What is the Ocean Course at Cabo Del Sol missing?

[Jason Thurman]

Hole-for-hole, it's easily one of the two or three best courses I've ever played. In the hole-by-hole match play comparison game, it might beat Pebble Beach and Augusta.


I also had no interest in playing it again after one round on a recent trip. Nobody loves tacos and margaritas more than I do, but I'd rather procure them at another timeshare presentation than at the Ocean Course.


It's obviously not very walkable, but there has to be more to it than that, right? I mean, the holes are FANTASTIC. So why does it feel like less than the sum of its parts?

[Tom_Doak]

I'm not with you on the golf holes beating Pebble Beach, or 50 other courses I've played, but I agree completely that when one does a hole-by-hole comparison, Cabo del Sol comes out well ahead of where you feel about it.

Why?  I think that most courses that are laid out with a housing development in mind, lack a soul.  [Pardon the pun!] 


There are just too many times when the routing turns a certain direction, and you can feel instinctively that it does so to make room for a cul de sac of homes, even if they're not there yet.  Any time that happens, you get yanked out of the flow of the golf experience, and that's a hard hole to dig out of, no matter how good the individual holes are.

[Jason Topp]

I have played the course approximately 15 times with 13 of those rounds coming in two visits.  Obviously, I found it a course I wanted to play again and again.  I plot a theoretical return once a month. 


The only test it fails in my book is being an easy walk - but I rarely walk multiple times per day.  While there is some housing on the course, I did not find it intrusive like many other courses. 


What the course does have are some unique and strategic holes in an incredible location.  I would put the 3rd, the 5th, the 11th, the 14th and the stretch from 16-18 against any course.  I would put the setting from 5-7 and 16-18 up against any location.  I made my only hole in one using the feeder slope on 7.  The worst weather I have experienced is a 15 mile per hour wind on a 75 degree day. 


I will take that anytime.   

[Bart Bradley]

Routing and great turf.  Otherwise, it's really quite excellent.


Bart

[Blake Conant]

I hope Clyde Johnson chimes in here, as he's seen the course fairly recently and may offer some input.  Sorry to put you on the spot, Chief!

[Michael Moore]

It's obviously not very walkable, but there has to be more to it than that, right?

Nnnnnnnnnnope.