Over the past 25 years, Cabo San Lucas and Los Cabos, which are set on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, have supplanted some of the country’s other destinations as “the” place to travel to for outstanding golf, sailing, fishing, and just plain fun by the bushelful.
There are 18 golf courses listed in the Cabo golf guide, and most require a stay at one of the region’s expansive resorts or real estate ownership on the specific properties.
Our latest trip to the area was a return to the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Resort and the stunning Jack Nicklaus Signature course at Quivira Golf Club. Nicklaus has fashioned one of the most memorable and demanding golf courses you will ever play, with holes routed on a spectacular site marked by huge dunes, sheer, rocky cliffs, and rolling foothills.
Quivira Golf Club has more oceanfront exposure than any other course in Cabo and has garnered kudos with awards and accolades since its debut in 2014. And there’s good news – ground will be broken for a second course at Quivira this fall, with a good portion of the new track being routed in the cactus forest behind the current course’s 15th hole.
This is the place to visit to be pampered in every way and make memories galore, both on and off the course.
Quivira is like three courses in one
The round starts at Quivira Golf Club’s opulent open-air clubhouse, which is so close to the beach that one might, if the wind is from the west, be sprinkled with spray from the pounding surf.
Holes 1-4 and 18 are set in the valley that rests between the rocky hills and the massive dunes. Those four holes are ones that you can score on – and you better because the other two segments of the course are super-testing, especially when the breeze is howling.
Nicklaus’ routing is carded at 6,806 yards from the back (black tees) and is a unique par-71.
Take advantage of the 388-yard opener, which features a 70-yard-wide fairway that ends at an arroyo that crosses about 100 yards from the huge, sloping putting surface. The second is a 210-yard par-3 with bunkers at the front right and the back left and a massive green.
The third is a “drivable” 316-yard par-4 that plays down into a shallow valley and up to the green – it’s best to play this hole with an iron or hybrid off the tee to assure you don’t drive into the huge bunker that guards the middle of the fairway at about 250 yards. The fourth is a three-shot 616-yard par-5 on which the fairway is bordered by sand on each side.
Nothing you see at Quivira early on prepares you for the next four holes. After a five-minute cart ride some 500 feet up the hill via a rock path and over a bridge, one must stop for a taco and margarita at the first of the course’s three comfort stops. Take a photo of the beach far below and even bring your camera into the men’s room, which is literally built into the rocky hill.
Once you are well fortified at the comfort stop, you are just a short ride around the hill to the tee for the famous 310-yard par-4 fifth, with its putting surface literally hanging over the Pacific Ocean below. Take an extra ball and go down to the lower tees and try to drive the putting surface and maybe a video of the crashing waves of the beach.
The sixth, a 180-yard par-3, doesn’t get the amount of notoriety that the fifth does, but it should – the green is perched on a dune on the oceanside of another huge dune; anything left will find the water, rocks, and beach.
For our money, the 409-yard seventh and the 399-yard eighth, both of which play uphill and into the prevailing wind, are the toughest pair of holes at Quivira. That run of holes from 5-8 will drive you to the libations and finger foods available at the second comfort station, as located between the eighth green and the ninth tee box. Get the grilled beef or chicken tacos, which are prepared as soon as you order them and can be enjoyed in the open air with the eighth hole in sight.
No. 9 is a 222-yard par-3 that’s played downhill to a huge putting surface that moves right to left.
The par-5 10th plays at 554 yards and is attacked over a large bunker on the right and past another bunker on the left on the second shot, to a downhill green – this is a hole that will offer a chance to score.
The 11th, which plays uphill 375 yards to a blind fairway, has a rocky waste-area in the middle that you can’t see from the tee. No. 12 is a massive (635-yard) s-shaped three-shotter that plays severely downhill on the drive, the second and the final approach. The green on the 12th is 70 yards long from front to back; if the beach on the right looks familiar it was used to film scenes from the movie “Troy.”
No. 13 is an all-or-nothing-over-the-canyon par-3; while it’s listed at 148 yards, check the wind to make sure you have the right club in your hand because there is no bailout.
Nos. 14 and 15, a hard-dogleg right 355-yard par-4 and a 564-yard par-5, respectively, plays in the upland flatlands down to where the round started. Both are potential birdie holes, as is the 493-yard 16th, which plays severely down the hill toward a huge rock in the middle of the fairway – be aware that the putting surface is below the level of the landing area, is narrow and moves from front to back.
We played the 17th as a downhill, 200-yard par-3 but later this summer the hole will move to a long par-4 that is almost ready to play and will be a bear. The closing hole, a 428-yard par-4, is back down in the valley and plays toward the beach and usually into the wind. Sand runs all along the left side and around the green just to give you a final thing to think about before retiring to the pool, the beach, the bar, or the spa.
The course is grassed throughout with paspalum and conditioning is immaculate, one would expect.
Quivira Golf Club is not a “resort” course; it’s too difficult to be that. But with its seaside holes, and the dunes and hills and the cactus forest and scrub-brush it is a “destination” course. It’s a course where you can revel in the little things while taking in the big picture; just don’t head to Cabo thinking you are going to conquer Quivira.
Quivira Golf Club is available only to real estate owners in Quivira Los Cabos and guests of any of the Pueblo Bonito Resorts.
Quivira Los Cabos, a luxury residential resort community, is home to two Pueblo Bonito Resorts – Pacifica and Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach—as well as a third lodging option, Montecristo Estates Luxury Villas. Guests at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Golf & Spa Resort have access to all the restaurants and bars at Pueblo Bonito’s sister properties as well as the restaurant (Quivira Steakhouse) at the Quivira Golf Club.
Two additional Pueblo Bonito Resorts in Los Cabos are located on Medano Beach within walking distance of downtown Cabo San Lucas – Pueblo Bonito Rose Resort & Spa and Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos Beach Resort.
There are also several residential communities within Quivira Los Cabos: Copala, Coronado, Novaspania, Alvar, and Old Lighthouse Club, as well as luxury estate lots. A St. Regis Resort and Residences is under construction with a tentative October 2023 completion date.
