But densely developed Cancun with plenty of hotels has been hurting golf, with only the recent Riviera Cancun to wow visitors. That makes the opening of this nine especially appealing – with plenty more to come.

On its 40th birthday, Teeth of the Dog remains the highest ranked course ever built in the Caribbean.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years, but that is exactly how long Teeth of the Dog, the most famous golf course in the Caribbean has been open.

When Pete Dye first designed the course, there was nothing but jungle on this 7,000-acre swath of the Dominica Republic’s southern  coastline, and much of the work to build the course was done by hand, with picks and axes and wheelbarrows. The tiny water filled ditch that bisects what is now the Links course at the resort was built by Dye as a canal to bring water to the site, which had no infrastructure whatsoever. It’s hard to imagine any golf course being built in this manner today, and impossible to imagine one by a name brand architect, but then Dye was not a name brand architect until after he built Teeth of the Dog and garnered international acclaim for it. It has never wavered as the highest ranked course in the Caribbean in every major magazine, and while he is loathe to admit it, he has inferred that it remains his all-time favorite, and he has a house alongside its fairways.

After Teeth of the Dog got built, with its famous series of holes not just on the coast but on the beach and very nearly in the ocean, the Casa de Campo resort came to be the biggest golf complex in the Caribbean, and among the biggest resorts period, and today it remains the gold standard that many newer competitors have tried and failed to match. Dye returned to build a second course, the Links, which frankly is not very good, and quite poorly named, then a third, the private La Romana Country Club, just for residents. Then there was a considerable gap before he returned to build another masterpiece, Dye Fore, set on stunning headlands overlooking the wild Chavon River, where scenes from Apocalypse Now were filmed. There are no other golf courses quite like this one, perched on the edge of oblivion, and honestly, I have thought since opening that Dye For is even better than Teeth of the Dog, which is really saying something.

Well it just got even better; 2-weeks ago Dye unveiled a third nine at Dye Fore, expanding the facility to 27 holes, and the resort to 63-holes, the first step towards splitting Dye Fore into two full blown courses. The new nine is called Dye Fore Lakes, and comes on the heels of a $40 million renovation of the rest of the resort last year.

Casa de Campo is simply a fantastic place to go and play golf. For the most part, it is run as an al-inclusive resort, with lodging in a variety of hotel rooms, villas, and lavish private homes, with numerous bars and restaurants dispensing free flowing food and booze throughout. The place is huge and self-contained and includes a vast state of the art shooting facility, equestrian center, world-class marina with its own retail and dining village, and most shockingly of all, an entire hilltop village built by stone artisans to resemble a Tuscan medieval town. It even has its own airport. At Casa de Campo, when you go to play golf it is hard to decide where to tee it up, and when you are not playing golf it is nearly impossible to choose from all the options of what to do next. The easiest choice is just to go, period, especially with the new nine.

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 may be the most beautiful golf hole on earth - but you have to go to Mexico to find it!

Quick, do a Google Search for “Mexico’s Best Golf Courses,” and in the Top 5 results you will see the special guest blog I did for the website of Delta Vacations.

I have long been a champion of golf in Mexico, which has among the highest average quality of courses of any country in the world, and my Delta blog is a handy quick and dirty overview of the best regions to go and the best courses in each. I’ve also covered Mexico a lot on my own blog, so to read more, click here, here, here or here.

But remember, whatever you do, if you got to Mexico, DO NOT BRING YOUR iPhone! This is going to be even worse if AT&T, who loves to screw its customers, succeeds in buying T Mobile.

Anyway, here’s why I did the guest appearance: Delta Vacations can be a pretty great deal for the traveling golfer. They are not alone. Other airline vacation sites, including Continental Vacations and United Vacations can help you get to the tee faster, cheaper and with more opportunities for free travel.

The layperson may not know this, but with few exceptions, the airlines typically do not run their own vacation sites, but rather sub them out to third party tour operators or large travel packagers. This gives the public the best of all worlds; access to below market plane fares coupled with a vast inventory of hotels, resorts and transportation providers, all offering the vacation operator low, negotiated bulk rates.

