PGA Riviera Maya Golf Course: A Golf Journey in the Jungle
During Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s first week designing the PGA Riviera Maya Golf Course he came armed with only a machete, his feet, and x-ray vision. The course’s 290 acres were so dense with jungle that he needed to design with the soles of his feet in order to know where to cut.
Jones described this dance, matching his course vision with what he felt on the ground, as a “landscape tango with rhythm.” Golfers playing the PGA Riviera Maya today still see an abundance of jungle accompanying nearly every hole. This 7,200-yard Caribbean golf playground created images that Jones compared to “walking in a Yucatan national park.”
Since its opening in 2010, the PGA Riviera Maya boasts tee boxes, fairways, bunkers, and greens with course conditions that deliver a best-of-the best championship 18-hole course persona. What golfers will also discover is an expanded golf complex that includes a spectacular pearl-white two-story clubhouse, a nine-hole course, a golf academy, and multiple restaurants. There’s also a tropical wonderland of wildlife including iguanas, parrots, coatis, and spider monkeys.
The PGA Riviera Maya Golf Course is a centerpiece of the 740-acre Tulum Country Club residential development that hosts the course and is owned by the Bahia Principe Hotels and Resorts collection. Upon entering this gated community, you’ll drive four winding miles past palm trees and residential signage serving as your guide.
Check in at the pro shop, and there you’ll see banners showcasing the golf course partnership with the Korn Ferry Tour, the Women’s Amateur Latin American Championship, and the Annika Foundation. Take the elevator down to the ground level and you’ll find rental carts, a golf hospitality crew, and golf academy facilities. Once you’re good to go, the crew will steer you towards the Par 4, 426-yard first hole and your initial glimpse of what RTJ Jr. created 15 years ago.
The first tee visual is an exercise in lush paspalum fairway with jungle left and right. PGA Riviera Maya’s Director of Instruction Ryan Canipe shared that the person responsible for what you see during the next four hours is Andre Novo. This native of Spain is the course’s Superintendent, and his resume includes the 2018 Ryder Cup, The Players Championship, and The French Open. Canipe whispered that Novo is as good as it gets when it comes to nurturing year-round exceptional playing conditions.
On one of Tulum’s sunny, blue sky trademark days, you begin to get the hang of this lush landscape “tango with rhythm” experience. After teeing off on the Par 4, 452-yard 6th hole, you may need to choose between courage and common sense.
Your second shot on the 6th hole contends with a gaping cenote that yawns for 100 yards on the left side leading to the green. If you’re faced with a short iron, then definitely go for the gusto and the green. From 150 yards and beyond, you better feel good about your mid and long irons because this Mayan sinkhole is hungry for anything round with dimples.
Once you’ve conquered the front nine, you’ll find La Rustica, a palapa with rope swing chairs, and a sleepy dog named Cinnamon waiting at the turn. This is your chance to grab a slice of pizza and a cold cerveza to add a bit of a fuel for tackling the back nine. Are you ready? Trent Jones Junior was at his artistic best designing these nine tee to green beauties basking in the Mayan jungle.
Leading up to the Par 4, 444-yard 13th hole, the wildlife you’d heard so much about has been quiet. You’ve spotted a couple of iguanas sunning themselves and a laughing parrot who derided your slice on the previous hole. Where are the rest of the Yucatan’s cast of wildlife characters?
After blasting one down the middle on 14, you couldn’t help but look in the direction of Mr. Parrot and think, “I don’t hear any laughing now.” Your playing partners suddenly let out a yelp and point toward something scurrying across the fairway about 100-yards out.
First two, then four, and then more than a dozen brown four-legged creatures paraded over the paspalum. A member of the landscape team explained that what you were witnessing was a family of coatis, a member of the racoon family with long, ringed tails.
14 and 15 Lead to a Big Finish
You soon learn that Architect Jones knows how to build toward a dramatic finish. Your adrenaline rush begins with your second shot on the Par 5, 590-yard 14th hole. During the course construction process, Jones needed to embrace the sturdy Yucatan limestone throughout his design. On the 14th hole he made limestone a focal point of the golf experience. A rock wall flanks the hole’s left side, right side, and behind the green. Add this warrior in an amphitheater effect to a round that’s already ranking high on your all-time list.
If you think 14 was impressive, wait until you step up to the elevated tee and look out at the Par 3, 15th hole playing 240-yards from the tips. Hitch up your belt like Arnold Palmer because your tee shot is all carry over a lake. Letters spelling out PGA Riviera Maya stand like soldiers behind the green for this shot that is uber Instagram worthy.
As you drive your golf cart up to the PGA Riviera Maya’s 18th hole, you’re already thinking this is a golf round for the ages. As your final tee shot finds the fairway a lone spider monkey races right to left. With arms and legs that appear double his body size, his lightning-like gait makes it seem like he’s levitating. You look at your playing partners with eyes wide open. What a round, what a finish, and what a golf journey through the jungle.
