Cancun (El Tinto)

Nick Price, the three-time Major winner from Zimbabwe, has around a dozen golf course design credits to his name, including collaborative ventures with established architects such as Ron Fream (Gramacho in Portugal), Tom Fazio (McArthur in Florida) and Steve Smyers (Royal Harare in Zimbabwe, Heartland Crossing in Indiana and Four Streams in Maryland).

Nick’s also completed solo projects at Punta Blanca in the Dominican Republic, Vaal de Grace in South Africa and here at Cancun Country Club, which is actually his second Mexican golf course, having designed the 18-hole layout at Grand Coral Riviera Maya (50 kilometres further south along the Quintana Roo coast) a year before El Tinto’s debut in 2012.

Originally called the South course when it opened, El Tinto is the first of two planned 18-hole layouts within a massive 1100-acre residential development located next to the international airport and just a 15-minute drive from both downtown Cancun and the city’s hotel zone. Open to the public, the course can be stretched to a whopping 7,439 from the championship tees.

Fairways were carved from the natural mangrove vegetation on the property and the routing of two returning nines is arranged so that each hole is only revealed upon arrival, offering a round of golf in almost total seclusion. With the coastline just a couple of kilometres away, Caribbean Sea breezes are another natural element for golfers to contend with here.