You want a warm-weather winter escape with your family, but you want to play golf too. (We don’t expect this to be much of a strain on your imagination.) Good news! With proper planning and the right attitude, you can have it all. Costa Palmas, a trendy new Cabo resort on the East Cape of the Baja Peninsula, is at the center of a new vacation golf movement pushing fun, accessible golf.
So how do you max out enjoyment and minimize headaches? We have a few ideas.
1. Get your steps in
Plenty of resort-style courses are built for carts, which is well and good — they have cupholders, after all. But, if you’re on a beach vacation, there’s a good chance your morning round will be that day’s best exercise. Try walking, if you can.
2. Take dead aim
If you’re playing golf on vacation, you’re likely teeing it up on a brand-new course. Your stroke-play score might suffer but brush that aside. Get a friendly match going, gun for a few pins and pull off a couple shots you’ll remember later.
3. Come equipped
While the Robert Trent Jones Jr.–designed Costa Palmas course prides itself on playability, many other resort-style courses are particularly penal. Rocks and water lurk everywhere. You might want to bring a few extra balls. (In the pro shop, they cost double what you’d pay at home.)
4. Remember the beach
In this space we’d never tell you something as inane as “don’t get frustrated.” But we would suggest that after you’ve allowed yourself a moment of frustration, move on quickly. There’s another shot to hit, after all. There’s a bigger beach to get to, where both the chairs and the drinks come with umbrellas and there are no bogeys in sight.
