Quivira Golf Club

Jack Nicklaus worked on his first ever Latin American project in 1993 when he laid out the Arroyo and Mountain nines at Palmilla Golf Club. Since then, he’s been the designer of choice for many developers in Mexico, constructing more than twenty courses across the country.

At the end of 2014, the Golden Bear completed work on Quivira, his sixth Los Cabos layout, which is located on a truly stunning property at the end of the Baja peninsula, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Focal point of an 1,850-acre luxury resort, this fabulous 18-hole layout is reputed to have taken around eight years to construct at a cost of $40 million.

“This is one of the great pieces of property in the world,” Nicklaus said. “We tried to create some excitement on the mountain and in the dunes, and I believe we’ve created a golf course that plays as spectacular as it looks.” With ocean views on all eighteen holes, Quivira has more coastal exposure than any other course in the region, even though a number of holes twist their way through dunes and desert.

A three-quarters of a mile ride is required to reach the short par four 6th, as the cart path crosses arroyo-spanning bridges on a switchback ride up the side of a cliff to arrive at the tee. Measuring only 310 yards, it’s also rated stroke index 1 as it’s fraught with danger from start to finish.

Perched almost 300 feet above the waves crashing onto the rocks below, the tee plays down to a sliver of fairway that clings to the side of the granite cliffs before falling further to a small green that somehow defies gravity by not falling off the precipice onto the beach below – a truly stunning hole that’s one of Jack’s best ever designs.

The course was re-sequenced at the end of 2022. The former par four 18th is now the 1st. To gain access to this hole, golfers now exit the north side of the driving range and follow a signposted cart path and crossing of the main road to arrive at the first tee. The holes thereafter follow suit, with the original 1st now the 2nd and so on.

A round at Quivira now concludes where the old 17th ended, with a new finishing hole that’s been built to replace a hole lost to a new development. It’s a relatively short par four that doglegs right around a large sandy waste area to a three-tiered putting surface that’s around 100 feet long and barely 30 feet wide – so no easy home green to finish here!