Golf on Riviera Maya
by Karen Misuraca
Along eighty-six miles of surf-splashed Caribbean coastline south of Cancun, the resort
mecca of Riviera
Maya is now the third most popular golfing destination in Mexico (after Puerto
Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas in Baja California). Carved out of lush jungle and meandering through
labyrinths of lagoons and canals, the dozen golf courses on Riviera Maya are becoming known for
tropical beauty and for course design by some of the legends of golf. Nicklaus, Norman, Rees
Jones, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., P.B. Dye and Nick Price are among the course creators.
Acres of sandy waste areas and deep, grassy swales challenge players on one of P.B. Dye's toughest
challenges for golfers, Iberostar Playa Paraiso Golf Club. Unlike most
of the courses on the flat terrain of the peninsula, Playa Paraiso is characterized by elevation
changes, undulations, swales and mounds, with more ups and downs than a rollercoaster. Golf balls
bounce off hand-built stone walls, sink into deep bunkers and disappear into bottomless cenotes.
The golf club is within sight of a replica of a giant Mayan pyramid, a landmark in the five-resort
Iberostar Playa Paraiso complex. Opened in 2007, the flamboyant five-star-rated, all-suite Iberostar Grand Hotel
Paraiso welcomes couples only, for pampering and privacy.
At Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort, twenty-seven holes of
golf—the Jungle, Lake and Dunes courses—are attributed to the genius of Jack Nicklaus,
who took into account the native vegetation and natural wetlands that are home to hundreds of
birds, and to iguanas, coatimundis and the occasional crocodile. Respecting the dramatic sand
dunes, Nicklaus deftly arranged the three nines, elevating greens and tee boxes and directing
forced carries over the numerous water hazards.
 Five minutes from the tourist shops, nightclubs and restaurants of Playa del
Carmen, one of the first golf clubs built on the coast, the Robert Von Hagge-designed Playacar Spa and Golf Club has 7,144 yards of narrow fairways
winding through native vegetation, small greens and a scary 148 rating from the back tees. More
than a hundred Mayan ruin sites and many cenotes, have been preserved on the course, and
three-foot-long iguanas are formidable residents.
In a reforested mangrove swamp on the northwest shore of Isla Cozumel, Nicklaus Design Group laid
out the Cozumel Country Club, which opened in 2001. Rife with saltwater
hazards, where creatures with long tails and big teeth are known to appear, the track is
criss-crossed by special corridors called ecovias, built beneath the roadways and wooden bridges,
to provide safe passage for blue crabs, iguanas and other species. Four tees make it possible for
every player to manage the significant carries over marshy areas. TaylorMade and Nike rental clubs
and two-tiered practice tees are welcome amenities at this busy course (about half the players are
cruise ship passengers), which is operated and well-maintained by ClubCorp.
Opened in the fall of 2008, Riviera Cancun Golf is a 7,165-yard
Nicklaus Signature course with a daunting difficulty of 76.2 rating and 146 slope. Ocean breezes
come into play, as do grassy, duney areas, mangroves and lakes, native palm hammocks and breezes
off the Caribbean.
One of five hotels in the vast Mayakoba resort complex, the 5-diamond-rated Fairmont
Mayakoba is comprised of low-rise casitas built of limestone and red sapote wood
and hidden away in dense mangrove thickets along the edges of saltwater lagoons and canals.
Golfers step out of their accommodations into small "lanchas"— thatch-roofed boats—to be
ferried to the first tee of El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Club, the home of the PGA Tour
Mayakoba Golf Classic.
Laid out by Greg Norman, 7,039 yards of fairway ramble through three landscapes—mangrove
forest, limestone canals and wind-in-the-teeth, stunning oceanfront. The club is a carefully
managed habitat where herons stalk in the reeds, cormorants dive like black daggers into the
water, and anhingas spread their wings to dry in the sun. During construction of El Camaleón,
a huge cenote, a massive underground cavern, was discovered and left untouched on the first
fairway. Long stretches of sand border several fairways and some greens, and the flashed bunkers
are filled with perfect white sand.
 Between Cancun and Playa
del Carmen, two new golf courses are taking shape, both to open in 2009. Capella Bahia
Maroma will comprise a luxury boutique resort and residential properties, and the
only private course on the Yucatan Peninsula. A Rees Jones design, the track will feature platoons
of palms, mangroves, and striking ocean views, with the 9th and 17th holes finishing at the
water's edge. The 18th fairway will be a stunner, running parallel to the ocean. A nesting place
for four species of sea turtles, the mile-long, white sand beach will remain untouched.
British Open champ Nick Price designed the soon-to-open course in the mega-development Grand Coral Riviera
Maya, adjacent to the bustling tourist town of Playa del Carmen. Said to be the
largest resort and residential development on the Riviera Maya, Grand Coral is setting aside
three-quarters of the 500+ acres for landscaped grounds, natural forests, lakes and ecologically
protected zones.
A new Norman design, 7,218-yard Playa Mujeres Golf Club is a
Troon-managed stunner a few miles north of Cancun (not officially on Riviera Maya) between the
ocean and Chachmochuc Lagoon, with 10 holes on the water. The Excellence Playa Mujeres Resort here will
ultimately consist of four miles of white sand beaches, four luxury hotels, 50+ waterfront homes,
private residences divided into neighborhoods, a 250-slip marina, and a 12,000-year-old Mayan
Temple!
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