Palmilla Golf Club - The Ocean/Arroyo Course

San Jose del Cabo is home to some extraordinary Jack Nicklaus Golf designs: Quivira, El Dorado, the Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol and Palmilla Golf Club are what come most quickly to mind. These courses span a time frame through the later stages of Jack's development as a designer (the early 90's to present) and all are spectacular. Palmilla is the only facility with 27 Jack Nicklaus-designed holes, though, and each of them offers a view down to the mindblowingly blue Sea of Cortez.

Each nine holes is named: The Arroyo, Mountain and Ocean and they move seamlessly through said geography. The routings are very similar in terms of length and difficulty: 7,000 to 6,800 from all the way back (Black Tees), sloping in the 140 to 137 range. The Gold Tees come in closer to 6,500 and a bit less, but the slopes remain pretty rough staying in the 137 to 135 range. Of the three, the Mountain to Ocean routing would be the choice - most picturesque as well as just flatly hard.

Nut and Bolts: Website

This is a Troon managed facility so you get a Troon white-labelled site. It will look very familiar to the user who has played or plays a Troon courses. While it is content heavy and fairly easy to navigate, it remains stuck in a look that seems to be about 10 years old. Overall, though, it works. (One last point: The Course Flyovers through Best Approach look terribly cheesy. 2010 content that would be annihilated by HD drone flyovers today. Just sayin'...)

Repetitive part of the review: As always, the playability of the course is determined by an honest appraisal of your skills. The choices of tees directly impacts the difficulty of driving. Park the ego. Play within yourself and enjoy the routings. Driving is moderate to very difficult. Approach shots are the same. Typical JWN green complexes and bunkering along with Sonoran Desert washes and ravines that look like you're in the Arizona Desert... with a gorgeous coastal view..!!???

Bring a camera. The par 5 seventh on the Arroyo, if you decide to play that nine, demands attention, particularly from the approach shot all the way to the green. Your view over the coast below is unforgettable. The par 4 fifth on the Mountain nine is NOT about the ocean: It is all about the incredible design vision of Mr. Nicklaus. The par 5 seventh will be memorable, too. The second and third holes on the Ocean Nine, as well as the final three holes make THAT nine the one that impresses itself on the mind most deeply.

Make sure to tee it up at The Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol as well as Robert Trent Jones Jr's Cabo Real, if you can. Questro Golf offers a package deal for that, along with the Gary Nicklaus-designed Club Campestre and the JWN/Greg Norman paired nines at Puerto Los Cabos.

This is a fabulous course. If in Cabo you must play this is a course. This course is fair but challenging!

I strongly recommend this course

Course layout was tough & challenging on some holes, boring on others. With club rental, $240. Don't know how it compares to other courses in area, but I had higher expectations.

Nice course, very challenging trying to understand the first few holes on the ocean 9, not much ocean but nice fairways and greens ( some were still sanded). Very much a target layout, challenging and I’d like to play it again.

Muy Bonita

They charged us an additional $16 per player taxes to play there

We have played Palmilla before Arroyo and Ocean. This was the first time we saw the Mountain 9. Palmilla (all 27) is one of the very best tracks in San Jose del Cabo. We highly recommend it.

Can't go wrong greens are fast but the course is in excellent shape the driving range is superb highly recommend

How can you go wrong in Cabo. On arrival, I was greeted by the staff, and proceeded to the clubhouse. I was scheduled to play Arroyo/Mountain combination.

I asked if I could play Ocean course, and was told there would be no problem.

The course setting was beautiful, with the ocean a backdrop on one of the holes. There were not a lot of golfers on the course, and the foursome playing in front of us waved us thru on the 6th hole. From there, did not see a golfer the rest of the day.

The holes are spread out amongst the villas, on the Ocean course, and the terrain on the Arroyo course.

All in all, was a great experience.

We really love to play here. The landscaping is so beautiful. The Arroyo Course is challenging yet doable for me, a female senior. The Oean Course kicked my behind, especially hole number nine. Overall a lot of fun.

Friendly helpful staff. Great course. Super fun. Really liked the course design. Play it. You will enjoy it.

Palmilla touts itself as "The One and Only", but I came away under impressed. Their ocean 9 has only one hole on the ocean and the cost was more than most golf courses down in the Cab area. I think we will pass on this course in the future.

Second course I played in Cabo. This was a classic. The ocean 9 runs right down to the beach. Beautiful track that has many challenges. The Arroyo 9 plays to many different elevations with number 7's elevated tee shot carry to a beautiful par 5 fairway is amazing.

The course was great. It was a little surprise to pay a 16% tax at the time of play on top of the golf now advertised rate. This added $52 more for two players.

We two retired golfers have the luxury of traveling all over we have found that Mexico has no better courses that our own United States but most people feel they have to pay more for the same or less quality Golf Plus the language barrier and the money exchange issue. And then of course there is the added stress of going through Mexican and American customs.

I had to cancel my twilight round because I was promised a free found the following day. The free round was from the Tiger Wood's/ Davis Love 111 course called Diamante. I was unaware of the cancelation policy at Palmillas. I had to pay $150 cancellation fee. I did end up playing 8:30 round worth $250 for free. All in all, read the fine print. The palmillas is a definate bucket lister... no words can explain this beutiful, challenging, fun layout. Will definately return.

Everything was awesome. The course is in excellent condition. Muchas gracias!

Course was in excellent shape, greens and fairways were perfect.