Shark Bite: Greg Norman's spectacular Rancho San Lucas debuts in Cabo

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico - Four-story sand dunes. Ocean views. Fun holes. Roughly 300 feet of elevation change. Shark shack comfort stations.

Rancho San Lucas, the newest course in Cabo, a booming destination home to 18 courses at the tip of the Baja Peninsula, checks all the boxes of a special golf experience in a region overloaded with them. Designer Greg Norman showed great restraint on the 7,210-yard design, letting the site sing. He was not overambitious incorporating too much movement on the greens or adding too much bunkering. There are only 42 bunkers, unique to the destination as the only area course with revetted bunkers. They're thankfully not as deep and scary as those in GB&I. Wide and forgiving fairways are especially important on a windy site. "Playable" is the operative word.

The most memorable holes are tucked into towering sand dunes, while others roam through cacti forests and over arroyos. The entire course is grassed with SeaDwarf Seashore paspalum, a salt-water tolerant surface that generally plays firm and fast.

Although many of the holes overlook the ocean, three of the best get up close to the beach. It's not uncommon during the winter months to see migrating whales playing just offshore. The par-4 second plays down to the beach. While driving away from the third green - a par 3 parallel to the beach - my foursome watched a whale playfully slap its tail at least a half dozen times. The return to the beach on the back nine is triumphant at No. 14, a par 4 framed by sand: Beach on the left and massive dunes on the right. After a series of engaging dune holes, players test their nerve hitting to an island green at the par-3 17th.

Norman even devised a 12-hole loop of holes sheltered from the breeze, perfect for the offseason when the wind picks up.

Throughout the round, golfers indulge on complementary food and drinks at two Shark shacks, the course's name for its comfort stations, where fish tacos and beef sliders rival the food anywhere on property.

The course is part of a 834-acre resort and real estate community 15 minutes from downtown Cabo and the infamous stretch of bars known as Squid Row. Only guests of Solmar Hotels & Resorts, including the onsite Grand Solmar at Rancho San Lucas, and property owners have access to the course, the 106th by Norman. The Norman Estates real estate enclave, a private gated community within the development, features 32 luxury estate homes and 40 condominiums with access to their own private beach club.