Buenaventura

Situated around a two-hour drive to the southwest of Panama City, the course at Buenaventura is an 18-hole Nicklaus Design layout that’s set within a large residential development on the Pacific coast of Panama, in the province of Coclé.

The course measures a massive 7,324 yards from the back markers and it’s been turfed with Paspalum Platinum grass, known for its tolerance to salt water irrigation, which is a major factor for the club’s eco credentials.

More than three hundred trees were transplanted during construction, which ticks another conservation box, as does the use of large waste bunkers areas on almost half the holes, greatly reducing the acreage of irrigation on the fairways.

Water comes into play on more than half the holes, most significantly at the par four 1st (setting the tone for the round), at the par fives on holes 5 and 12, and to the left of the right doglegged 18th.

The club first hosted the Lexus Panama Classic professional tournament on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica in 2014, an event won by Argentinian Julian Etulain with a seventeen under par total of 271, two strokes better than his compatriot Gato Zarlenga.