Our Puerto Vallarta golf tour included the picturesque Vista Vallarta Golf Club located only 20 minutes east of town toward the coastal mountains. Vista Vallarta features two different golf courses, Nicklaus and Weiskopf. Colorful flower beds, hedges and two circular stairways surround a classical fountain and frame a grand entrance to the Spanish style clubhouse. A barrage of forced carries and sharp chasms are major characteristics at both courses.
Vista Vallarta Nicklaus Course
Nicklaus is a tournament quality course. A slew of PGA and International Tour players contested the 2002 World Golf Championship here. Curiously, almost twenty years later, they continue to promote this historical fact with a large mural of the players.
Climbing higher than the Weiskopf course provides the Nicklaus course with more frequent views of the Sierra Madre mountain forests. As with all the courses we played in the area, the average Bermuda grass fairways are not lush. However, greens are consistent. Many forced carries over culverts, rocks and water, several which are blind, give this course punch. Water exists in only one area. But fairway and green-side bunkering is significant. Two holes include center-located bunkers splitting the fairway.
The 262 yard (white tee) short Par4 Hole #13 is a microcosm of the course. A slight dogleg left around a towering tree, across a blind gully, leads to a dangerously narrow plateaued green. The visual from the teeing ground is an avalanche of bunkers that overwhelms the landing area. The authors driver shot that found among the rocks never had a chance. We recommend hiring one of the available forecaddies to steer away from unknown trouble.
The Vista Vallarta Nicklaus course is fun if you can navigate the chasms.
Explore other Mexico golf courses from Quintessential Golf Magazine.
