by Charles Kinder
JACK NICKLAUS
Domination is a trademark of the Nicklaus legend.He did it in Cabos, Carlos, an avid golfer, was quick to respond "Let’s fly
his illustrious playing career with 18 major victories world to Phoenix to look at the golf courses designed by Jack
wide. Now Mr. Jack Nicklaus has surpassed his 18 majors Nicklaus in the same type of desert climate, minus the beau-
with 22 Nicklaus designed golf courses currently open for tiful blue of the Sea of Cortes that serves as the backdrop for
play in Mexico. Several others are in production, in design or Los Cabos." After the site inspection, the rest is history.
in a dream state for the future private and resort courses. Palmilla became the first Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf
Course in Latin America, opened in 1993 with the 18 holes of
The Golden Bear is Mexico’s Oso Dorado the Arroyo and Mountain courses, and later the addition of
the Ocean 9 in 1999. Palmilla’s creation spawned a second
It all started with a phone call in 1988 from Don Koll, golf course in Los Cabos—another brainchild of Koll—the
President of Koll International and the proud owner of Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol. Shortly thereafter, Cabo del Sol
Palmilla, the old veteran hotel that is surrounded by thou- became a staple in world rankings, and now the Ocean
sands of acres of rolling desert hillsides, ideally suited for golf Course and Palmilla are rated the No. 1 and 2 resort courses,
in a landscape only known for fishing. On the other end was respectively, in Mexico.
Carlos Hampe, then director for the Minister of Tourism in Jack Nicklaus has also designed the No. 1 private club in
Los Angeles. Asked by Koll what the Mexican Government Mexico, also located in Los Cabos, at El Dorado Golf Club.
could do to support his efforts to build a golf course in Los Currently Los Cabos is rated in the top 15 golf destinations
in the world, and Nicklaus has four and a half of the top ten
courses completed in Los Cabos, the half reffering to his
Nicklaus/Norman Puerto Los Cabos. Several more are on the
drawing board in the entire Baja Sur area.
Some additional statistics from BEST’s “Top 30 Resort
Courses” are in order. Nicklaus Design has four of the top
10 listings, and eight of the top 20. BEST’s “Top Private
Courses” includes five Nicklaus Design courses in its top 20
listings. Highly acclaimed, Yucatan Country Club - El Jaguar
in Merida, is BEST’s “Top New Private Golf Course 2009.”
Nicklaus Design’s Punta Mita Bahia is the winner of this
years BEST’s “Top New Resort Courses.” It should not come
as any surprise that Mr. Jack Nicklaus has been voted BEST’s
Top Golf Course Architect in Mexico for the past 5 years.
Mr. Nicklaus has a sixth sense for golf course design;
understanding how to work in concert with the existing land;
the importance of balancing playability for amateur players
and challenge for the better players; perhaps most impor-
tantly, how to maximize the economic impact of the golf
component for the developer. Nicklaus blends all of these
ideals together as pleasingly as how the desert meets the
9
ocean in the Baja.
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Nicklaus Design team includes his son Jackie that has just
n
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inaugurated his beautiful Dunes Links course In Puerto
Peñasco for the Mayan Group called Peninsula de Cortes. The
Nicklaus legend will be generational for his impact on golf N
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in Mexico, insurmountable and once you play one of his well
designed and perfectly maintained courses your experience
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will be memorable. Golf has been good to Mr. Nicklaus and
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Mr. Nicklaus has been good to golf in Mexico.
J
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72 BEST’S GOLF GUIDE TO MEXICO WWW.GOLFINMEXICO.NET
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