 Cozumel Country
Club a Herculean effort
By Jim Kerr,
Staff Writer
COZUMEL, Mexico (Dec. 12, 2003) -- Under water recreation has been
thriving on more than 37 reef sites off Isla Cozumel for decades,
but when the 308-square-mile island off the Yucatan Peninsula got
its first 18-hole golf course in November 2001, a completely new
above ground dimension was added to Mexico's
largest Caribbean
island.
The
Cozumel Country Club is owned and managed by ClubCorp International,
the prestigious golf resort company well-known for Pinehurst, the
Homestead and almost 200 other properties, including several south
of the border. Yet, the Herculean effort to bring golf to this part
of the world was uncharacteristic of a company traditionally associated
with managing, rather than building, prestigious resorts.
 Attacking
Isla Cozumel's coral and limestone base and low-lying saltwater
marshes in the name of golf -- without destroying the natural habitat
-- called for the best design and techology money could buy. A Nicklaus
Design Group layout was turned over to Diamond Golf Construction,
builder of many new courses in Mexico, and $12 million later the
course opened with all 18 championship holes on the island's northwest
shore. It took five years, beginning in 1996 with negotiations for
the land, and included the proviso that ClubCorp invest 12 million
pesos (or about US $1 million) upgrading a nearby water treatment
plant to irrigate the course.
The results are impressive, but the key to short and long-term
success for the project will lie in a close working relationship
with Cozumel's tourism economy, both with land-based resorts and
the island's high-profile cruise industry.
"It was built with cruise ship passengers in mind,"
says Mike Feild, director of operations for ClubCorp in Latin America.
"The total number of passengers arriving in Cozumel in 2003
is expected to be 1.8 million, not to mention 700,000 crew members,
many of whom also play golf."
 Of
the 28,000 golfers projected to play the new course this year, 45
percent are expected to be cruise ship passengers, mostly from large
ships operated by Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America and Disney,
all of which have some form of golf program, many with on-board
professional organizers.
"Passengers like this course a lot," says Roger King,
an on-board golf professional on the Carnival Pride who works for
Elite Golf
Cruises of Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.
"But they do sometimes complain about losing too many balls."
This comes as no surprise after playing the 6,734-yard, par-72 course,
which winds around trees, mangroves and wetlands, incorporating the
natural habitats of the island. In the process, there are significant
carries over marshy areas and water hazards, craters created in construction
when limestone and coral rock was quarried to construct elevation
for the course. Calcarious rock, a high calcium limestone, was a main
ingredient of the terrain, where Bermuda 419 was used for fairways
and hybrid Bermuda for greens. The first hole, a casual 378-yard,
par-4 which doglegs slightly left around a pond, is a precursor of
hazards yet to come. About half of the holes have significant water
to deal with, and all carry the imminent threat of a ball lost forever
in the kind of spiny, malicious growth only an ancient Mayan would
venture into. I found my own bag getting precariously low on balls
by the time we reached the daunting 18th, an easy-sounding 356-yard
Par-4 handicapped as No. 4, which nevertheless required a precision
shot 150 yards over a marsh to a small landing area.
 Attesting
to their numbers, and perhaps their weariness with regulation ball
prices in this part of the world, golfing cruisers had left behind
a rather large number of range balls in these hazards. Some of the
ships carry 2,000 plus passengers, along with 800 crew, but even
so, the main targets of this novel new attraction in Cozumel are
the resort vacationers who stay at the island's three dozen hotels,
which range from large all-inclusive resorts to beachside bungalows.
For this market, ClubCorp came up with a packaging idea involving
a consortium of six resorts. Two of them (Playa Azul Golf and Beach
Club and Paradisus Cozumel) are "founding members" and
four (El Cid Ceiba, Presidente Intercontinental, The Reef Club and
Sol Cabanas) are associate members. For the visitor, this translates
into unlimited golf while staying at the former, and reduced-cost
golf while staying at the latter.
 Divers
are also considered prime cross-over candidates for the game of
golf. Cozumel, with more than 25 licensed dive operators, has been
Mexico's scuba diving mecca since the 1950s, as well as a good place
for fishing and boating. Unlike the government-manufactured resort
center of Cancun, 44 miles away across the sea, Cozumel has a history
dating back to Cortes, who landed here in 1519. It also has a stable
population of about 60,000 and a real, if somewhat over-commercialized,
village called San Miguel de Cozumel.
Where to dine
 Thousands
of cruise ship passengers have reshaped the waterfront in San Miguel
de Cozumel, just as they have in Playa del Carmen, a 45-minute ferry
ride away on the mainland. Like Playa, there are dozens of shops,
souvenir stalls, craft vendors and restaurants -- many of them quite
good. I particularly enjoyed Guido's Restaurant on the waterfront
at Avenida Rafael Melgar, where the lasagna and tuna carpaccio with
homemade garlic bread was muy bueno. Like most restaurants in this
part of Mexico, entrees run about $9. Another interesting choice is
the Museum of Cozumel, converted from a hotel in 1988, with
exhibits on Mexican history and a delightful upstairs restaurant with
a great view along the waterfront.
Off course
After a morning of golf and lunch downtown, there's still plenty
to do. Maya ruins on the north side of the island, museums, eco-tourist
parks and nature preserves all have something to offer, not to mention
diving, snorkeling or just lying on the beach.
Where to Stay
All five of the hotel properties associated with the Cozumel Country
Club are excellent. The closest to the course are Paradisus Cozumel
(paradisuscozumel.net) and Playa Azul (playa-azul.com), my personal
favorite. Located on a sandy beach with an outdoor restaurant and
pool, the three-story yellow hotel has brightly decorated and comfortable
rooms starting at $125 a night, including unlimited golf. Package
rates are available at all the hotels. Otherwise, a round at the
new club will run you $110, including cart, which isn't bad compared
with most other resort courses in Mexico.
"We wanted to avoid Cabo prices, which are running $160 and
up," said Field regarding the courses of southern Baja. The
nearest course to Cozumel is at Playacar, an upscale extension of
Playa del Carmen, where prices are similarly high.
There are, of course, expansion plans at the Cozumel Country Club,
which already has a "palapa-style" clubhouse with a fully
stocked pro shop, driving range and putting green. Developments
over the next two years will include a golf hotel, timeshare condos,
villas and multi-family lots. An extension of the Paradisus Cozumel,
a Sol Melia resort, will take place in 2004.
For more information on the Cozumel Country Club, visit cozumelcountryclub.com.
For information on Cozumel, see islacozumel.com.mx.
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