Does Los Cabos have too many golf courses?

hace 3 meses 71

Los Cabos does not person the astir play courses per capita. That grant belongs to Scotland, the ancestral location of the game, wherever there’s 1 people for each 9,800 residents.

However, Los Cabos is rapidly making up ground, with 18 courses presently successful usage and five much successful development. That means that wrong the adjacent twelvemonth oregon two, Los Cabos volition person 23 courses for astir 350,000 residents, oregon 1 play people for each 15,200 residents. Among these, it should beryllium noted, are immoderate of the finest play courses successful the world, challenging loops with spectacular ocean, godforsaken and upland vistas.

Los Cabos is not a accepted play people mecca

As a lifelong golfer, there’s a portion of this bounty that makes maine precise happy. But arsenic we each larn arsenic children, usually aft stuffing ourselves afloat of chocolate, excessively overmuch of a bully happening is simply a conception with precise existent applications.

Los Cabos is not Scotland. For starters, contempt the preponderance of water views, we’re successful a godforsaken and person precise small water. Golf courses, famously, necessitate tons of water. So it’s a precise questionable usage of a shrinking and highly invaluable resource.

Secondly, successful Scotland, residents turn up playing the crippled and for the astir part, person affordable entree to their section links. In Los Cabos, wherever astir courses present complaint much than US $400 per round, fewer residents tin spend to play, adjacent if they were welcome, which they mostly are not, since truthful galore of these courses are private.

Why does Los Cabos person truthful galore courses successful the archetypal place?

Why would communities successful a godforsaken situation physique truthful galore courses that truthful galore of their residents mostly can’t spend to play, adjacent if they were welcome? The reply is existent estate.

Golf helps to merchantability existent estate. Barron’s explains it thusly: “In the play existent property realm, developers physique courses to merchantability houses. They prosecute big-name designers similar Jack Nicklaus, Coore and Crenshaw, oregon Robert Trent Jones Jr. to lend prima powerfulness to make an awesome 18 holes, assured the accidental to play specified a layout each time volition gully buyers consenting to wage millions for a 2nd location oregon abrogation escape.”

If these abrogation homeowners ever tyre of their section people and privation to sell, they tin remainder casual successful the cognition that play courses besides assistance to boost spot values, expanding their worth by 8% to 12%, connected average.

How overmuch is excessively much?

Not each the play courses successful Los Cabos were originally built to merchantability existent estate. Some were besides intended arsenic amenities for vacationers astatine section resorts. But each of the caller courses being built present are selling points for existent property developments.

Now if there’s 1 happening that is evident to immoderate Los Cabos nonmigratory astatine this point, it’s that the colonisation is lone going to continue to rise. Does that mean adjacent much play courses? It astir surely does, which leads to an inevitable question: however overmuch is excessively much?

Especially fixed the looming h2o situation successful Los Cabos, since the area’s aquifers are incapable to recharge accelerated capable to supply h2o for its ever-increasing colonisation and are operating astatine a deficit. Yes, there’s different h2o desalination works coming, but if you’re acquainted with the 1 we already have, you cognize you can’t ever number connected it.

As noted successful a erstwhile article connected this topic, each people successful Los Cabos uses capable h2o regular connected mean — implicit 600,000 gallons — to supply for the h2o needs of 8,000 residents. By the way, the authors of the study quoted for that figure, “A captious geography attack to onshore and h2o usage successful the tourer system successful Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico,” offered what appears to beryllium a blimpish estimate. Golf courses successful Palm Springs, to springiness different godforsaken play example, are estimated to usage 800,000 gallons of h2o per day.

In immoderate case, and adjacent allowing for the courses that are making bully religion efforts to run sustainably, it’s a lot, and the thought of adjacent much courses being built seems unwise successful a spot wherever h2o is specified an ongoing issue. Even the magnitude of play courses we already person seems excessively many, and I accidental that arsenic idiosyncratic who loves golf.

Also, however overmuch of the area’s champion existent property is going to beryllium acceptable speech for specified a tiny percent of the population? Because that’s the different portion of the equation.

Who are these courses for, anyway?

As the immense bulk of locals can’t spend to play these courses and aren’t invited anyway, it’s besides worthy revisiting the question of who these courses are being built for. They’re being built for radical buying abrogation homes, which means for astir of each year, they don’t adjacent unrecorded here.

A photograph of the stone formations adjacent to the celebrated Arch during sunset.

The sore taxable of selling Los Cabos’ resources to non-residents is not a caller one. This is simply a abrogation destination that draws astir 4 cardinal visitors annually. To supply the formation ambiance that these visitors emotion to frolic in, Los Cabos resorts person long tried to impede access to these aureate sandy stretches to locals, adjacent though by national instrumentality each Mexican beaches are nationalist property.

In that case, arsenic with its ever-growing postulation of play courses, premier Los Cabos existent property on the municipality’s glorious coastline is being prioritized for short-term visitors oregon seasonal residents: meaning, tourists and abrogation homeowners. If you’re a local, you tin spell up and beryllium offended by this, but if you’re a semipermanent local, 1 happening you cannot beryllium is surprised. Because this is not adjacent remotely new.

What does liable play successful Los Cabos look like?

However, conscionable due to the fact that this is the exemplary and has been for a agelong clip doesn’t mean it can’t ever change. Los Cabos cannot support its caput successful its treasured and hard-to-get-to soil implicit h2o issues forever, nor tin it proceed to disregard the needs of the radical who unrecorded present not portion of the clip but each of the time.

This means it mightiness beryllium bully to supply entree and affordable play options to locals if that’s wherever each our h2o is going. But it besides means that’s astir apt not wherever truthful overmuch of our dwindling h2o proviso should beryllium going. Just saying.

Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas section adept for the USA Today question website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos question guidebook and a contributor to galore websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related contented and manner features focused connected food, vino and golf.

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