lackbook teeing off cabo on the upswing New and improved golf courses in Los Cabos, Mexico – including Tiger Woods’s design debut – are adding to the southern Baja peninsula’s greens appeal. By Thomas Dunne In 1897, Horace Hutchinson, a twotime British Amateur golf championturned-journalist, published what could be described as the game’s first coffee-table book. British Golf Links is notable for its photography – scores of striking images that give us a clear idea of what Victorian-era golf was like. In a word, it was rough. On holes like “Sandy Parlour” at England’s Royal Cinque Ports or “The Maiden” at Royal St. George’s, the line between golf course, beach and broken ground was provisional and at times blurred beyond recognition. The book’s ancient images came to mind while teeing off on the par-five 17th hole of the Dunes Course at Diamante (diamantecabosanlucas.com), a private golf and real-estate community just north of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Winds were heavy, and the agitated air gave a sense that the ribbon of fairway unfurling on the far side of the beach might be a mirage. The green seemed impossibly distant, an Alhambra on a high ridge, its approach guarded by serrated slopes. Many great holes have been built all over the world in the past two decades, a time marked by creativity in golf architecture not seen since the interwar period. But few feel as timeless – even mystical – as the 17th at Diamante. The Dunes Course, which was created by the US PGA Tour star Davis Love III, opened in 2009. It’s easy to see why it has since received widespread acclaim. Besides the aforementioned 17th, holes like the long par-three second, with its green surrounded by an amphitheatre of sand, endure in the memory. Diamante’s duneland is as spectacular as any of the famed links of the UK. The back nine should come to be regarded as one of the world’s best B sides, especially when one considers that it’s still evolving. This year the club will replace the 12th and 13th – a pair of so-so inland holes that broke up the rhythm of the round – with two more strand-side marvels on land that wasn’t available when the routing was planned eight years ago. illustration Olaf Hajek 26 CENTURION-Magazine.com CONTACT CENTURION SERVICE FOR BookingS
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