Think about this for a second: no matter how internet savvy you think you are, at the end of the day, does it make any sense for any hotel in the world to offer you a lower rate than the guy at Continental Vacations who is booking a hundred rooms with the same hotels, year in and year out. Nope.

Guess what? There's a lot to do off the course as well, like these Mayan ruins at Coba.

As an expert travel writer and very frequent traveler who almost always makes his own very detailed arrangements, for many years I was skeptical of “package” vacations. But last fall, I used Delta vacations for my trip to Munich’s 200th Oktoberfest, an awesome experience about which I have written several blogs, and posted lots of pictures. After having tried every possible alternative, the combination of the airfare, ground transfers and hotel was impossible to beat on my own, and unlike some consolidator and other below the radar fares, you not only get all your miles, you usually get bonus miles when booking with one of these airline vacation sites. As I have mentioned before, frequent flier miles are an increasingly valuable currency for the frequent or golf traveler, since if you can make “status” on an airline these days, it eliminates all the newfound charges for baggage, better seats and what not, which can really add up. Using an airline vacation site for your next trip won’t just save you money on the trip, it could help save you a hundred bucks or more on baggage fees on all your other trips going forward. And you could be that person sitting in the emergency row aisle seat who is already reading the paper when you finally get on and head to your crowded middle seat and fight for overhead space that is already taken.. Finally, this is not just true for the airline you frequent, but for all the airlines in its alliance, like Sky Team for Delta or Star Alliance for Continental. It just makes sense.

One more thing: if something goes wrong on the trip tor gets changed or I miss my flight, I want to be calling Delta Vacations to make the changes, not SomeGolfTrip.com.

In addition, these packages almost always include transfers, something a lot of people don’t think about. Flying into Cancun to play Mayakaoba? A cab is gong to cost you well over a hundred bucks roundtrip, but since you don’t pay till you get there, it is easy to not count that cost when comparing deals. Trust me, I’ve done the legwork and sites like Delta or Continental Vacations, which offers lots of golf packages here and abroad, might not have the best deal every single time, but they are definitely worth a look.

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.

Why do I believe AT&T regularly defrauds iPhone users? Because checking my email cost me more than my entire golf trip to Mexico.

Earlier this year I had the incredible pleasure of playing in the pro-am at the Mayakoba Classic, the only PGA Tour event in Mexico, on the Greg Norman designed El Camaleon course. I also played some other great courses in the Rivera Maya, stayed at posh hotels like the Fairmont Mayakoba, and drank lots of beers and margaritas. In short I had a wonderful time.

Until AT&T stepped in.

A couple of days after I got home, I got a text from AT&T telling me that the International Data plan on my iPhone had been suspended due to overuse. I was, frankly shocked. I was further shocked when they told me I had an incurred a bill that was more expensive than my entire golf trip to Mexico.

Why was I so surprised? Because I had diligently used exactly the method AT&T had told me to use to prevent this kind of thing from happening. It did not seem possible or reasonable. You see, there is a function built into the iPhone called My Wireless. When you hit it, it connects you for free directly with your AT&T account and shows your usage, how much you have used in the way of calls, texts and data, domestic and international, and how much is remaining. I checked this regularly while I was in Mexico, a relatively short trip, and was not even close to my limits. In fact, after I got the text from AT&T, two days after I had left Mexico, I checked it again from home and it showed that I had used less than 20 of my available – and prepaid – international data. I could not see what the problem was.

The problem was a cruel truth of the iPhone user: AT&T lies, and they lie a lot, and while I am sure their lawyers would see it differently, from where I sit, they intentionally defraud their customers and are complicit in criminal frauds perpetrated by their business partners outside the US.

That’s a pretty strong accusation, so let’s back up a minute.

As I mentioned in my last post about why the iPhone is not a good choice even for domestic travelers (it’s much worse internationally), I used to have a Blackberry. I had AT&T also, but I had an unlimited international data plan. I paid a hefty monthly fee, but I travel aboard a lot, and it gave me the piece of mind of knowing that I would never wake up to a totally illogical and implausible bill, like the more than $1300 AT&T said I owed them when I got home from Mexico, despite having evidence that I had used less than 20% of my data plan.

