Instead of my usual whining like the fat middle aged hack that I am, I decided to actually make an attempt at a positive contribution to this site. So on our family holiday trip to Cabo, your intrepid reporter risked life and limb on a day trip through the mountain roads of Baja California Sur armed with my new Panasonic Lumix camera (with a Leica lens!). The good news is I made it there and back by nightfall and took a ton of pictures. The bad news is I would have liked to have taken even more non-golf related pictures and have spent more time soaking in the course and this was my first time using the camera extensively, so I have yet to figure out all the manual settings, so apologies in advance. For anyone travelling down that way, I'd highly recommend making the trip to play this course, although the preferable method for those not rushing back to watch the kids go parasailing is to stay over and get 54 holes in. Combined with Diamante and Cabo del Sol Ocean, this is one hell of a golf trip. My only problem is that it's a lot easier to justify a guy's golf trip to Bandon than it is to Cabo, the family inevitably wants to come along for the 80 degree days and the beaches. (side note-if anyone wants the recipe I got personally from the head chef at Don Emiliano for Salsa Macha please IM me).
Anyway, on to the course. This is not a walking course. Hell, you'd need a massage just humping it from the clubhouse to the first tee. Your cart comes with your own GPS gun, ballwasher, club cleaner, and a rake (a nifty cartball solution to the "where should the rakes be kept" argument). I suppose you COULD walk the course with some shuttling around, but I doubt that anyone does. Obviously there were some constraints in terms of proposed real estate lots which caused this routing, but they did a nice job of segregating the two elements, although it's a bit hard to tell as the only houses built thus far are near the clubhouse and there are posts and signs all over the place. Well, anyway, if there's ever an advertisement for a cart-ball course, this is it. As with most Doak courses, at least those I've seen, the greens are really interesting and there's a lot of subtle, and not so subtle, movement on the fairways. I tried to get a lot of pictures of said ground game, but as usual the photos don't do justice to the land.
The fact that this place is not one of RGD's Top Ten leads me to 2 possible conclusions:
1. The gang took a bit too much Peyote one night in the desert and had a bad experience, or
2. I need to make a much better effort to get off my butt and see the other 8 of the top 10 that I have yet to see. (I've only played Pac Dunes and Lost Dunes, as well as Legends Heathland. FYI- Old Mac didn't make their top ten either!).