. The hazards, and the various manners in which they were incorporated into the holes, make Cabo visually arresting.Ultimately, though, the heart of any golf courselies its green and their surrounds. In the case of Cabo, plenty of recreational golfers leave the course thrilled by their round(s) as they are so wowed by the course’s tee to green aspect. However, specific credit is due to Jim Lipe and the rest of Nicklaus Design for the greens themselves. Take a look at the first five. The first one allows for approach shots to be kicked in from the left following the natural slope of the ground, and thus avoiding the deep right greenside bunker. The second green calls for a high pitch over a fronting center bunker to a shallow green. The third green is open in front to those that properly position their tee ball down the left side. The fourth and fifth are exact opposites with the fourth located dramatically beyondan arroyo while the fifth appears as an extension of the fairway. The greens proceed in this diverse manner, alwaysposing a different questionto the good golfer. Can he fade it into the eighth as the kidney green bends right around its greenside bunker and can he draw it around the left greenside bunker at the ninth?
Yes, the seaside holes and the interior ones with the arroyos highlight what a great opportunity/raw property Cabo represented. However, it’s the green complexes themselves that leave many critics confident in their assessment that this is Nicklaus’s best overall design. Judge for yourself as you read below.
Holes to Note
First hole, 435 yards; The first hole heads in a north-easterly direction which is to say that the mountains are on one’s left and the ocean is out of sight and to the right. That being the case, the natural slope of the first hole is from left to right. As we’ll see at the third too, this tilt was put to great use at the green. Unlike some holes built early in Nicklaus’s career that left you feeling that you needed to be Nicklaus to play them properly, the first green is far more clever. Set on a forty-five degree angle to the fairway,it bends to the right around a deep front bunker. The fun is had in using the left to right tilt of the ground left of the green and all the short grass to kick approach shots onto the putting surface. Bearing in mind this is a resort course, this is but one example of how a hole was built to accommodate a wide rangeof playing talents.
Second hole, 575 yards; This is theonly hole on the course that plays entirely within an arroyo.Its one hundred and tenyard wide corridor and natural bend to the right lent itself perfectly to good golf. Though the second is the longest hole on the course, the good golfer is still hoping for nothing more than a wedge approach shot.In order to obtain that, he needs to fit a 200-220 yard second shot into the elbow of the hole as it bends right 115 yards from the green. Safely onto the terrace, the golfer has a short iron in his hands and a good look at the green. However, if something has gone amiss on the first two shots, the shallow greenat only twenty yards deep offers a poor target from well back in the fairway.
The second fairway plays within an arroyo that is thirty yards below its surrounds. As seen above, the arroyo bends to the right 460 yards from the tee. Director of Golf Greg Tallman makes the interesting observation that because the arroyo to the left of the fairway is active, the sand is quite soft and therefore penal. The golfer needs to avoid it off the tee, even if that means playing cautiously to the right.
This well placed pair of bunkers divide the fairway into an upper left shelf and lower right one where the arroyo (and thus the fairway) bends to the right 115 yards from the green.
Third hole, 325 yards; Heavily influenced by the tenth at Riviera (and there is no greater compliment than that), the third has it all. Anything from a driver to a five iron has been used off the tee, depending on the day’s wind and the state of one’s game. The key playing features are the general left to right tilt of the ground, a large bunker in the left fairway 120 yards from the green, and the angled green itself which is wide but shallow and protected by a right front bunker. If anything, the burst in technology that has occurred since The Ocean Course opened has madethisholeall the better/more temptingas more golfers go at the green from the tee.
Great golf is all about options and the third has as many options as any short par four ever designed by Nicklaus. The smart play is often out to the left over the bunker, from where the golfer enjoys the ideal angle into an open green. Frequently though, the wind is strong enough from behind to goad the player into having a go at the green from the tee. Anything from a '2' to a '7' awaits in that case, making this a design standout.
As seen from behind, the third green follows the natural slope of the terrain, which is to say that it slopes away and to the right from the player in the fairway. Thus, pitch shots played from fifteen to fifty-five yards from the green are done so from a real no man's land area.
Fourth hole, 540 yards; A great drive here leaves the golfer in a conundrum: should I go for the green or not? Complicating matters is the invariably awkward stance that results in any fairway that drops eighty feet as this one does.Given the arroyo that fronts the green, the golfer is left with the need for a high approach from a hanging stance. Such a shot is never easy but theSirens’ callof an eagle makes many a smart man try a less than smart (though intrepid!) shot.
As photographed from 230 yards out, does the golfer dare have a go? Unseen from here, there is fairway short and left of the green on the other side of the arroyo.
Though obvious trouble abounds, a missed second shot leaves the golfer with some hope for a successful recovery. The uncertain fate to balls that enter it make this arroyo an ideal hazard, far preferable to a boring water hazard that doles out the same punishment time after time.
This early morning view back up the fourth highlights just how much the hole tumbles downhill. It also speaks as to the awkward fairway stance one is likely to have.
Fifth hole, 460 yards; A longer, Latin American version of the fifth at the Dunluce Course at Royal Portrush, the elevated tee provides a commanding view of the entire hole as its fairway swings right and heads to the sea. Though the fairway is miles wide, there is value in going down the right and challenging the trees and sand on the inside corner of the dogleg. More cautious tee balls left leave longer approach shots that may be blind. As dramatic as the hole is from tee to green, the best may be saved for last at the pushed-up, rolling green. Open in front, it accepts all sorts of well-played shots, something the Nicklaus Design team didn’t always offer.
Beautifully routed, the fifth fairway swings right toward the ocean and picking the best angle off the tee is a task of which the golfer never tires. The structure in the background is an unrelated resort to Cabo del Sol.
Ideally, the tee ball carries the clump of trees and shrub on the inside of the dogleg (as seen to the right in the photograph above) while avoiding the hillside on the left. Note the open green in the distance.
A slightly pulled drive leaves this view from 175 yards out, which shows only the right half of the green. As the today's hole location is left, the approach shot is blind over the shoulder of the hill.
Open across its entire front, the fifth green features a slightly raised right shelf, a lower middle section and a higher left side. As the front of the right shelf runs away from the golfer, such hole locations are the toughest, though there is nothing but short grass around it.