Club de golf del Uruguay...MacKenzie...Montevideo...What do you know?

[Ronald Montesano]

http://www.pgatourla.com/news/1443/#.UXphjqKG1mw

What experience does anyone among us have with this MacKenzie design in Montevideo, Uruguay?

[Tom_Doak]

I played it with my brother 15 years ago.  It's right in the city, on a hillside playing down to the water (although there's a major road between the golf course and the water).

I had wanted to see it because years ago someone sent me the greens drawings for it ... I think they were drawn by Perry Maxwell or maybe Luther Koontz, certainly not in MacKenzie's hand.  Anyway, was disappointed to find that they had rebuilt (and flattened) many of the greens a few years before our visit.

Bottom line ... don't plan a trip to South America around it.  But Montevideo was an interesting place to visit; great food, and dirt cheap back then, anyway.

[Carl Nichols]

I've only looked at the course from the Rambla, which is the road that hugs the water all around Montevideo, and it looked good but not amazing.  Pretty cool location, however. 

Montevideo is an interesting place to visit--decent sized city, some very cool neighborhoods, proximity to the water, and some great food. 

[Greg Tallman]

I was once upon a time married a young lady from Montivideo. She's no longer young and we're no longer married. I never had the pleasure of visiting Montivideo or Punta del Este.

[Randy Thompson]

They never have had much of a budget so playing conditions were always so-so. They have been improving in the last couple of years and sometimes it can be in pretty good shape. Someone did a post about 14 months ago and took some pictures. Short course but a lot of fun is what I commonly hear. I walked a few holes about ten years ago but kind of lost interest and never played although had a lot of oportunities. Hearing they are presenting better playing conditions day to day is increasing my desire to play and may do so in the next couple of years if the chance arises. They have Mackenzie original routing, I found that cooler than the course, probally because it was framed in glass and nobody tinkered with it. 

[Brian Finn]

If you are ever in Buenos Aires, it is well worth it to hop on a flight (35 minutes or so) across the river to Uruguay.  Montevideo is a cool city, and the food (very similar to Argentina) and sights are great.  I passed this course several times when I was traveling for work, but never did play in Uruguay.  As Greg alludes to, the real spot is Punta del Este in Dec-Jan. it is sort of like an awesome mix of the Hamptons and Miami Beach, but with more (quantity and quality) beautiful women.  As for golf, within an hour of BA there are some pretty good courses, such as Olivos and Jockey Club.

[Jeffrey Stein]

Here is a link to a little write-up I did on the course when I visited in 2012...http://worldgolf-jeffrey.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-mackenzie-in-south-america-punta.html

The conditions were very good and it could very well make a (very) short list of places to combine some golf and travel.  I didn't play the the Jockey Club, just outside of B.A. but walked the courses.  Visually flat as a pancake, a real marvel of engineering to drain the golf course.  Saw some very bold green complexes as well, the most striking of which are the pair of double greens which loop all 4 nines back to the club house.

[Tom Dunne]

I visited Punta Carretas during the "Lost MacKenzie" assignment and walked the course with the pro, Eduardo Payovich. I was fairly impressed by the place overall. Tom Doak may well be right about the green contours, and I also remember there was one hole that was badly mutilated by a drainage project, but in my opinion the green sites and bunkering conveyed a nice MacKenzie feeling. It's a good, rolling property with lots of gnarly old cypresses and nice views of the Montevideo skyline.

I think it would definitely be worth a visit if you happen to be in B.A. The flight across the River Plate is a highlight all by itself (if you've never seen a South American river...wow), and Montevideo is a really funky place. A lot more mellow/hippie-ish than B.A. Nice people. I'd happily go back.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Uruguayan wines are worth exploring, too. They have made a speciality of reds from the tannat grape (more usually found in south-west France), and those examples I have encountered in the UK are very attractive and reasonably priced. 

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

I live in Buenos Aires and have played Club de Golf del Uruguay or as better known Punta Carreta a few times. The views are very nice, because the course is just across the road from the river, which the Uruguayans call the sea (the river is so wide that you cannot see the opposite coast in Argentina). The course is nothing spectacular, but it's not bad. I wouldn't make such a long trip just to play this course, but if you can combine it with a visit to Buenos Aires, you can certainly do it. As said in a previous post, the greens were flatened when they decided to change from bermuda grass to bentgrass, because the slopes were considered too severe.

Here is an image of the routing plan of the course:



And here an image of 16th hole with the city in the backgroung: