Spectacular Jack Nicklaus Signature Design has stood the test of time
LOS CABOS, Mexico – Quivira Golf Club celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. Jack Nicklaus, the legend himself, was on hand in December 2014 to tour the course, make a few final design tweaks and cut the ribbon at the grand opening ceremony.
It’s worth revisiting a few of the comments he made about his epic creation shortly before it opened.
“I think Quivira is loaded with really, really good golf holes and unique golf holes. There is good golf even before you get to the ocean holes, which will be unlike anything else in Cabo or many other places. I’ve never seen any place that has three holes hanging out over the ocean like this golf course does. They are unbelievable. This is a diverse golf course with inland settings: it’s got desert, it’s got ocean, it’s got rocks.
“It has a little bit of everything. It’s not a hard golf course; we made the course very player friendly. It will look difficult because of where it is, but I think you’re going to find that the course is very playable.”
Asked if he had to challenge himself to match up his work to the canvas, Nicklaus said, “We had to help the golf course emerge from the natural terrain we were given. I thought it was a very challenging yet spectacular piece of property. Much of it is located on the side of a hill and although there were many opportunities (to place golf holes), we had to find them. Even though we found them, they still required an awful lot of effort to make certain that they work and that they remain stable.”
From an engineering perspective, Nicklaus said the stability of the dunes was probably the most difficult task.
“We obviously had to stabilize the dunes, because every time we came back the dunes had changed. They are alive, absolutely. We needed to get them where we want them, then make sure we establish them, make sure they stay where they are supposed to stay.”
While the layout is user-friendly for the average player from the forward tees, Nicklaus made sure that pros and low handicappers have all they can handle from the back tees.
The property, Nicklaus said, was too unique to try to create a venue that would be a resort golf course suited solely for high handicappers. With its sheer cliffs and massive dunes and sharp elevation changes, the site was a tiger. It could not be made into a pussycat.
“It’s a golf course where you have to take advantage of all the spectacular situations you had and be they too difficult or not, you have to take advantage of it,” Jack said. “It was just too unbelievable.”
Quivira has been internationally acclaimed since opening day and has stood the test of time, the ultimate accolade for any golf course.
Like any living, breathing entity, the golf course has undergone changes since its opening. Two years ago, the debut of The Beach Club, an amenity for Quivira Los Cabos residents, required the elimination of the beachfront golf cart path that led to the former first tee. The par-4 18th hole, a classic links-style par 4 that plays to an infinity edge green, now serves as the first hole.
The holes thereafter follow suit: the original first hole, a left-to-right dogleg with a sandy arroyo crossing the fairway 100 yards short of the green, is now No. 2.
One advantage of the reordering of Quivira’s holes is the fact that the par-ninth hole (previously the eighth), which plays uphill to a bi-level green tucked in a cleft of the dunes, leads directly to the Oasis, the club’s main comfort station. It’s now a true halfway house that marks the midpoint of the round.
Other advantages: with a par-35 front nine and a par-37 back nine, the course is now more balanced.
More changes. The corridor of the par-4 17th hole was appropriated for the construction of the Alvar community. With the par-4 16th hole becoming the 17th during the reconfiguration, a new 18th hole was built in 2022. This short par 4 swings to the right around a massive waste area to a slim, three-tiered green tucked in the dunes.
Golf Digest laid out its case for this majestic venue in a recent feature, ‘The best golf courses in Mexico.’ Out of the top 20 courses in Mexico voted to the list, Quivira ranked No. 3.
“Quivira questions a foundational premise in golf architecture: that golf courses can only be as good as their routings. But holes like the short par-4 sixth and the jaw-dropping par 3s at seven and 14 that plummet sharply from rocky headlands down to greens notched onto the edges of cliffs 80 feet above the Pacific Ocean make the extended journeys worthwhile. When it comes to the importance of cohesive routings, enough of our panelists have determined there are exceptions to every rule.”
An aesthetic marvel and triumph of engineering, Quivira stands on a pedestal of its own.
Tee times at Quivira Golf Club are available only to guests of Pueblo Bonito Golf & Spa Resorts in Los Cabos or residents of the communities within Quivira Los Cabos.
For additional information, https://www.pueblobonito.com/golf-resorts-mexico.