For years I was happy with my Blackberry, got my emails overseas, and in fact, it worked much better, regardless of billing plan, than the iPhone ever has. But after years of the same old Blackberry, I got seduced by the sexy iPhone and all its fun applications. Since I was already a longtime AT&T customer, switching was no problem. But first, I called AT&T to ask about international data, and was specifically transferred to their International office. I then asked if I would be able to get the same unlimited data plan I currently had once I switched to the iPhone.

Yep, no problem, same price, same unlimited data plan. Only thing was, I was buying my phone at Best Buy (no AT&T store in my rural neck of the woods at the time) and they can’t activate international plans. So the nice AT&T guy told me, buy the phone, switch the number, get it all set up and then call me back and we’ll activate your data plan.

So I did.

Big Lie Number One.

I called back, and the response was “what unlimited data plan. We don’t offer that for the iPhone.”

“But I called the other day…”

“Who did you speak to?”

I quickly learned that is business as usual with AT&T. They tell you things, promise things, then deny they ever having said them, apparently having expected you to tape the conversation.

It’s worth noting that AT&T also recently abolished its domestic unlimited plans, presumably because billing for usage is more profitable. Since these plans are grandfathered in current accounts, the only way to get existing users off of them is to have them switch devices, or should I say bait and switch. The fact that it was beneficial to them to have me leave my unlimited plan, and they lied to get me to do so, raises more suspicions.

Honestly, you would think someone whose job it is sell only international data plans for the iPhone would know what plans existed. So this time I was told that I could buy my choice of 20MB, 50MB, 100MB or some such array of international plan at various prices, most of which that were much higher than my old Blackberry unlimited plan. At this point I have already bought the phone for hundreds of dollars, switched my service and cancelled my Blackberry.

Now for the silver lining, or as I call it, Big Lie Number Two. The man told me that after reviewing my years of extensive international history with AT&T, I had never, on any trip, some up to two weeks long, approached even the lowest level of usage they offered, the 20MB plan, so I should just get that one. And he added, by using the My Wireless feature I could make sure I was not going over, and if it looked like I would, I call and up my data plan just for that month. Seemed like a good deal, huh?

Make that Big Lie Number Two and Three.

First off, the iPhone works different than the Blackberry and uses much more data, just connecting with the network and checking for emails. Even if you don’t receive or send any, just having it turned on churns through lots of data. AT&T knows this, so comparing a Blackberry user history the iPhone is like Apples to Oranges. Maybe not a big lie, a small one by their standards.

The big problem is that My Wireless does not work. Again AT&T knows this. By the way, this is not an application like Shazam or Fandango. This is an intrinsic built in function of the iPhone that comes whether you want it or not, a collaboration between Apple and AT&T, the only company it lets customers use for the phone. When I got the $1300+  bill and protested that I had religiously checked the My Wireless and that in fact it still showed plenty of available data days after my return from Mexico, AT&T was happy to explain why: it does not work. I was told it can take several weeks for the My Wireless to accurately reflect usage, by which time almost every customer will be back home, making it useless.

Not only does it not work, but by telling customers to use it to protect themselves against very onerous overcharges, knowing it will not give them remotely accurate information, AT&T is actively encouraging its customers to run up costly data bills. To me this is nothing less than fraud, pure and simple. Imagine you bought a digital camera and it had a flash built in. You ask and the rep from Nikon or Canon or Sony tells you, yes it has a flash. You buy it and go to use it. The flash is there, built right into the front of camera, the button is there, you were told you could use it, but it doesn’t work. You complain and find out that the manufacturer knew the flash didn’t work, built it in anyway, claims it works until you discover they are lying – and then they bill you more for alleged flashes you never used

To do some research I called a relative who is a longtime telecom exec and industry expert and he told me that overseas, AT&T gets their data usage information directly from the owner of the nearby cell tower, which in Mexico, can and often is, just about anyone. The owner of the tower can manipulate the data and not coincidentally, the more they say you used and the more they bill, the more money they make, and there is basically no oversight of these practices. Not to disparage Mexico, but it is a country often synonymous with corruption – the other day prison officials let prisoners out of jail and lent them cars and guns to go do some drug gang enforcement hits and then returned them to their cells. If this goes on, it’s reasonable to assume so does cell phone fraud.

