4 Things You May Not Know about Quivira Golf Club

1. Quivira is the sixth Jack Nicklaus-designed course in Los Cabos. His handiwork at Quivira, an engineering marvel, totally maximized the region’s mountain-desert-ocean ecosystem. According to Nicklaus, “Quivira is loaded with really, really good golf holes and unique golf holes. There is a great stretch even before you get to the ocean holes, which are 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’s got a little bit of everything. And it’s not a hard golf course. We’ve made the course very user-friendly. It will look difficult because of where it is, but I think…the course is very playable.”

2. The par-3 13th hole is a good place to make a hole-in-one. In fact, numerous “aces” have been recorded there since the club opened in 2014. Why is this short, spectacular but visually intimidating par 3 falling prey to the ultimate perfect shot? One big reason: if you’re not brave enough to aim over the abyss directly at the pin, a kicker slope on the left side of the hole generally pitches the ball onto the tiny tilted green, which sits atop a massive pinnacle of sculptured granite rising 100 feet from the surf. The pin is generally cut on the right side of the putting surface, which means a conservative shot played safely to the left has a decent chance of chasing across the green and dropping into the cup for a ONE, every player’s favorite number to record on the scorecard.

3. The 17th hole has been converted to a par 3. The current scorecard lists No. 17 not as a 482-yard par 4, which it was last year, but as a 206-yard par 3. Chalk it up to progress. Expanding real estate development in the vicinity of the former tee boxes necessitated a shortening of the hole. But not to worry. Golfers play the hole from the point at which a perfectly struck drive would roll to a finish just short of the arroyo that crosses the fairway. The tee shot is played downhill to a large, receptive green that slopes from front to back and will accept a run-up shot. Looking ahead, a new par-4 17th hole will eventually be built in an adjacent corridor that will rival the original in beauty and strategy. For now, the scorecard reads 6,809 yards, par 71 from the back tees.

4. Quivira is the proud recipient of a 2020 Golf Digest Editors’ Choice Award, placing it among the “Best Mexico & Central America” golf resorts. This is the fifth consecutive year the club has been singled out for recognition by the sport’s most widely read and respected publication. According to editorial director Max Adler, “We seek to identify for (our readers) the ‘Best Things in Golf,’ with the emphasis on lifestyle properties, products and services.” Golf Digest also ranks Quivira No. 7 in Mexico.