The Golden Bear and yours truly at the grand opening of Nicklaus' Moon Palace Signature course several years ago.

I’ve written a lot over the past two years about why I think Mexico’s Mayan Riviera is such a great golf and tourism destination (click here, here, here, or here), and one of the top resorts there is the upscale all-inclusive Moon Palace (read more here), compete with a 27-hole Nicklaus Signature design that is one of the region’s best.

Ever since I first visited the Moon Palace for the course opening, they have unveiled one improvement after another, adding a third nine, deluxe golf course villas, and now, a Jack Nicklaus Academy of Golf, the first in the entire Caribbean basin. This is especially notable because while Mexico has lots of great golf resorts, it has very few destination academies for instruction, and what could be a better setting for mastering this crazy and infuriating game than in a place that dispenses free margaritas from sunrise until well after sunset?

The academy opens in two weeks, on August 15, 2011 and will be joined by a sibling academy at Palace Resort’s Playacar golf property, down the road in Playa del Carmen, the biggest city and beating heart of the Riviera Maya, in September. Both locations will offer state of the art facilities with Nicklaus Academies Analysis Software and high-speed video for capturing the swing, ball flight monitors, simulated indoor driving ranges, computerized putting lab, custom club and golf ball fitting protocols, plus of course, actual instruction.

There will be 13 different teaching programs tailored to single digit players and, hackers and newbies alike, including Welcome to Golf, Equipment Fitting Sessions, Couples Only Schools and Corporate Programs.

It gets better: until Christmas, all Palace Resorts properties are running a very aggressive special that adds a $1500 resort credit to vacation packages, and this credit can be applied towards the golf academy programs, lessons, and greens fees, and since all the food and booze is already included, there is not much else to spend it on besides the spa. Optionally, guests can forego the credit and instead choose to add unlimited golf to their stays. The travel business is hurting and this is a great incentive to head South of the border before December 23.

To book lessons or get more info, email the Golf Academy directly (golfacademy@palaceresorts.com). Otherwise visit the Moon Palace site or for general reservations or info on other Palace Resorts, visit the main website.

This bronze of late US Open Champion Payne Stewart overlooks the 18th of world famous Pinehurst Number Two, the only course ever to host the US Open, PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.

When I am not busy golfing, skiing or writing golf, ski and travel articles for magazines and newspapers, I have one other pretty important job, as far as journalism goes.

I write the most popular and widely read column on second home real estate in the English Language. My column is called “Life on Vacation,” and if you travel a lot you have probably read it, because people who travel a lot read USA Today, which also happens to be the number one newspaper in, you guessed it, the USA.

My column runs every Friday in USA Today, and each week I profile a destination that is popular as a place where people visit as tourists and to buy second homes. Sometimes it is a ski destination, like Aspen or Vail, sometimes a beach locale or the Caribbean, and sometimes a quiet lakefront escape for a summer cottage. But a lot of times it has to do with golf because golf is a huge driver of second home sales in the United States.

Because of my expertise on this topic, I have been invited to speak at real estate conferences, appear on real estate radio shows, and so on and so on, mainly because literally no one else in this country covers the second home market at the level I do. Since I have been writing this column week in and week out for nearly three years, I thought it would make sense to share some of what I have learned with you, my dear readers.

So occasionally I will highlight a golf destination that I think stands out as a second home locale, the kind of place I would buy a second home if they paid me more, and link you to my in depth coverage of the market to show what you can get and for how much.

To kick this off, I thought I would start with an American Classic, Pinehurst, NC.  To read more about the second home real estate market  in Pinehurst, click here for a link to my USA Today article.

This is especially fitting for a couple of reasons:

Pinehurst Resort has more golf courses than any single resort or club in the United States with eight 18-hole layouts, several of which are real standouts, including the famed Number Two, widely ranked the nation’s top ten courses and a US Open, PGA Championship and Ryder Cup venue. In 2014, Number Two will become the first venue in our nation’s history to host both the US Open and Women’s US Open in the same year.

