We’re tearing through the volcanic cliffs high above Mexico’s central coast touring several secluded home lots in various stages of construction (more than a few of which belong to some tour pros whose names you would know.) I’m sitting in a Can-Am four-wheeler with Mark Birnbaum asking questions while trying to avoid eating another palm frond. It’s dusk on the first day at Nauka, a new private golf course community occupying 920 acres in the mesmerizing region of Riviera Nayarit, about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta.
The marquee attraction at Nauka is a brash new Tom Fazio championship golf course with a practice facility to match (also, The Booby Trap, a delightful lighted 9-hole par-3) that’s capable of knocking the socks off the country club set as well as professionals who make their living playing golf.
The Nauka vision belongs to Jaime Fasja, a successful Mexican real estate developer and private club owner, who’s the driving force behind the project’s direction and personality. The vibe belongs to LIFE Properties International, a firm dedicated to creating exclusive legacy communities. Birnbaum, a long-time restaurateur known well as the proprietor at Catch New York among other hospitality haunts of the rich and famous, and Fasja are partners at LPI.
It’s a testament to the awe-inspiring landscape and the incredible imagination of this group that families who could afford to buy a vacation property anywhere in the world would be drawn to a place as rugged and rough as this region was back in the lot clearing stages. Birnbaum calls those early sales trips “touring with machete.”
“It says something when you’re able to interest wealthy buyers with enough money to be looking for their third, fourth, fifth home and trees are hitting them in the face as they rumble through the jungle,” Birnbaum says. “And they still want to buy! Without a road, without anything. It was incredible how much they loved it. It was really a justification that I wasn’t crazy.”
The Nauka Golf Club features five sets of tees and can stretch out to 7,600 yards. There are many things that make the course unique, but chief among them is the diversity of the experience. Fazio has created a routing that transports golfers from the mangrove estuary up into volcanic mountains down through old growth jungle and right along the crashing surf. It’s a roller coaster of a layout that wows at every turn, keeps you guessing and, most importantly, demands that you play it again.
Fazio’s portfolio is obviously prolific, with more than 300 courses to his name, among them Shadow Creek, World Woods and Pinehurst #6 and #8. Consider this: it’s rumored Fazio has said that Nauka is among the top three courses he’s ever laid hands on. He demurred when asked which were the other two.
“Our expectations were up here,” Fazio says gesturing high above his head. “And this course met them.”
One reason hopes were so high for the designer and the developers is because Fazio was given free rein to create, scores of acres of diverse terrain to play with, and nearly unlimited funds to build his dream course.
Not that it was easy. Construction crews dredged nearly 60 million cubic feet of sand to create the deep-water marina that anchors the village and yacht club, and they made all that sand available to Fazio’s team to build up their fairways and greens. The course is sand capped at an unheard-of depth of five feet for maximum drainage and ideal turf condition.
“I think Fazio is the best living designer in the world right now for many reasons,” says Fasja. “But when it comes to giving someone sand to work with, there is no one better than Tom Fazio. So, it’s like giving a kid the keys to a candy store. We thought ‘Tom, you have 60 million cubic feet of sand. Go and design what you think could be the best golf course in this country.’”
Even with all that land and sand, Fazio ran into a snag toward the middle of the front nine. There was a parcel just beyond the Nauka property line that he believed would absolutely elevate this part of the course.
“He says, ‘There’s a pinch point in this area here, and if you could buy that land then it’s just the cherry on top of the cake,’” Fasja quotes Fazio as saying. “I said ‘Tom, it’s not going to happen. It’s just a lot of land.’ And he says, ‘well, this would improve the golf course.’ Within two weeks we had acquired that land.”
Was the acquisition worth the cost?
“That was a game changer,” Fasja says. “Buying those 40-plus acres, which is now (different parts of) the 3rd, 4th and 5th holes, completely changed the landscape of the golf course.”
Fazio feels the same: “That really made it happen,” he says. “That really made it work.”
One very distinctive part of the landscape existed all along; the sun-kissed sandy beachfront. Fazio and Co. took full advantage of it. Holes 14, 15 and 16 run for nearly a mile parallel to the shoreline about 60 yards from the breaking surf. Golfers are encouraged, nay, compelled to kick off their spikes ahead of the 14th tee shot and take a plunge in the refreshing Pacific. Post-swim cocktails and snacks served beachside just add to the adventure. I’ve lost my shirt on the golf course many times, but never on purpose. It’s a wholly unique and memorable encounter.
It’s interesting though that when you ask Fazio what he considers the signature hole at Nauka, he doesn’t have an answer.
“Try to pick your favorite hole. You can’t,” he says. “If we had had a favorite hole, then we’d (be saying) we have lesser holes. That’s what makes a golf course great. Everybody likes a different hole for a different reason, but they love them all because they’re all dramatic.”
