LA PAZ, Mexico -- Construction has begun on a new 18-hole golf course at Paraiso del Mar, a 1,700-acre residential/resort development. The course is designed by Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates, and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2006.
Laid out on a secluded peninsula overlooking the Bay of La Paz, the course at Paraiso del Mar Golf & Country Club has been routed amid miles of pristine dunes and wildlife sanctuaries. The course will be Mexico's first links experience, company officials said, as well as the country's first Audubon International Signature project.
"The peninsula on which this land sits could not be more beautiful. The sandy, gentle roll of the topography inspired a design comparable to the great courses of the British Isles -- with weather and climatic conditions a Scot could only dream about," said Hills. "Pieces of property like this one come along only once in a great while."
More than 1,000 acres of the development's 1,700 acres have been set aside for wildlife sanctuaries and open space. The remaining 700 acres will be used for residential units, including single-family homes and condominiums, resort hotels and recreational amenities.
A 10-year project, with its first phase due for completion along with the golf course next fall, Paraiso del Mar will comprise more than 2,000 condominium units, 1,500 single family homes and five hotels (totaling 1,500 hotel rooms). It will also include tennis courts, a marina, swimming pools, a beach club, country club, church and miles of hiking trails.
Paraiso del Mar's primary developers are Fair Enterprises, headed by John Fair of Denver, Colo., and Luis Cano, a La Paz native and seasoned real estate developer in Baja California. Both men were previously involved in the Residences at Esperanza, in Cabo San Lucas.
Designing a links course in Baja California requires some departures from tradition. Paraiso del Mar G&CC will feature salaam paspalum turf, as opposed to fescues and bents. The course also includes a couple of irrigation ponds, and its closing hole is a par 4 around a pond, which departs from the links model.
"There are wildlife preserve areas all through the Paraiso del Mar course," Hills said. "Holes 1 through 4, 9 and 18, that whole area plays through a protected environmental corridor. As a firm, we?ve always been committed to building golf courses that relate closely to the land and don?t require a tremendous amount of earth moving or disruption -- always keeping in mind the strategy of the game and the elements that provide beauty in a golf course."
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