The Village of Pinehurst and its neighbors have a lot more courses, more than 30 in the immediate vicinity, ranging from several Donald Ross classics outside the resort to modern designs by Nicklaus and company, and my favorite, the remarkable Tobacco Road by the late Mike Strantz.

The village itself is charming and atmospheric and is widely described as America’s St. Andrews, because along with the Scottish version, these are about the only two towns on earth that live and breathe golf. You cannot help but feel the golf history and electricity in the air. In both, golf is a very vital part of the town fabric, sits at the physical centers of the towns, and drives everything, from the hotels to golf antique and golf art stores and so on.

But for the potential second home owner, this is the best kept secret: both St. Andrews and Pinehurst have special deals for residents that beat the pants off any conventional club membership. Almost every residence within the village of Pinehurst, starting with $100,00 condos, qualifies for the local membership, less than $300 a month including unlimited play on seven of the eight courses (including Number 2), plus a members’ clubhouse, low guest fees, preferred tee times and lots of other activities. Considering a single round on Number Two costs this much for visitors, it is a spectacular deal, cheaper than almost any high-end country club – with just one course!

Finally it is worth noting that Pinehurst is one of the top four golf resort second home destinations  in the nation, along Pebble Beach, Kiawah Island and Whistling Straits and of these four, two of the villages were designed by my famous relatives, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., and his son Junior, the most acclaimed landscape architects in history, whose body of work includes New York’s Central Park, dozens of other major city parks, the US Capital grounds in DC, numerous colleges and universities, including Tiger Woods’ stomping ground of Stamford, and of course, the quaint, park-like Village of Pinehurst.

The author on a spiritual journey of self-discovery and inner peace at Ireland's Doonbeg combining two of his favorite things.

If I get one more press release from a hotel offering an Eat, Pray, Love package, I am going to shoot myself.

I have nothing against Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestseller of the same name – my wife read it and liked it. In fact, I have some helpful advice for Gilbert: if these big name hotels are actively selling packages, and presumably making a profit, by invoking the name of your (copyrighted) book, shouldn’t you get a cut of the action? Something to ask your lawyer about. Then maybe I won’t get any more releases.

The book, I think, is about a woman with a midlife and marital crisis who goes on a literal and figurative voyage of self discovery featuring food (Italy), spirituality (India) and romance (Bali).

So now, every hotel that has an Italian restaurant, yoga and Balinese massage, and that is a lot of hotels around the world, from New York City to Paris and way beyond,  is rolling out Eat, Pray, Love packages. If you think eating lasagna and taking an Ashtanga class will solve the issues in your life, by all means sign up for one of these stupid packages.

Fortunately golfers, especially male golfers, are far simpler creatures. When they have stress or confusion in their life it can usually be solved quickly and easily by overeating, overdrinking and going on a golf road trip. So for all the men in crisis out there, I have created three perfect packages. I call them Eat, Drink, Golf. Each one addresses all the key activities to varying degrees.

Trust Dr. Larry – your path to enlightenment starts here.

Need proof that God loves you? Look no further than Ballybunion's dramatic Cashen course.

Eat, Drink, Golf Ultimate Road Trips:

Ireland: The food is the best you are going to find in the British Isles, much better than nearby Scotland, and the drinking is legendary between pubs, Guinness and Jameson et al. But it is the totally world class golf, maybe the best on earth, that stands out. We are talking the totally renowned and epic, like Ballybunion, Lahinch, Royal County Down, Waterville, Royal Portrush, the newer but still really good like Doonbeg, Lough Erne, Tralee and the European Club, and the hidden gems well worth discovering, Ballyliffin, Ardglass, Royal Belfast, Rosapenna, County Sligo and so on and on. In terms of meeting my criteria I rate it, best to worst, Golf, Drink, Eat.

Las Vegas: The golf here is good, but unless you are playing Shadow Creek, the one true world class course, it is secondary to the other angles. The drinking here is off the charts, whatever your taste. If you like buying a life sized plastic guitar filled with frozen margaritas (I kid you not!) and riding the monorail while cocked, this is the place – probably the only place. It is at one end home to ludicrously cheap beers (I like Fitzgeralds casino for really divey drinking), ludicrously expensive fine wines (everywhere now) and the nation’s most expensive cocktails (try the $99 margarita at Isla in Treasure Island). But the food is equally off the charts and after New York, Vegas is the nation’s best eating city. Again, you’ve got the gamut, from cheap and enjoyable (buffets, old school shrimp cocktails and prime rib dinners downtown) to great middle of the road places (Todd English P.U.B., Noodles) to arguably the nation’s best Thai (Lotus of Siam) and an unparalleled array of fine dining and Michelin-starred celebrity chefs, headlined by the very best fine dining restaurant in the country (seriously, sorry French Laundry), if not the world, Joel Robuchon at the Mansion. Vegas Rates Eat/Drink, Golf.

Riviera Maya, Mexico: Okay the appeal here is total excess. If you thought Vegas was over the top, wait till you try one of the two major all-inclusive golf resorts, the Iberostar (very good PB Dye course) or Moon Palace (strong 27-hole Nicklaus signature plus second very good Nicklaus Signature off site course, Riviera Cancun). Each has many different restaurants (seafood, Italian, Mexican, fine dining, sushi, casual) all of it all-you-can-eat. It is also all-you-can-drink, they are not shy about top shelf stuff, and they start early then never stop. My favorite is the beverage carts at the golf courses, also all-inclusive. Order a cold cerveza, drink half, it’s hot here, so you go to putt out and return to your cart to find your half finished warm beer gone and brand new cold one in its place. I dare you to finish a round sober. Mexico covers all the bases in a quantity over quality, gluttony driven, forget your troubles kind of way: Drink/Eat/Golf.

Such spiritual journeys often require a visit to a guru, in this case a lesson for your's truly in pouring the perfect pint at the Guinness plant in Dublin.

Your's truly with Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer to never shoot 59. The Golden Bear is in excellent company.

Every week of the season, the SI Golf Group has an online roundtable (which does not seem to welcome reader feedback or I would have written them directly), and this week the “experts” debated which was more impressive, Stuart Appleby becoming the fifth man and sixth player in PGA and LPGA Tour history to shoot 59 (and win, by the way) or for Yani Tseng to win her second Major of the season on the LPGA Tour, a feat that while impressive, is anything but uncommon – on either tour.

Given how much harder and rarer it is to shoot 59 than to win multiple Majors in one year, the answer is obvious – to anyone but SI’s golf gurus.

Almost overwhelmingly, they chose Tseng’s feat, which, after considering every other possible explanation, leads me to believe they are high.

Obviously which feat is more important is a subject of opinion, and as they say, “opinions are like a**holes – everyone’s got one.” After all, there are people whose opinion is that the earth is flat and that you can see Russia from Alaska. Simply having an opinion does not give it credibility.

The position in favor of the two-Major season is like the position in favor of nominating Lindsey Lohan for teen role model of the year – you can make the argument, but only by ignoring all facts, reality and history, not to mention common sense.

In their support for this erratic argument, comments included:

“…but two majors in a season? That’s clearly more impressive, and important.” Jim Herre, Managing Editor, SI Golf Group. (Jim, sports are not important, they are entertainment. As far as more impressive, it is clearly not, and all golf history weighs in favor of the 59)

“I’ll go with the two majors.” Mark Godich, Senior Editor, Sports Illustrated. (Good for you! I’ll go with Flat Earth please.)

“To shoot a 59 is nuts, but it’s even more amazing that he did it to claim a one-shot win and earn himself a spot in the PGA Championship (and Kapalua and Augusta). That said, a second major in a season, on a course like Royal Birkdale, may top it.” David Dusek, Deputy Editor, Golf.com (Actually David, it may not. In fact, it clearly does not).

“I’m going with Yani.” Damon Hack, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated. (Ahhhh. Wrong answer).

“I’m with Jim. I thought Appleby’s round and win were captivating. But it was one of those magical one-day things on a course where scores were low, low, low. You can’t compare that to winning two women’s majors in a season.” Gary Van Sickle, Senior Writer. (I’m sorry Gary, I missed the first part. Are you saying it was easy to shoot 59? That’s what it sounds like. If so, how come no one else did it? And if it was one of those “magical one-day” things, isn’t that what makes it so rare?)

Of all these comments, the only one that makes sense is Van Sickle’s closer, and not for the reason he thinks. It is true, you can’t compare them. They aren’t even close. Winning two Majors in a year in no way compares to shooting 59 in either rarity or difficulty. Appleby’s feat is the second rarest important accomplishment in golf after winning the Grand Slam. In fact, Appleby’s 59 is something that has now happened exactly as many times as the career Grand Slam on the PGA Tour. Tseng’s win-win is so commonplace that on the LPGA Tour it happens every few years. Without cracking a history book I can think of 16 men and women off the top of my head who have won multiple Majors in a singel year, more than 20 times between them, and I am sure there are several more, but I don’t have to go back very far (like 2008, for instance).

As many women have won two majors in a season since 1996 (Laura Davies, Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam and now Tseng) as men have shot 59 in Tour history, well over a century. Go back another five years and you have Meg Mallon doing the same thing in 1991, and then I stopped counting. How rare is a record that has fallen on average, once every 3 point something years since 1991?

In baseball parlance, shooting 59 is much rarer than pitching a perfect game, while winning two Majors in a season is more common, at least in our lifetimes, than the Yankees winning the World Series, something that never seems to end.

Again I want to be crystal clear: this is fact, not opinion.

In any sport with stats, rarer is usually harder. In golf, harder is usually better. There is no argument that can be made refuting the fact that eagles are both less common and better than birdies, which in turn are less common and better than pars. The eagle is better than the par or birdie precisely because it is much harder to achieve and thus rarer. Shooting 59 is more like the albatross.

Put the number 59 aside and consider exactly what Appleby did in historical terms: he shot the lowest score ever on the PGA or LPGA Tours, period, end of discussion.

On the other hand we have Tseng winning two Majors in the same season, which is neither the first or the most (Bobby Jones had four, Hogan three, Tiger 3 or 4 depending on your counting skills).

It is far from the first time on either tour. As I said, half a dozen women have done it recently, Padraig Harrington did it two years ago for the men, and Tiger’s done it four times by himself – one time less than the total number of guys who have shot 59. You don’t have to go back to Hogan and Snead and Jones to lose track of multiple Major winners. You don’t even have to go back to Nicklaus, Watson, and Trevino, all of whom accomplished it. In recent years Harrington, Tiger, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, and Mark O’Meara have all done what SI would like to believe is an extremely rare feat. This very quick glance at the history books reveals sixteen men and women who have won multiple majors in the same year, some more than once, and that is certainly not history’s grand total. Of these sixteen, exactly one – Annika Sorenstam – has ever shot 59.

I am an expert golf writer, but you don’t have to be to see that 59 is the far rarer – and thus more impressive – golf accomplishment. On the surface, it happens far less often. But that’s just 25% of the whole story. Here’s the other 75%.

Shooting 59 is not much harder than winning Two Majors in a Year. It is much, much, much harder.

Let’s assume that every professional golfer goes into every tournament with two goals, to shoot the lowest score they can and to win, which are certainly closely linked. Every tournament has four rounds but just one winner. Thus there are four times as many chances to shoot 59 as there are to win a tournament, Major or not. So while Tseng won two Majors in three attempts, she also failed to shoot 59 once, given twelve chances.

I think it is also fair to assume that anyone who wins any tournament, certainly a Major, is playing well, at or near their best – or “peaking” as we like to say. Tseng was presumably playing close to her best golf in winning Twp Majors, an accomplishment I certainly do not mean to belittle. But even at her best she couldn’t shoot 59, because it is really hard to do. So hard, that in many thousands of rounds played in men’s and women’s Majors by the self-selected group of the best golfers alive, no one has ever, even once, shot 59, Not the winner, not the loser, not the best that day, not on the calmest conditions ever at St Andrews. Never, ever. It is that hard to do.

Jack Nicklaus alone had more 50 rounds just in the Majors he won, at the top of his game, when he couldn’t break 60. Longtime world number one Tiger Woods has never played better than in the four years when he won multiple Majors, but in just those years in which he met or surpassed Tseng’s accomplishment, he failed to break 60 some 36 times – while playing his A game.

Every week on the PGA Tour there is a tournament, some easier than others, with over 100 of the world’s best players teeing it up, several hundred rounds per week, many thousands each year – Nicklaus alone played over a thousand professional rounds – and that 59 has been shot exactly five times on the PGA Tor. The number of opportunities to win multiple Majors in much smaller, a tiny fraction of the chances for shooting 59, yet it happens much more frequently. Because it is easier to do. Science, not opinion.

I’m no statistician, but eyeballing the actual facts, I’d guess that the odds of a PGA or LPGA player winning two or more Majors in season is at least 20 times greater than the chance of them shooting 59 in their career.

So hat’s off to you Mr. Appleby, you easily win this argument.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the SI exceptions, writers Farrel Evans and Alan Shipnuck, the only ones with the lucidity to vote for Appleby. I was going to write courage, but how much courage does it take to choose the obvious right answer?

Nicklaus used lots of water to challenge goflers at his new Riviera Cancun course, as seen on this daunting par-3.

I love the Rivera Maya as a travel destination, and explained why the region is so charming in my first post on the area.

Now it’s time to look at more of the golf.

I already covered the Moon Palace resort, with its 27-hole Nicklaus design that jump-started the high end golf boom in the region. Now Nicklaus has returned and done another course for the same client, but this one is a world apart.

Unusual for the region, Riviera Cancun is a standalone daily fee course, with nothing but golf and a flying-saucer looking clubhouse.

First of all, it is just a daily fee golf course. The Riviera Cancun project has plenty of land, and no doubt is intended to anchor a residential and hotel community, but with the economy pretty much stagnant, especially in Mexico, and the region already overbuilt with mega-resorts, I would guess it will be several years – at least – before anything else happens here. In the meantime that leaves a standalone 18-hole design, and a brand new clubhouse, large and lavish, all run by the Moon Palace folks with the same “all-inclusive” mentality that pervades the area. Pay your greens fees and expect gratis cervezas around the course and a pre or post round lunch included.

Another thing setting it apart from its neighbors is the pronounced desert waste feel.

The course has been open for over a year, but somehow remains Mexican golf’s best kept secret, event though it is closer to Cancun and its hotel room density than any of the other Riviera Maya courses. There were just a few hardy souls poking around the day we played it, but it should not be missed – it is the most serious and non-resort of all the courses here.

Riviera Cancun is very different for the Riviera Maya, with each hole isolated from view, lots and lots of water, a desert feel with long cart boardwalks and abundant virgin waste area. The biggest difference between this and Moon Palace, however, is a sign of the “New Nicklaus” – heavily contoured and very tricky greens. A lot of architects have spent the last few years considering how to handle the ever increasing distance from the technology of modern equipment, and whereas Pete Dye has attacked the USGA for refusing to reign it in and in response is building 8,000-yard plus behemoths, Nicklaus told me his tact is different and that the only way to protect against pro-caliber assault is to toughen the greens. So there is a clear difference between vintage Nicklaus designs with moderate sized and flattish greens and the most recent efforts (including another new Mexican layout, Punta Mita’s Bahia course), which feature smaller and rolling greens that are tricky to hold and tricky to putt, dropping off in various directions.

You will never be at a loss for water hazards when playing Riviera Cancun - despite a marked absence of coastal holes.

Riviera Cancun is a very nice layout, and a fairly raw, natural golf experience that is also quite a test: on the seventh hole there is a daunting drive over water, then a second aquatic carry to the tough green. Don’t expect JN to let up, especially when it comes to his trademark finish, always sticking it to the golfer from the fifteenth on. He does that here, but surprisingly, while the course is near the coast, there are no actual waterfront holes, a shocker considering that Nicklaus’ standard Mexican design aesthetic has been to run a few finishing holes along the coast.

All in all, Riviera Cancun would be a shame to miss as part of any golf trip to the region and depending on your personal preference for rugged versus manicured, could be the best layout down here.

The ninth is the signature hole, a long (455-yd) par-4 with a rocky waste area off the tee and the lobby’s faux Mayan pyramid on the horizon behind the green.

I love the Rivera Maya as a travel destination, and explained why the region is so charming in my last post.

Now it’s time to look at the golf.

Iberostar is a global Spanish chain of higher-end all-inclusive resorts with several properties in Mexico. At this particular location outside Cancun, Playa Paraiso, or Paradise Beach, there are actually four different Iberostar all-inclusives combined into one vast resort, and at each price point you get to use the facilities at your resort and all the ones below you, meaning more dining options, pool facilities and so on. The fanciest is the Paraiso Maya, which opened in 2005 in conjunction with the golf course, and features amenities like an all-suite format, each with complimentary mini-bars, walk-in marble showers and whirlpool baths. Guests choose from a dozen restaurants, 5 bars, several unique pool complexes, a spa, and more. While many all-inclusive resorts miss the mark, this is one I would definitely go back to.

You will also know you are in Mexico: the lobby and several restaurants are housed in an enormous replica Mayan pyramid that manages to come off as impressive when it could so easily be cheesy. The faux-pyramid also becomes a signature view on the golf course, framing the signature ninth hole. The golf is the very best feature of the Iberostar.

A real Mayan pyramid, like this one at nearby Tulum, is one of the chief attractions of the Riviera Maya, a region that offers great golf, great food and great sightseeing.

The course is really good. I give it the edge over the 27-hole Nicklaus designed Moon Palace course nearby, its chief competitor, which I recently wrote up. I had the fortune to tour it at the grand opening years ago with designer PB Dye, son of Pete Dye, and as he demonstrated, the physical work that went into creating the golf course was impressive. Everything was built over a flat and unfriendly field of limestone, requiring an enormous amount of heavy lifting – PB lived over a hundred days on site, something virtually unheard of in an era when top “designers” routinely put their name on course they have spent literally 3 days at.

After returning for a second visit last month, I can safely say the good course has grown up to be very good. Carved through dense jungle, with a lot of habitat left intact for animals, it evokes its tropical setting. There is a lot of movement and contour to the routing, you can rarely see one hole form another, there is a lot of variety to the hole shapes, and in inherited Pete Dye style, numerous tee positions with a lot of relief for the ladies. For example, the sixth a hole is a par-3 that plays over or along a lake, depending where you start, to with a huge, deep green. The runway style tee box is almost 100-yards long, meaning this hole can play form  As a result, the hole can play from as little as 100 to over 200 yards, an enormous range.

The rest of the course is equally interesting, and this is a splendid resort facility. To cap things off, the course, like the resort, is run on an all inclusive basis, so you will never be wanting for a complimentary cold cerveza from the omnipresent beverage cart.

By combining holes in the desert, mountains and along Nevada's largest private lake, Jack Nicklaus produced one of the nation's best golf courses, Reflection Bay, at the Lake Las Vegas resort.

Lake Las Vegas, NV Dateline March 19, 2010

When I originally wrote the post below last month, it was wiht great sadness over losing one of my favorite golf resorts in the nation, Lake Las Vegas.

Today, I have some good news.

While the Ritz Carlton hotel is still closing, apprently for good, and the exquisite Nicklaus designed Reflection Bay remains shuttered, the other Nicklaus course here, South Shore, is set to start receiving some public play. 

South Shore was the first course at LLV, hosted the Wendy’s 3-Tour Challenge, and has remained adamantly private for a decade. The course just announced a partnership with the Loews Lake Las Vegas, the other – and now the only – excellent hotel here to allow its guests access.

I have not played South Shore but have heard good things, and if Nicklaus did half as good a job as at Reflection Bay, it is worth playing. Lake Las Vegas may be hanging on by a thread, but at least it is hanging on!

Leaving Las Vegas

In the movie Leaving Las Vegas, Nicholas Cage drinks himself to death. For one of the world’s great golf resorts, it looks like binge building was the killer.

I loved Lake Las Vegas. It was anchored by the awesome Reflection Bay course, a perennial Top 100 on everyone’s list that in my humble – but expert – opinion, was tied with the Kiele Course at Kauai Lagoons as the very best of the hundreds of Nicklaus designs you could play. The second course, Tom Weiskopf’s The Falls, was not as good but did have one of the most dramatic three hole stretches in all of golf. The third layout, Tom Fazio’s Rainbow Canyon, never got beyond the initial earthmoving stages, and it is this course that symbolizes the current state of affairs at Lake Las Vegas: a ghost town.

About a year ago I heard they were shuttering The Falls to save money. Then a few months back, they closed Reflection Bay.

I was shocked, but figured that it might be temporary. After all, Vegas is a big golf destination, and frankly there still are not enough good courses. In a sea of mediocrity, the only Vegas course possibly better than Reflection Bay is Shadow Creek, at twice the price. This is a course that hosted the Wendy’s Three Tour Challenge for years and waas played by a Who’s Who of PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour stars. How Bali Hai and the Wynn Golf Club and Royal Links and their ilk can stay in business while the spectacular Reflection Bay cannot is beyond me, and a testament to the utter lack of comprehension of the golfers visiting Vegas.

Still, I hoped for a comeback, based largely on the fact that in addition to all those millions of annual casino visitors, there are two excellent resort hotels right at Lake Las Vegas, right at the course, the Ritz Carlton and the Loews.

Not anymore. Today I learned the Ritz is shutting down as well, the final nail in the coffin for this once grand golf resort.

This is a sad day for golf, not just because there are two less courses to play, but because of the rarity of a world class 36-hole resort, accompanied by luxury resorts and spas, simply disappearing. It’s like waking to find Torrey Pines or TPC Sawgrass gone.

Goodbye Lake Las Vegas. We hardly knew you.

The Golden Bear himself and yours truly, at the Grand Opening of the Moon Palace course way back in 2002.

I love the Rivera Maya as a travel destination, and explained why the region is so charming in my last post.

Now its time to look at the golf.

The course that got it all going on down here was the Jack Nicklaus Signature design at the Moon Palace resort. It was not the first course in the Yucatan by any means, but it was the first big time course, conceived not as a mere amenity but rather as an attraction. In short, it was a course designed to lure golfers – and it worked.

Nicklaus makes ample use of water hazards, which keeps the Moon Palace course interesting - and challenging.

I was at the grand opening in 2002, my first of several trips to the region, and at the time, it was what I expected an upscale 18-hole resort course to be. The holes are varied and interesting, with plenty of room to play but thick penal jungle if you stray beyond the ample fairways, and as was in vogue at the time, the greens were flattish and immaculate, often protected by sand or water.

I should mention that the Moon Palace is one of the many all-inclusive mega-resorts in the region, and it skews towards the upscale end of the model, with a wide variety of restaurants and bars, more than a dozen different eateries, and it really is all-inclusive. About the only things you can pay extra for are greens fees and spa services, while you can eat and drink everything imaginable, including wine and top shelf liquor, and even order 24-hour room service without spending an extra dime. And while the golf is sold at a surcharge, it too is all-inclusive: you cannot pay for food or drink at the clubhouse or on the course, and the beverage carts seem designed specifically to get players drunk, showing up every other hole with fresh, cold cervezas. In the US, if you are putting out, they wait for you. In Mexico, they just proactively swap out your half a warm beer for a full cold one. That’s what I call customer service.

