The golf-rich are getting richer in Cabo San Lucas

The three questions I’m asked most often:
1) Why don’t you have a real job?
2) Considering how much time you spend on the golf course, shouldn’t you be a better player?
3) What’s the best destination in the world?

Answering the first two questions might incriminate me, but I’m happy to respond to the third, and in a word, the answer is Cabo.

The reason is simple: Perfect weather. I love playing in Scotland and Ireland, but one must pack a steamer trunk full of sweaters, Gore-Tex and waterproofs to be adequately prepared. Conversely, Cabo San Lucas, on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, offers an unvarying excellence in temperature and sunshine almost all year long.

It’s not just the best, but also among the most expensive golf destinations in the world, with big-ticket courses like Cabo Del Sol, Palmilla and El Dorado. It is also incredibly beautiful—desert golf, ala Scottsdale or Palm Springs, but with amazing and often up-close views of the sparkling Sea of Cortez. It’s no wonder there are more and more golf projects in the offing.

One of the most interesting is at Querencia, the first private country club in the area and currently home to a Tom Fazio dazzler. The 1,900 acre community will soon offer its membership (and select vacationers) the opportunity to enjoy a second golf offering, designed by up-and-coming architect Gil Hanse. A 1989 Cornell graduate, Hanse was one of Tom Doak’s earliest students and represents a back-to-the-basics movement in golf course design. “The desert, mountains, elevation changes and other unspoiled elements of the topography lend themselves naturally to an interesting golf experience,” says Hanse, who recently won kudos from numerous PGA Tour pros for his sensitive remodeling of the TPC Boston.

The expansion of Querencia, already one of the Baja’s “must-play” destinations, proves that when it comes to the burgeoning golf scene in Cabo, the rich are getting richer.