So reasonable in fact, that at the time of my issues there was class action suit being put together by a California law school professor against AT&T for what appears to be obvious complicity in this widespread fraud. Just Google something like “Mexico iPhone fraud AT&T” and you will get hundreds of hits, all with similar horror stories. One was of a couple on a honeymoon cruise who kept their phone locked in the safe and checked it once during their trip for messages from home. In exchange for turning their phone on for a few minutes, they got a four digit bill from AT&T. These stories are rampant and mostly similar. It goes like this: you turn you data enabled iPhone on and whether you use it or not, the local cell tower claims you did, and AT&T eagerly helps them bill you thousands, often many thousands, of dollars. Experienced travelers swear up and down that the data usage is off the charts, far more than they have ever used on similar trips, but AT&T does not care. Of course you say, that is preposterous, I never made those charges, I’m not going to pay but AT&T doesn’t care. In all of the cases I read about they refused to settle or reduce the bills at all, even when people offered to pay substantial portions of the several thousand dollar bills.  They can ruin your credit, sick a collection agency on you, whatever it takes. After all, the more some Mexican local telecom defrauds you, the more AT&T makes.

At this point I had used my data plan all over the world, often on trips three times as long as my Mexico jaunt and never used more than tiny fraction of the ludicrous amount of data they claimed I used. I had even taken the same, data sucking iPhone to Mexico for the same length trip, but to the west coast, just months before, and used it the same way – I don’t watch movies or download pictures, just check my mail – and as usual, used very little of my available data. But for some reason, AT&T believes I went hog wild in the Riviera Maya and basically downloaded an amount equal almost to my entire desktop computer to my iPhone. I told a rep straight up, “You have years and years of my frequent international data usage, I’m a valuable customer who spends thousands of dollars year in and out with AT&T, you have this well known and widely publicized fraud issue in Mexico, and you are going to believe some local cell phone tower owner over me?” The answer of course, was yes.

I love the Riviera Maya, with awesome ruins like this pyramid at Coba. I'll go back, but never again will I use an iPhone there!

I kept asking for supervisor after supervisor and one said they would check with their fraud unit, only to come back and tell me they had no reports of any fraud in Mexico. Apparently they don’t have access to the internet, or to the hundreds of complaints and the pending class action lawsuit.

Only the problem is not just Mexico. It is most common there, but also has been reported in other countries, even places you expect to be safe, like Canada.

So obviously I was not going to pay $1300 I believed to be pure larceny. I asked how to dispute the bill, but was told I could not because I had not yet been billed. In fact, all of this was still theoretical. AT&T had alerted me of my alleged overuse and told me that I had run up $1300 in extra charges, but since I had not yet been billed for it, I didn’t actually owe them any money, and online my balance showed zero. So I mulled my options.

Then they shut off my domestic service. I pay separately for this plan, it is unique from the international plan, and as I just mentioned, not only was I not late in paying them, I didn’t even owe them anything. So I called and said that.

“We shut it protect you form incurring any more charges.”

“I can’t incur anymore charges – my domestic plan is unlimited, I can use as much as I want, and my international plan is already shut off.”

“We shut it protect you form incurring any more charges.”

“But I can’t incur any more charges. It is not possible.”

“We shut it protect you form incurring any more charges.”

“You can’t shut my service. I’m not late and have zero balance.”

“If you prepay half of the estimated $1300 we will restore your service.”

“But I haven’t even been billed it yet.”

“I know.”

This sir what is known in Mafia parlance as a shakedown. It is also, according to my state Public Service Board, which regulates phone companies like AT&T, illegal. Again, AT&T knows this. In general, no utilities can shut service to customers easily, even customers who are behind in their bills, But certainly not to customers who don’t owe anything. It was blackmail, pure and simple to try to collect on the original, and I strongly believe, fraudulent international bill – which I hadn’t been billed yet.

Big Lie Number Five.

So I filed a complaint with my Public Service Board, and quickly got a call from some Vice President’s office at AT&T. In the end we were able to work out a settlement which substantially lowered my alleged bill, though I maintain that I should have owed nothing. In the end, it was easier to pay a smaller amount than to try to fight in court. To AT&T’s benefit, it always is.