All of this makes for a very pleasant golf experience, but the very best thing about the Moon Palace’s golf operation is the newest nine. A couple of years ago Nicklaus returned and expanded the place to 27-holes, adding the “Dunes” nine. Despite its name, you are not likely to mistake it for Scotland or Ireland, but it is noticeably different – and better – than the existing nines. The difference is obvious on the very first tee, and to reach it, you have to drive quite a ways from the clubhouse into suddenly hill terrain where you can see only the one hole flanked by high ridges. The topography on this nine is more dramatic, the landscape more natural, but most of all, in keeping with his new philosophy about limiting the changes technology has made in golf by making tougher greens, the putting surfaces are markedly different the other eighteen, with more severe undulations and tougher pin placements. This is the hardest nine to score on, but the additional challenge is a worthwhile trade for the better quality holes. I heartily endorse any combination of nines at Moon that includes the Dunes.

Everything in the Riviera Maya - including the courses - is conveniently close to the airport, a fact which you cannot forget while play golf.

Along with the new nine, the Moon Palace has opened a luxury enclave of golf villas that offer more sumptuous accommodations than the already well equipped hotel rooms, including in-room bars, whirlpool tubs and large terraces. Because the golf villas are located by the clubhouse and away from the main resort – which is huge – every guest gets his or her own street legal golf cart, which makes for some interesting late night rides to resort restaurants and night clubs, especially since it is really easy to get lost in this several thousand acre complex. Anecdotal evidence did clearly suggests that guests without golf carts are envious of those with, which might be enough reason to spring for the new golf villas.

The day it opened, the Moon Palace course became the best in the region, but almost immediately it attracted stiff competition, and more recent efforts surpassed the quality of the original 18. The new nine puts it right back in the thick of things, makes it a contender, and also offers the perfect option between “just” playing eighteen and a long day of 36. So compromise, play all 27, and get a full dose of golf in Mexico. All three nines end right in front of the clubhouse, and all three have a dramatic use of penal water alongside the greens on the final holes.

NEXT: Palace Resorts, which runs the Moon Palace, recently built a new stand alone Nicklaus Signature Corse about 15 mutes away, Riviera Cancun. It’s the very latest – and highest profile – addition to Yucatan golf and, surprise, I checked it out!

So you can imagine my shock when I returned from a writing trip yesterday and learned of his demise.

Well, not exactly.

What I returned to was a big pile of mail, including my media list copy of the new Golf Digest.

I was immediately struck by the somber funereal photo of Nicklaus occupying the full cover, his head bowed, eyes hooded and the dates 1950-29010 underneath. I pondered this memorial for a moment before realizing that the dates were not Jack’s life, but rather a “celebration” 60th anniversary issue of Golf Digest.

Nicklaus certainly is golf’s most important figure of the past six decades, its most dominant player, most prolific course designer and generally the game’s royalty and ambassador. But the photo of him on the cover bears little to no connection to more than a half century of golf, and the magazine would have been much better served with an action shot of one of his many winning puts, or better yet a montage of the Golden Bear alone or sharing the stage with the many other memorable golfers of the several eras since the 1950s, from Arnie to Tiger. Simply put, this cover is not just morbid, but also a patently stupid choice.

Remember, not so long ago the editor of Golf Week got fired for featuring Tiger Woods’ mock lynching.  To see the second worst golf magazine cover of our lifetime, click here.

I don’t think the funeral tone is a mere mistake. More like a not too subtle Freudian slip on behalf of the Golf Digest staffers, probably worried about their own mortality when the magazine is becoming rapidly and increasingly irrelevant as the sport’s best, most expert and most experienced journalists are increasingly found online.