Just returned to Cabo from playing Tom Doak's Bahia del los Sueños about 2 hours north of Cabo San Lucas.
Weekend consisted of Diamante on Saturday, drive up the coast to BDLS, watch the hockey games with Canadians chirping in our ears, fishing on the beach at BDLS(buddy caught a lobster... LOL) and golf at BDLS today.
First impressions after playing the course after having seen it during construction...
WIDE - huge driving areas, maybe 90 yards wide in some areas. I would say that on many holes the hole location dictated where the tee shot should be placed. Overall not much of a premium on distance or accuracy from what I could see (played with a guy who was 20-30 yards shorter and one that was 30-40 yards longer... did not feel i was giving up to the longer player(except #12) or gaining much on the shorter player.
PENAL - Approaches were incredibly penal in terms of repelling the ball away from the hole. Did not play a single hole where it seemed I could use the wild contours to my advantage (in fairness the course is not ready for regular play and the greens were VERY hard). That said it seems there is a need for SOME containment bunkering as we did several (rather unscientific) tests like dropping the ball on the edge of #7 green and watching it roll into the desert into an unplayable lie(made 2 there but playing companion did not!). Again very new and playing conditions were not "finished" so we will see but more than one bvery well struck shot wound up unplayable or nearly so.
VARIETY - A+ Flat, hilly, uphill downhill, 3 drivable par 4's, tough par 5's, generally wide but a few that will make you tighten up. Simly put the course was fun. Of the 3 drivable par 4's hit decent if not excellent tee shots on 2 of 3 with the third being a perfect miss. #8 - 35 yards right of the hole and had to hit the best shot of the day to keep the ball on the correct level, navigating a mound in the approach in doing so. #11 - good miss was 25 yards short and again a precise pitch required to keep the ball from running well away from the hole (I failed miserably here) and finally #14 - best tee shot of the day but caught the edge of a small mound and into the greenside bunker... front pin placement here and either lay well back or get it on the surface otherwise a 3 will require a long putt. This hole was a par 3 in the original design but stretched a bit when green was moved back a bit to make a pretty interesting short 4.
Only issue is all par 5 approaches are uphill or to raised greens... not really a criticism but an observations. 5's are pretty difficult given the approaches and trouble long.
GREENS - Generally wild but a few that were rather tame... with the wind(though they tell you that 9 months of the year the wind will not blow) getting close is a chore and then some. As noted they were bery hard and that added to the difficulty.
Bottom line - perhaps a bit early to give a true indication of the course but it is already fun and will only improve with maturity.
Apologies for the weakness of this review but has been a long week. I will make an attempt at a more digetsible review in a few days.
Oh, and a little tidbit... we met a designer on site scoping out the second course. Interesting that they do seem set on moving ahaed at this time with a second course but that seems to be the case. The designer would be very popular among those on this site.
Time for bed... more golf (Ocean Course) tomorrow.