Learning To Golf in MexicoGolf maestros know the game & speak poetryStory & by Stuart Wasserman
Golf is getting big south of the border. It is a year-around sport and the professional golf courses now number more than 120. On some courses old haciendas double as clubhouses. In the past five years alone, five courses have opened up across the sea in Cabo San Lucas, two designed by Jack Nicklaus and one by Robert Trent Jones. Jr.
Mazatlan's best known course, the 18-hole El Cid, earlier this year added an additional 9-hole course designed by Lee Trevino. As beginners, however, we were toiling along just the front nine, which features a taco stand on the 8th tee. "Don't worry about hitting the houses," says the El Cid golf pro Rick Avina. "That's one of the risks of living adjacent to a course." Luckily, our group never heard the sound of breaking glass. Avina's mission was to teach us how to relax with golf clubs in our hands. "The key is a smooth and easy swing and rotation of the body," Avina says. He usually first teaches short putts, starting with a foot back from the hole and then a step farther. Then he teaches chipping, pitches and the "art of the half-swing." According to our pro, seventy-five percent of golf involves less than a full swing of the club. Avina, a native of New Mexico, teaches control first, and then the full swing. He grew up in Roswell, N.M. and began playing golf as a nine-year-old. His mentor was Nancy Lopez, the LPGA Hall of Famer who played in the area during the late 1970's. Everything went well that first day except that I had developed blisters on my hands from holding the club too tight. The next day I went back to Avina to review the fundamentals of the grip. He taught me to allow the club to swing like a pendulum in my hands as I approached the ball. "The golf swing is not a powerful effort," he said. "It is an effortless power." During the low season in Mexico, roughly mid-April through Nov. 15th, the El Cid is open to all golfers living in or visiting Mazatlan. But during the high season when hotel occupancy is higher -- the El Cid can only accommodate hotel guests and members.
The golf pro there is 30-year-old Ron Heraty who spent eight years teaching at the Arizona Biltmore golf courses in Phoenix before being lured to a job in Mexico. Although Heraty has heard great things about the Cabo courses he prefers the greenery of Mazatlan. The Estrella del Mar course has 180 acres of grass while the Cabo courses average about 100 acres a piece. "When you miss at Cabo your ball lands in the desert," says Heraty."I'm from Phoenix and for me when that happened that always meant picking cactus needles out of my socks." Heraty says he tries to teach "feel, -- the art of knowing where your club head is during the swing." He starts with chips shots and 1/2 shots, before teaching the full swing. "The club becomes an extension of your arm. You just wind up and then release your energy." Although as a group we had some good shots and some bad shots and some really bad shots, we tried not to get too frustrated with the game. Heraty doesn't sympathize with frustrated golfers too much. "It could be worse," he tells them. "You could be at work." We found that even after our bad days on the golf courses, Mazatlan's varied hotel accommodations and abundance of choice restaurants were enough to free all of us from golf doldrums often experienced by beginners.
I did discover my own medical treatment for golf's first day of bad blisters--swimming in the warm saltwater waves along Mexico's Pacific Coastline. If you Go:Mazatlan's toughest green: The 15th Hole--Estrella del Mar Golfers must hit over lakes twice to reach the hole. 421 yards. Par 4.
Restaurants: Many are located in the newer Zona Dorada sections, the main hotel district. Tony's beach front restaurant just to the south of the Double Tree offers delicious fresh shrimp and marisco dishes on the beach. The Marinero, built under a palapa near the old Oceano Palace offers complete fish lunch and dinner platters for $5. For a classy evening out, the beach front restaurant at the Hotel Pueblo Bonito can't be beat. Golf School: The widely acclaimed John Jacobs school of golf recently opened their first school in Mexico at the El Cid Golf course. The El Cid also recently opened a tennis academy and built a new gymnasium and health spa. El Cid Golf Club: From the U.S. 011-526-913-5611. Estrella Del Mar: 011-526-982-3300 |
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TM
Looking back, I don't see how they permitted us on the golf course. The 18-hole El Cid Country Club Golf Course is a fancy place in Mazatlan with homes surrounding much of the championship 18-hole course. We must have hit six of those houses a total of 10 times. We were a group of beginners. Our instructor was an American man of Mexican-American descent who is fluent in both English and Spanish. Learning the language of the game was easy. How do you say 'golf club' in Spanish? The translation is the exact same: golf club. 
And in Mazatlan, long known for sport fishing, golf is having a little boom. Two years ago in October, Estrella del Mar, an 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Jr. golf course, opened along the Pacific Ocean, just 10 minutes south of the airport. And there are plans for a small 29-room hotel to open on the grounds, offering sea view rooms and a full round of golf for $100 a person, including the use of a cart. 
On the other hand, the Estrella del Mar -- the oceanside course -- is just building up a clientele. They take all comers and currently there are no houses to hit.
Mazatlan specializes in Mariscos or seafood dishes. The classic Shrimp Bucket, founded in the old part of town in 1963 still does big business but there are other restaurants in the newer Costa de Oro section of town that serve delicious jumbo shrimp at better prices. 
Hotels: Budget --Hotel San Diego offers a clean room for $12 with a fan. The range extends to the 5-star Marina El Cid, just five-years old, or the classy Pueblo Bonito, built in a historical architectural style, uncommon along the costera. Both offers comfortable rooms in the $125 range. Puerto Bonito: 1-800-442-5300. Marina El Cid: 1-800-525-1925. Internet: