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.

For centuries Tulum has boasted some of Mexico's finest Mayan ruins. Now it has Mexico's newest golf course.

Loyal readers know I am a big fan of Mexico’s all-inclusive golf resorts and their all-inclusive approach to golf, with cart girls (and cart boys) who seem devoted solely to serving as much booze as possible, along with chips, sandwiches and whatever else your heart delights, all included in the greens fees. This is a refreshing change from the usual golf course F&B rip-off and represents one of the unsung bargains in golf, along with a fun experience, and helped make Mexico one of the top choices for my Eat, Pray, Love alternative, Eat, Drink, Golf.

Now I have an insider secret for you to save lots of pesos if you act fast.

There is  new upscale all inclusive resort in Tulum, part of the Riviera Maya, a top choice  already for both golf and general tourism in Mexico, and as I have mentioned before, Tulum is also home to some of the most impressive Mayan ruins, as it was the only Mayan city ever built on the coast. To read more of my pieces on the joys of golf in the Mayan Riviera, click here, here, here or even here.

Anyway, the new resort is the 700+ acre Gran Bahia Principe Golf Resort & Spa community (from the well established all-inclusive Bahia Principe group), which includes the brand new Gran Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an Condo Hotel, which is a mouthful. The notable highlight is the quietest new golf course South of the border, a Robert Trent Jones II 27-hole design plus a 9-hole par-3 course.

Behind this entrance lies one of the best deals in golf!

Right now, 100 condos are available for rent at Sian Ka’an, and the first 18 and the executive course are open. All-inclusive rates at the condo hotel vary but are great deals (as low as $60 per night!), though the website is mainly devoted to sales, and booking is tricky. Alternatively, Bahia Principe operates three full-featured all-inclusive resorts in the immediate area, and is currently offering all guests unlimited free golf on the new course.

Yes, you heard right: unlimited free golf! Believe me, this is not normal, despite the term “all” inclusive.

But you do not have to stay at one of these to enjoy the bargains. Any visitor to Mexico can take advantage of the grand opening special, a daily fee visitor rate of just $65 per person, including cart, golf and yes, everything you can eat and drink. I can’t say it any better than the press release which describes the included extras as:

“ex. Sandwiches, sodas, beers, whisky, tequila.”

PS: If you do go to Mexico, remember, DO NOT BRING YOUR iPhone!

El Cameleon's designer, Greg Norman, "The Great White Shark," shows how you hit a ball so it hurts, during the course grand opening about five years ago.

Mayakoba is the only golf resort I visited that is not all-inclusive. In fact, it’s at the whole other end of the spectrum from all-inclusive. It is a large master-planned development full of homes and to date, three independent hotels/resorts, ranging from luxury to ultra-luxury. In other words, it ain’t cheap, in dollars or pesos.

Two decades ago, Spain’s largest construction company, OHL, acquired a lot of raw – and I mean raw – land in the Yucatan Peninsula, including one unique 600-acre plot of thick mangrove forests and dense limestone along the gorgeous coastal stretch south of Cancun, along the 70 miles of blazing white beaches now known as the Riviera Maya, which was booming. OHL’s parcel was as tough a construction site as one could imagine, but the visionary company saw very expensive potential, and a billion dollars and 8 years later, Mayakoba’s infrastructure was done. Nicknamed to be the “Venice of Mexico,” it largely replaces internal roads with an intricate system of deep canals carved from the limestone, linking the hotels, their associated spas, restaurants, beach clubs, and the golf club, though in reality the canals and the gorgeous mahogany boats are used mainly for resort tours and guests travel mainly by hotel shuttle.

A flashy, futuristic clubhouse situated behind the 18th green is a reminder that Mayakoba has firmly positioned itself as THE deluxe golf resort in eastern Mexico.

This was my second visit to Mayakoba, and the first since the other hotels came on line (it debuted with the Fairmont, which also runs the golf course in the brand’s typically efficient and satisfying style).

The highlight is the Greg Norman designed El Cameleon golf course, (the Chameleon), named for the way its appearance keeps changing drastically. The first and second holes feature unusual hazards in the middle of the fairways, cenotes, or limestone sinkholes, essentially gaping cave entrances. The next sections of the sprawling layout include jungle, mangrove forest, canyon and coastal stretches, living up to its name with a little bit of everything, all beautiful.

This gaping crater in the middle of the first fairway is a cenote, or a sinkhole in the limestone peninsula that is a trademark geologic feature of the Yucatan. You will note how skillfully the author maximized his tee shot wihtout losing it!

It’s not Norman’s best work, nor is it the best in Mexico, but it is very nice resort course that is the best in the Yucatan, unless you refer the rawer, desert-esque challenge of Nicklaus new Riviera Cancun, which stands on about equal footing in terms of quality, but with a much more penal feel. Mayakoba is also as first class as it gets here, both on and off the course.

The one weakness of Mayakoba is part of its alleged strength: by trying to keep cars out of the complex, and keep the resorts separate and the vegetation wild, the developers have created a very spread out place where it can take forever to get anywhere, and going to eat at one of the other hotels sometimes feels like you are going all the way into Playa del Carmen – the opposite of a self contained, relaxing resort experience. The have gone so far as to utilize two way one-lane roads on a permanent basis, like at a construction site with a flagman, painfully waiting your turn in each direction.  They need to widen the roads, maybe pave them, and accept the fact that you need cars to get around. Still, this is easily the best assembly of upscale lodgings in the region, with several hotels here that stand toe to toe with any other in the region. There is more in the way of dining, drinking and beach options than anyplace else too. In order of decadence, the options are Banyan Tree, Rosewood, Fairmont plus rental residence pool. There is supposed to be a Viceroy hotel being built, and room across the street for a second, equal sized development that has garnered rumors of a Nick Faldo designed course.