So this is why I think AT&T basically operates as a criminal enterprise, routinely lying to its customers even on very specific points, using illegal termination of service, muscle, threats and blackmail to get paid and generally operating in gray areas of the law. If you’ve been following the WikiLeaks headlines, you know how unpoliceable international data and telecommunications are. I suspect AT&T knows that the vast majority of its customers will pay when faced with the threat of no liner beige able to buy a home or even get another phone account from a competitor once they ruin your credit, know that most people can’t fight them in court and know that rarely will government agency intercede on the consumer’s behalf. Had they not made the mistake of crossing from international to intrastate commerce in the very pro-consumer state I live in and earning a regulatory slap on the wrist, I might still be fighting them.

The bottom line is this – if you travel internationally and want to get emails or surf the web, do not buy an iPhone, no matter what. If you already own an iPhone, and you have international data service, cancel it. That’s’ what I did. I now have a very expensive toy that does not serve the purpose for which I bought it, and technologically, I’ve gone 8 years backwards to carrying a laptop around again to get email. Because no matter how diligent you are, no matter what you do, there is no way to protect yourself. Simply turning on the phone outside the US can cost you more than new car. That’s too much risk for any email or convenience.

The good news is that now you can buy a new set of clubs or book that Perry Golf trip to Scotland guilt free. If your spouse complains, just say “Honey, it was cheaper than using the iPhone.”

So I will either wait until my plan expires or get frustrated and pay yet another onerous fee to leave AT&T, then go back to Blackberry with another carrier and put this behind me as an unfortunate run in with society’s bad side, like getting mugged.

I highly recommend visiting the ancient Mayan city of Tulum, playing golf at Mayakoba, and boycotting AT&T!

Greg Norman tees off at El Cameleon, where he is the host of the Mayakoba Classic, Mexcio's only PGA Tour event - and pro-am.

One detail I forgot to mention in my last post about pro-ams and pairing parties.

Most regular season PGA Tour events have between 132-156 players in the field, but the pro-am typically only has room for 50-55 groups, since the four and fivesomes play much slower.

PGA Tour rules stipulate that the entrants in the pro-am are based on their world ranking that week and the highest ranked 50-55 players in the event HAVE to participate in the pro-am. There are rare exceptions, and at one event I was in Fred Couples got excused from the pro-am because of a hand injury, but for the most part, you are going to be choosing from the crème de la crème of that week’s events, so while you might get a journeyman, it is pretty rare to get a nobody. In my opinion, it is so hard to get your card that there are no “nobodies” on the Tour, but if there are players who never make the cut and don’t win any money, they won’t be in the pro-am with you.

You never know what PGA Tour greats you might run into on the pro-am circuit. Greg Norman is the host of Mexico's only PGA Tour event, played on a course he designed, El Cameleon at Mayakoba, and here he hits a tee shot to show how it should be done.

Last post I explained why, if you can afford it, you should absolutely play in a pro-am at some point in your golf life. It’s just an incredibly fun experience. Now I am going to walk you through the experience so you are prepared.

The following is based on the typical PGA Tour pro-am, but will be similar for pro-ams on the Champions and LPGA Tours, while those on the Nationwide or other tours may be a little bit less ornate.

A handful of the flashier pro-ams, like the Verizon Heritage at Harbor Town on Hilton Head, have extra golf before the main event, but that is the exception, not rule. On the Champions Tour there are two full pro-ams most weeks because the events are only three days, not four, but in general, the pro-am day is always Wednesday, with the actual tournament starting Thursday, so for the most part, your pro-am experience kicks into high gear around cocktail hour on Tuesday, with the “Pairings Party.”

Typically held at the clubhouse or a nearby hotel, usually the official host where many Toru players stay, this is cocktails followed by a banquet style dinner. Sometimes it includes the check-in, and if not, is the second registration option for those how missed an earlier registration session. You will typically get credentials and maybe some swag, like a shirt and a dozen balls, thought most of the good stuff comes at the actual pro-am. You will probably get your tournament passes, parking pass and pro-am credential, usually a belt medallion like the tour pros use for tournament access, which you need to get in and makes a great souvenir/money clip. No matter how drunk you get at the party, do not lose these!

