Golden Bear to create 18 oceanfront holes on northern end of Cabo San Lucas
NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. (10/9/2006)– The man who set the bar in Cabo is about to raise the bar. Significantly.
Jack Nicklaus, who is credited with playing a major role in breathing life into Cabo San Lucas and in less than a decade helped create one of the world’s most sought-after golf destinations, continues to leave his thumbprint and signature on the Baja Peninsula. The Golden Bear will design 18 holes of JACK NICKLAUS SIGNATURE GOLF that will serve as the centerpiece to Quivira Los Cabos, an exclusive 1,850-acre, master-planned resort community on the northern end of Cabo San Lucas with over 3 miles of beach frontage that will feature luxury hotels, spas, an endless array of amenities, as well as high-end, full-ownership residential and fractional offerings.
Also credited for being one of Cabo’s driving forces, Ernesto Coppel is the development partner in the project and the leading shareholder of Pueblo Bonito Oceanfront Resorts and Spas, one of Mexico’s leading hotel flags. Pueblo Bonito currently owns and operates seven properties throughout Mexico, including four in Cabo San Lucas. Coppel, Nicklaus, representatives for Nicklaus Design and Pueblo Bonito, as well as Sal Rodriguez of Diamond Golf, the country’s leading golf course construction firm, were in Cabo San Lucas on Sunday for a contract-signing ceremony to officially launch the Quivira Los Cabos project (www.quiviraloscabos.com).
“Pueblo Bonito is an established luxury hotel brand, well known for its superb quality and its professional yet warm customer service; and there is no better brand in golf or golf course design than Jack Nicklaus, so this is an exciting and promising relationship for us, where this is just the beginning,” Coppel said. “We are trying to assemble the best team of experts in every category in the industry to ensure that Quivira Los Cabos is the most unique project of its kind in the Baja Peninsula, and Jack and Nicklaus Design are a key part of that team.”
Quivira Los Cabos, located at the southernmost point of the Baja Peninsula, features an abundance of rock outcroppings, spectacular ocean cliffs and endless rolling dunes to create a dramatic look and unique canvas on which to create an unforgettable golf experience. With a cooler climate than its more southern Cabo neighbors and a current routing that has a significant number of holes that play to or along the ocean, Quivira Los Cabos is poised to be a links-like experience unlike any in Mexico.
“I get excited about each new project we do anywhere in the world, but sometimes we have the opportunity to work on a unique site with a number of dramatic natural elements that really get the creative juices flowing,” Nicklaus said. “I think Quivira Los Cabos is one of those truly special sites”.
The Nicklaus name is hardly new to the Cabo region.
In a span of 13 years, Jack and Nicklaus Design have created five courses and 99 holes of golf in the region, and in doing so, Cabo has evolved from a sleepy little fishing town on the tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico to anything but sleepy, hardly little, and golf has become the sport of choice.
Nicklaus’ first work in Cabo was Palmilla Golf Club, which opened in 1993, followed a year later by the world-ranked Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol, and then Eldorado in 1999. The year prior to Palmilla’s opening, only 5,000 rounds were played on the area’s lone course–a 9-hole municipal layout called Fonatur. There were only five flights per day into Cabo, and the average occupancy rate was only 39 percent. A year after Nicklaus’ third design opened, the trio of courses pushed the rounds played in Cabo to 220,000. Daily flights into Cabo jumped to more than 35 a day, and the average occupancy rate doubled to 79 percent. Cabo has led all of Mexico in average occupancy rate and average daily hotel rate.
For his contributions to Cabo, the International Network of Golf awarded Nicklaus its Achievement in Golf Course Design Award.
Jack’s impact and the model established by Cabo spread throughout Mexico, and by the end of 2006, Nicklaus Design will have 15 courses open for play throughout the country. Early in 2006, BEST’s Golf Guides to Mexico named Jack Nicklaus its “Best Golf Course Architect in Mexico,” and in their annual ranking of the “Top 30 Courses in Mexico,” Nicklaus Design took nine spots. Its Cabo triumvirate of Cabo del Sol, Eldorado and Palmilla took three of the top five, including the No. 1 spot going to the Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol.
Nicklaus Design has partnered with Diamond Golf on all nine of its top-30 golf courses, and, in fact, Diamond Golf was involved in the construction of at least half of the 30 courses ranked. This dominant partnership will once again be on display at Cabo Pacifica in a project that should soon earn its place atop Mexico’s finest.
“I have been traveling to Cabo for about 40 years, whether it is to fish, play golf or design golf, so it is an area to which I have had and continue to have a special attachment,” Nicklaus added. “To have the opportunity at Cabo Pacifica to be a part of such a high-quality project, and to design a golf course on such a rare and diverse piece of property, is significant to our organization and to me. We look forward to the challenge of continuing to the raise the bar in Cabo and in Mexico.”
About Nicklaus Design
Nicklaus Design is the global firm founded by golf legend Jack Nicklaus and owned by the Nicklaus family. Nicklaus Design is widely regarded as the world’s leading design firm with 305 courses open for play in 29 countries and 38 states. Of those, Jack Nicklaus has been involved in 250 courses. At least 48 Nicklaus Design courses have been ranked in various national or international Top-100 lists, and by the end of 2006, at least 79 Nicklaus courses will have hosted a combined total of more than 500 professional tournaments worldwide or significant national amateur championships. Nicklaus Design currently has more than 50 courses under construction, and courses under development in 35 different countries. For information on Jack Nicklaus and Nicklaus Design, visit www.nicklaus.com.
About Pueblo Bonito Oceanfront Resorts & Spas
Pueblo Bonito Oceanfront Resorts & Spas are the leading hotels of Mexico, offering uncommon amenities, unsurpassed service, and the warmth of a luxurious Mexican home. The collection includes four properties in Cabo San Lucas (the new Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic Retreat & Spa, Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort & Spa, Pueblo Bonito Rosé, and Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos), two in Mazatlán (the Pueblo Bonito Mazatlán and Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay), and one in Puerto Vallarta (Samba Vallarta, an all-inclusive resort). For information on Pueblo Bonito or reservations, call (800) 990-8250 or visit www.pueblobonito.com.
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