With Player being the most prolific globetrotting golfer in the history of the sport
and winner of at least one tournament
in each of the last six decades (165 career
championships), this didn’t seem surprising. Rather, when you consider the fact
he is still jetting around the world like an
Energizer bunny at 75 years of age, it’s
downright astonishing and a wake-up call
to his incessant campaign on exercise and
obesity. Yet, after three-quarters of a century, golf’s international ambassador, who
claims a lousy round is scoring above his
age, has no intention of gearing down.
On this particular world tour, the nine-time
major championship winner did manage
to break from the jet stream and attend the
grand opening of the first Gary Player Signature golf course ever built in Mexico. With
over 300 design projects around the world,
one would think this Latin America country
would have already made his portfolio, but
even a high-flying member of the 15 Million
Mile Club can only be in so many places.
Fortunately, Player finally got his chance
when CostaBaja CEO Alejandro Yberri III
approached him about designing a course
for a master-planned resort community
on 550 acres of environmentally protected
coastal lands overlooking the Sea of Cortez, the fishing and scuba diving heaven
once referred to by Jacques Cousteau as the
“The Aquarium of the World.” After one
peek, Player was hooked.
“The landscape of the CostaBaja site
excited me from the beginning,” he said.
“There is so much contrast in what we were
“it was seriously
tough to build. in
addition to the
severe elevation
changes, beneath
the surface was
rock, rock, rock!”
gary player
with 18 holes
of gary player-designed golf
and dreamy
views everywhere, costabaja is baja's
newest gem
able to create here with the green fairways
against the desert conditions and the beau-
tiful water. Also, with tourism so important
to Mexico, when designing the course, we
had to do something special so that when
people come they say, ‘Wow, look at this
hole, look at the ocean, the beaches, the
beautiful accommodations,’ and then go
back and tell their friends about it. When
it’s snowing in other parts of the world, this
is the place to visit.”
Behind these layers of paradise, however,
constructing this 18-hole layout proved far
more difficult than the 1,000 sit-ups Player
is accustomed to doing most days.
“It was seriously tough to build. In addi-
tion to the severe elevation changes, be-
neath the surface was rock, rock, rock!”
says the man who certainly understands
hard labor from living on a farm all his life.
“In the end, there is no area too tough, but
it just costs more money.”
What resulted is a fun course that won’t
beat up the average golfer and, as a cen-
terpiece to the 5-star, 115-room CostaBaja
Resort & Spa sitting adjacent to prime real
estate opportunities and a marina filled
with million-dollar yachts, it has paved the
way for La Paz to become a viable alterna-
tive to Los Cabos, a two- to three-hour drive
south.
