Ernie Els building his first Mexico course, in one of golf’s fastest-growing markets

For a man often called the “Massive Straightforward,” Ernie Els appears without end on the go.

A globetrotting famous person in his prime, the four-time main winner simply retains on preserving on, balancing a PGA Tour Champions profession with myriad travel-intensive enterprise pursuits.

Contemplate his far-flung work in golf design.

Since 2000, when he obtained began within the discipline, Els, 53, has constructed programs in practically a dozen nations and now has half a dozen initiatives underway, spanning from the Caribbean to Croatia.

The most recent? His first design in Mexico, on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsulain one of many hemisphere’s fastest-growing golf markets.

Located roughly quarter-hour from downtown Cabo San Lucas, alongside a mile of oceanfront, Surge Golf Hyperlinks will anchor an 860-acre resort group known as Oleada Pacific Residing & Golf.

Wave is a Spanish phrase for wave, and the course is a part of a swell of improvement that has remodeled what was as soon as a sleepy fishing village right into a hotbed of luxe golf resorts and personal getaways.

Els’ design will take its place on a shiny stretch of the Pacific, flanked by a pair of big-name golf locations — Diamantewhich is dwelling to designs by Davis Love III and Tiger Woods, and Grand Solmar, the place Greg Norman minimize the ribbon on a course three years in the past.

For Els, this primary alternative in Mexico can also be what he described as a designer’s dream, offering him with a sandy canvas marked by ridges and dramatic dunes.

“We’ve labored on so many differing kinds websites over time,” Els stated. “Coral and lava in Hawaii and Mauritius. South Africa on clay. That is by far essentially the most sand we’ve needed to work with, and actually one of the best pure website.”

With the routing, Els stated that he and his design associate, Greg Letsche, plan to benefit from the desert-meets-ocean setting, beginning greater up, on cactus-dotted terrain, however with the vast majority of holes working near the water. Given the coastal winds, Els stated he envisions vast touchdown areas to boost strategic choices and ground-game creativity — as linksy as you will get on a course that’s not technically a hyperlinks.

“There’s quite a lot of pure humps and bumps, and I need gamers to really feel that unevenness with out doing something too loopy,” Els stated. “You’re going to have the ability to play all types of pictures, and also you’re going to need to account for the breezes, simply as we’ll in our design.”

Plans for the Oleada improvement name for 3 luxurious resorts, together with a nursery, orchards, health and wellness facilities, mountaineering and biking trails, and extra. However the course itself, Els stated, will supply “core” golf, with lodging and different infrastructure set far again from the corridors of play.

The event broke floor early this 12 months, however Els’ work is simply simply starting. The course is anticipated to open in 2026. Go to here for extra data.

Josh Sens

Golf.com Contributor

A golf, meals and journey author, Josh Sens has been a GOLF Journal contributor since 2004 and now contributes throughout all of GOLF’s platforms. His work has been anthologized in The Finest American Sportswriting. He’s additionally the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Enjoyable But: the Cooking and Partying Handbook.