El Cortés Golf Club

Costa Baja Resort & Spa places guests adjacent to El Cortes Golf Club in La Paz, the only Gary Player Signature course in Mexico. Immerse yourself in the dramatic landscape that contrasts the green of the grass with the desert, the vegetation and the sea. It is a fantastic and challenging journey for all players.

The course

The Cortes Golf Club has the only Gary Player Signature course in Mexico. Immerse yourself in the dramatic landscape that contrasts the green of the grass with the desert, the vegetation and the sea. It is a fantastic and challenging journey.

This golf course on the Sea of Cortez is par 72, along its 7,082 yards, it has 18 holes and panoramic views of the Sea of Cortez in 17 of them. It has a shooting range, practice green, short game and a Scenic Halfway House between holes 6 and 14. This golf course in La Paz and its surroundings has efficient irrigation and fertilization systems, which use recycled water and have an impact minimum in the environment. Grass is regenerated in situ, and endemic plants are integrated into landscaping.

What makes it play the way it does

Two things dominate play. The first is elevation change — the routing climbs the hillside behind the marina, which is what buys the sea views and also what makes club selection harder than the yardage suggests. The second is wind. The bay funnels a breeze most afternoons, and a hole that plays one way at eight in the morning plays very differently at three.

Playing here as a guest

• Tee off early. Morning rounds are cooler and calmer. From May to September this is not optional.
• Take more water than you think. This is a desert course, and the halfway house is at holes 6 and 14, not every third hole.
• The Stay and Play package bundles rounds with resort accommodation — see offers and packages.
• Bring a camera for 17. Or accept that you will play the back nine badly because you keep stopping.

Who was Gary Player, and why does it matter?

Player is one of golf’s five career Grand Slam winners — a South African who won nine major championships between 1959 and 1978 and then built a design practice with a distinctive philosophy: work with the existing land rather than reshape it, use less water, and let the local landscape stay visible from the fairway.

At El Cortés that shows up in the endemic planting, the recycled-water irrigation and the in-situ turf regeneration. It is also the reason the desert stays right at the edge of the short grass instead of being pushed out of frame.