Estrella del Mar

Estrella del Mar lies close to the resort city of Mazatlán on the Pacific coast of Mexico, less than ten kilometres from the international airport. The golf course is an integral component of an 850-acre gated residential development, which offers golfers the services of a John Jacobs Golf School & Academy in addition to its 18-hole layout.

Twenty years after it debuted in 1996, the Robert Trent Jones Junior-designed course was refurbished, with greens converted to salt-tolerant paspalum grass putting surfaces. Holes are routed around a number of water hazards – a combination of coastal lagoons and man-made ponds – with some of the fairways playing to greens set close to the sandy shoreline.

Highlight holes include the 137-yard 6th (the tee shot carries across a pond to the kidney-shaped green), the 547-yard 11th (the fairway snakes past a couple of small lakes on either side of the fairway), and the 399-yard 18th, which is an attractive par four finisher playing to a home green that’s framed by an ocean backdrop.