Mayakoba Golf Classic is a great consolation for majority of PGA Tour players

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Have you ever wondered what life is like for those PGA Tour pros who don’t get to play in the World Golf Championships events and have to play in a second-tier tournament? Well, if the Mayakoba Golf Classic is any indication, it ain’t bad.

Sure, they’re not getting the lion’s share of attention in a couple of weeks when the 64 available top players in the world tee it up in the WGC-Accenture Match Play, but they still get TV coverage (Golf Channel), a decent purse and a resort location that has to be the envy of all their friends back home. In fact, if my week here at the Fairmont Mayakoba is any indication, they get treated like kings here.

“They do okay here,” said Kevin Sebulski, director of golf at the El Camaleon Golf Club, the Greg Norman-designed golf course where they PGA Tour’s Mayakoba Open is played. “It’s really word of mouth. Players come here and tell other players about their experience, and then they want to come.”

How is it great? For starters, while much of the United States is digging out from the snow, visitors here get to walk the warm white sandy beaches of the Caribbean on the Yucatan Peninsula just south of Cancun. The resort experience, is luxury on the highest level, including the Fairmont Mayakoba Resort, where 80 percent of the tour players will stay. First-rate service, a full-service spa, fantastic rooms and suites and gourmet restaurants are what these guys get to look forward to. And the paspalum golf course, which opened five years ago, is as unique as it is well conditioned, cut largely through mangroves with peeks at the ocean as well as a couple of cenotas, or limestone sinkholes, that present a hazard most golfers never negotiate.

The 240-acre resort is also not only posh, but unique. It’s spread out, all right, but there are several modes of transportation available to get from point A to B or C, including mahogany boats that run along the manmade canals on the property. There are also plenty of shuttles to get you from different points as well as expensive BMW bicycles that guests can pick up in different locations at the resort, which not only provides transportation but great exercise as well.

In short, this isn’t a bad consolation prize for those guys, and it’s an opportunity to win Mexico’s only PGA Tour event.