You ready to lose some balls? Punta Brava Golf & Surf Club looks like the perfect place to do it. Photo: Harris Kalinka
Golf and surfing are strange bedfellows, but for one reason or another they are. Lots of surfers love to golf, and lots of golfers love to surf. And if you’re one of those people — especially one who happens to live in Southern California, the news that a golf and surf club near Ensenada, with holes designed by none other than Tiger Woods, may come as a pleasant surprise.
It may not be a surprise, since the plans were first put on paper back in 2006. A guy named Brian Tucker was poking around the Punta Banda peninsula and found a strip of land that pokes seven miles out into the Pacific. It’s a beautiful bit of earth, all jagged rocks and incredible views, and Tiger Woods signed up to lend a hand. It’s called the Punta Brava Golf & Surf Club, and the early designs look pretty freaking spectacular.
Baja, as you likely know, is a bit of a haven for surfers looking to escape the crowds of Southern California. A quick jump over the southern border and a 4×4 gives one access to all sorts of hidden little gems down that stretch of coast, so if you’re a person who likes to ride waves and scream internally at yourself because you’ve chosen the ridiculous task of hitting a tiny while ball into a tiny hole hundreds of yards away 18 times in a row… well, this might be of interest.
Kelly Slater, a famously golf-obsessed surfer, tried to explain why, exactly, so many surfers get into golf. “Golf and surfing are kind of ultimate challenges,” he said. “They’re almost opposite to each other. Surfing is all movement; energy, nature, whatever. The golf course is kind of just sitting there waiting for you to make yourself look bad.”
Woods did all the original routing for the club, which will likely make it a not-very-easy course to play. Each hole has an ocean view, surrounded by an OB area that you don’t want to play into. Woods had the help of Beau Welling, an “architect of record for the West Course at Fields Ranch, the new-ish golf complex on the campus of the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
Together they created a blueprint for the course, located just south of Ensenada, but after they ran into some snags, the project’s fire began to smolder a bit. Then Tom Doak took over and threw a bit of gas on it. Doak’s no slouch when it comes to designing courses, either. The man has six courses ranked among the top 100 in the world.
When/if the project is finally finished, it looks as though it’ll be two things: one of the most beautiful courses on the planet and a course you’ll want to pack a few extra balls to play.