The main event is the player draft. Unfortunately, some pro-ams, like the one at Mayakoba, have gone to pre-selection process where the “pairings” simply means they announce who you are playing with. This makes things faster but cuts out the fun and drama.

The norm is this: each group of amateurs, 3 or 4 per pro depending on the event, is assigned a number. A big board on the stage shows all the available pros and their tee times, which typically are divided into two sessions, AM (7-9:30 or so) and PM (12-2:30 or so). They pull numbers out of a hat, and each team has something like 30 seconds or a minute to choose a pro, so usually your team will want to make a list of choices at least 10 or 15 players deep so you are ready. If your team does not have someone at the pairing party you will get the last kid picked! If you don’t get picked until late and all your players are gone you can scramble to readjust your wish list. Seeing amateurs, usually somewhat impaired by free booze, huddled over their sheets like the NFL draft, is an interesting sight!

There is a perception that the top players are impossible to get, but this is not true. Usually the main tournament sponsor will have 1-2 automatic picks, and if there is a secondary sponsor, they might have one as well, but that is usually it. When Tiger was sponsored by Buick, if he played at the Buick Open or Invitational, he’d be locked up and your chances would be nil. But at the Verizon for instance, Verizon gets only one pick, and it is the defending champion, so if Tiger is playing (he has) and he didn’t win last year, he is up for grabs, along with everyone else in the usually very strong field. However at this event they do it a bit differently, picking both a team of amateurs and a pro randomly and matching them so there is no drafting.

At the Canadian Open last year, Mike Weir and Anthony Kim were taken by sponsors, but everyone else, including John Daly and several other Major champs, were available. You can get current big name players – at the FBR in Scottsdale two yeas ago I got Geoff Oglivy, US Open Champion and then world Top 10, and you can often get big name players who are not currently doing that well, like when my team drafted Stuart Appleby in the Viking Classic last year. Many teams end up “settling” for journeyman players, but in my experience these have been the most fun to play with, and if you happen to get a pro who is an ass – and it happens all too often – you still have a great story afterwards.

So that’s how the pairings party works. Some teams just want big names, others care more about the tee time, others just want to have fun, but anything can happen and usually does. You leave the pairing party with your pro selection, your tee time, your credentials and a nice buzz on.

The Big Show is tomorrow!

JJ Henry is known as one of the nicest guys on the PGA Tour and it's true. I know because he was my pro-am partner in the 2010 Mayakoba Golf Classic, the only PGA Tour event in Mexico.

Love golf? Sure you do or you wouldn’t be reading this.

If you love golf, there are a few things that get on your bucket list, things passionate golfers need to do at least once in their lifetime.

Go across the pond and play The Old Course at St. Andrews, plus any other number of great links in Scotland and Ireland.

Experience one of America’s quadrilateral of great golf resorts, easily the best in the world: Pebble Beach, Pinehurst, Kohler, or Bandon Dunes.

Play in a pro-am.

That’s it – everything else you do in your life of golf travel is gravy.

Why is playing in a pro-am such a big deal? Let me count the ways.

1. It is the closest you will ever get to experiencing what it’s like to play on Tour (any tour – there are pro-ams for the PGA, Champions, LPGA even Nationwide, something for every budget and destination).

Hundreds of thousands of golfers have played Tour venue courses, but it not nearly the same thing. Go to TPC Scottsdale and play it right now and you will find a resort friendly course. Go play in the pro-am of the FBR Open (now Waste Management) as I did last year, and you will find thick gnarly rough, roped off tees, greens and fairways, the pressure of tens of thousands of spectators, cameras, leader boards, stands, caddies (it’s usually just carts) and most of all, the fastest greens you have ever experienced, 14 on the stimpmeter the day I played.

Playing most courses used for Tour events, even Majors,  means playing the same course the pros played on. Playing in a pro-am means paying it the way the pros play it. Huge difference. Why do you think hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, a legitimate single digit handicapper, could not break 100 in the recent pre-US Open exhibition at Pebble Beach under Open conditions, when most days he could go to Pebble and maybe break 80?