As El Cameleon "morphs" it touches the edge of the sea twice, both on nifty par-3s.

Bottom line is that staying at Mayakoba is for the deep pocketed travelers who prefer a traditional luxury vacation experience to the region’s more common all-inclusive, and the golf at Mayakoba is a must for any player popping down to the Yucatan.

Next stop? China!

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.

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!

PGA Tour player JJ Henry calculates the yardage for his tee shot at the Mayakoba Classic, the only PGA Tour event played in Mexico.

Just a couple of year ago, before the international financial crisis hit, the Mayan Riviera, as the 100 mile coastal stretch south of Cancun in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is known, has become our hemisphere’s version of Dubai.

Luxury hotels could not open fast enough, including such high end Asian chains as Mandarin Oriental and Banyan Tree, which interestingly chose this are for its first venue into the Americas. Not to be outdone, companies closer to home like deluxe Rosewood jumped in, joined by Fairmont and Viceroy. Then there are a handful of the most exclusive all-inclusive resorts on earth, including one of two outposts of Grand Velas, the first all-inclusive ever to garner AAA’s 5-diamond rating.

Even the PGA Tour got caught up in this fever, bring Mexico’s first and only Tour stop, the Mayakoba Classic, to the region, where it was contested again last week.

In short, the Riviera Maya was sizzling, and it has long been one of my very favorite destinations, offering plenty of golf and a whole lot more. Last time I was there was when I was down for the grand opening of Greg Norman’s high profile El Cameleon course, and at least half a dozen new golf courses were on the drawing board, including a 36-hole TPC complex, Mexico’s first. So after the economy tanked and investment hit the skids, I went back to see how things were going.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Sure, some projects are on hold, and while the billboards for the TPC community are still up, it seems impossible to get any info on the project. Likewise, a new resort from Capella, a new ultra-luxury brand form the guy who ran Ritz Carlton, complete with a high-end Rees Jones course, is taking a very long time to open. But the existing golf courses are thriving, one has expanded from 18-27 holes since the last time I was there, and one notable new one, a Jack Nicklaus Signature course which has gotten very little attention but deserves more, opened in the last year.

The ruins at Tulum, the only city the Mayan civilization ever built on the coast, are just one of the many spectacular sites in this part of Mexico.

What makes the Rivera Maya, I my humble opinion, one of the world’s great tourist destinations?

For starters, it is easy to get to, with lots of flights to Cancun’s modern international airport from all over the US and especially from the entire East coast, easier than anywhere in the Caribbean.

Secondly, it truly has something for everyone, and these are its major charms:

- Incredible Mayan ruins, including towering pyramids. This is the kind of thing you would normally have to go to Peru’s Machu Picchu or Guatemala or Cambodia to see, really impressive stuff with several sites to choose from. The biggies are Tulum, Chichen Itza and Coba, but there are plenty of smaller ones.

Carved from the jungle, the Mayan city of Coba features towering pyramidal structures rivaling any in the Western Hemisphere.

- The word’s second largest barrier reef (after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef), just offshore, offers superlative snorkeling, plenty of cruises, and truly world-class SCUBA diving. In particular, the drift diving off of the island of Cozumel is the stuff of legends.

- An incredible assortment of hotels and resorts of ever style and at every price point: lots of all-inclusives, holes in the wall, lavish resorts, on the beach, in the jungle, in town, truly something for every taste and budget.

- Great attractions and activities: Mayan themed eco-adventure parks like Xcaret are fun rather than hokie, there are ATV trips, horseback riding, zip lines, parasailing, all sorts of activities.

- The towns of Playa del Carmen, the heart and soul of the Riviera Maya, and Tulum (near the ruins) are wonderful beachfront towns that despite the crowds still have real Mexican charm, lots of shopping, eating and nightlife, and are very much worth exploring – or staying in.

- Cenotes. You kind of have to see them to understand, but the entire Yucatan Peninsula is made of thick limestone, and there is water in the form of underground rivers leading to the sea beneath much of it. Cenotes are basically giant round sinkholes in the limestone, some dry, others reaching all the way to underground rivers. These make the ultimate swimming holes, and there are many with rope swings and ladders you can cool off in, often teeming with fish, sort of like swimming in an aquarium. Divers can even travel underground for one cenote to he next. It is definitely worth taking a dip in one, and golfers will encounter dry – but still penal – versions on many area golf courses.

The Yucatan's cenotes are the ultimate fish-filled swimming holes!

-Food and drink. I happen to love food everywhere in Mexico, and the Mayan Riviera is no exception. Not as fish-centric as the west coast, it still has plenty of good seafood, plus lots of the dishes us Yankees are familiar with, tacos and fajitas and the like. Food is fresh, good and cheap. The going price for four beers – we always order four – is 100 pesos, or about $7.70. Try that from the beverage cart in Scottsdale!

Next post, I will visit the Mayan Riviera’s golf in detail.