One of my favorite golf destinations is Cabo San Lucas, in Mexico. My family has been vacationing there now for about a decade. On my most recent trip, I played Quivira for the second (and third) time. On the drive into our rented condo, I was blown away about how much new construction there was along the touristy "corridor" but when I got to the area where Quivira is located, it was even more surprising. The condo we were staying in had not been built when last I played the golf course, and there were two new resorts going in as well, which had replaced the old 17th hole. Therefore, the routing changed and a new, now 18th hole was built higher up the hill in a less "desirable" hotel location. The former finishing golf hole was now the first hole.
The middle of the golf course sends the golfer around the lighthouse into a vision of what Cabo golf used to be: sweeping vistas over wind-swept dunes, bordered by cactus and desert. However, the first time I played here, that's all there was. Now, there is grading, and walls and other items indicating that another resort is going in that part of the golf course. This strongly reminds me of what Diamante Dunes used to be. I played that again this trip, and some of my old pictures are the remnants of those sweeping views, now replaced by two hotels and mansions. That has accompanied a precipitous fall in the world rankings for that golf course and I imagine the raw majesty of Quivira will soon, sadly, suffer a similar fate, even though both golf courses are incredible in their own right.
That all being said, I don't want to be a hypocrite. It is people like me that create the demand for Cabo golf (and yes, I know golf courses already change any environment) that send developers into a crazy, to make money and trade in the aspects of what drew people to area, for getting more people to get a less pristine product. That's always the major conundrum, like with national parks: how many people do you let see them vs letting them be and stay wild. The world was created for us to enjoy it, but at the same time, we have a tendency to destroy it by over-using it. I hate getting political, so don't read too much into this, it's just a musing over watching the Cabo golf scene change over the last decade. The golf courses are still fabulous, the views just keep changing for the worse, which harms the pure golf enthusiast in me. However, I don't plan on stopping golfing or playing in Cabo any time soon either.
The middle of the golf course sends the golfer around the lighthouse into a vision of what Cabo golf used to be: sweeping vistas over wind-swept dunes, bordered by cactus and desert. However, the first time I played here, that's all there was. Now, there is grading, and walls and other items indicating that another resort is going in that part of the golf course. This strongly reminds me of what Diamante Dunes used to be. I played that again this trip, and some of my old pictures are the remnants of those sweeping views, now replaced by two hotels and mansions. That has accompanied a precipitous fall in the world rankings for that golf course and I imagine the raw majesty of Quivira will soon, sadly, suffer a similar fate, even though both golf courses are incredible in their own right.
That all being said, I don't want to be a hypocrite. It is people like me that create the demand for Cabo golf (and yes, I know golf courses already change any environment) that send developers into a crazy, to make money and trade in the aspects of what drew people to area, for getting more people to get a less pristine product. That's always the major conundrum, like with national parks: how many people do you let see them vs letting them be and stay wild. The world was created for us to enjoy it, but at the same time, we have a tendency to destroy it by over-using it. I hate getting political, so don't read too much into this, it's just a musing over watching the Cabo golf scene change over the last decade. The golf courses are still fabulous, the views just keep changing for the worse, which harms the pure golf enthusiast in me. However, I don't plan on stopping golfing or playing in Cabo any time soon either.
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