2. You get to play with a PGA Tour (Or LPGA, etc.) professional. Draw a big name like John Daly or Mike Weir or Ernie Els and it will be a great story, but draw any touring pro and you will see the best golf of your lifetime. You can’t appreciate it on TV or even form the gallery. The drives sound like a supersonic jet taking off in your living room. I just played in the pro-am of the Reno Tahoe Open last week with Kevin Streelman, currently ranked an even 100th on the PGA Tour money list, a guy lots of fans have never heard of. Nonetheless, he played essentially a perfect round of golf, hitting every fairway and all but three greens (two of those missed were second shots on par-5s, and just barely), making half a dozen birdies and no mistakes. It’s a different game, and one worth seeing.

3. The Best Stories: Every single pro-am I have played in (six PGA Tour events to date, plus the pro-am at the British Senior Open at Royal County Down!) left me with funny stories, about my playing partners, the pros, the caddies, stories good and bad. Some of the pros are standoffish, but some are eager to please: a golf writer friend of mine got paired with Fred Couples, and Couples spent ten minutes giving him a quick bunker play lesson. What’s the chance of that happening in any other setting? The pros and their caddies will give you distance and if asked, read putts. When I hit a 5-wood from 215 out on a long par-4 to 8 feet for a birdie try, Stuart Appleby, my partner, could not wait to give me the read. The read was perfect, I made it, and I probably would have missed on my own.

3. Be a VIP. You are inside the ropes, wearing the belt badge the pros wear, often with a caddie, having access to the otherwise off limit clubhouse – for “Players” only. Again, it’s the closest you will be to being out on Tour yourself.

4. Party!!! Pro-ams are all about the parties. There is always one the night before, the drawing party, to pair amateurs and pros. There is always one that starts the minute you walk off 18. There is breakfast, lunch and dinner the day of the event, and free flowing booze, usually in the same private clubhouse bar the [players can use, so you can overlook 18 and watch the other groups come in as you sip your champagne.

5. Swag. Free stuff, and lots of it. You always get an event golf shirt, hat and dozen balls, and then there’s all kinds of other stuff. At the FBR, the pro-am included a couple of thousand of dollars worth of gifts, from Oakley sunglasses to a bottle of rare Johnnie Walker Blue whiskey to a travel humidor and a couple of complete golf outfits, pants, shirts, shorts, even belts. At the Canadian Open I got a new Taylor Made R9 driver and Adidas shoes. At the Viking Classic, I fittingly got Viking gourmet products including a commercial frying pan, carving knife and stainless steel toaster. At Hilton Head’s Heritage I got a leather travel bag, bottle of wine, bottle of vodka, and a coupon for  several hundred dollar shopping spree in a tented mini-mall that candled everything from sunglasses to Cole Haan dress shoes. The Reno Tahoe Open had a similar clothing shopping spree, plus Oakleys, Nike golf shoes, and a Bushnell laser rangefinder. At the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico I got a travel garment bag, wine, a cigar humidor and cutter, a wedge, and a bunch of clothes.

6. Entourage. You also get plenty of stuff for your friends and spouse. Hell your wife, husband or buddy can even be your caddie, giving them their own once in a lifetime experience. All pro-am packages include VIP clubhouse passes for the actual 4-day tournament, plus sky box tickets, extra general admission tickets, valet parking, everything you need to treat a large group of friends right.

7. Prizes. Okay you can’t count on this because you might not win, but with handicaps and a lucky pro draw you never know. I finished in the money twice and I’m not very useful on the golf course. At Reno we just got crystal plates, but when my team took second in the celebrity pro-am the day before the main pro-am at the FBR, we each got a gift certificate for a custom set of Ping clubs (I donated mine, thank you very much) and even more free stuff. There are usually also random drawings for door prizes.

There's no guarantee that you will win a prize by playing in a pro-am - or get to meet Miss Nevada. But then again, you might just do both - our team did! Photo: Mike Buteau

8. Other extras: While most pro-ams are one day affairs with a party the night before, there are exceptions. At the Heritage on Hilton Head, one of the best, the package includes a practice round Monday on Harbour Town, where the Wednesday pro-am is, and then another am-am tournament on a local course Tuesday, complete with more swag and more prizes, making it a 3-day event – plus the tournament itself.

I hope that’s enough reasons why you should play in a pro-am.

Next I’ll give you the lowdown on the experience and details, then tell you how and where to go try it yourself.

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!