Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort - The Dunes of the Moons: Cancun, Mexico

- Usually most famous for spring breakers, beautiful beaches and warm water--Cancun is now featuring some of the greatest new courses in Mexico; offering tourists more reasons than excuses to experience this decadent--yet terrific--golf vacation playground for parents. The Moon Spa & Golf Club in Cancun offers three distinctive nine hole courses, but the newest is truly fantastic, and a world above all the others. The Dunes course is the first Jack Nicklaus signature course in Cancun; an anomaly among many impressive courses because this one seems to stand apart as the ultimate in Yucatan golfing. The conspicuous beauty and stark difference of this course is apparent and almost as obvious as an elephant in a lagoon of peacocks. This is not to say that the nine holes at the neighboring Lake and Jungle courses are a joke--they are not--but the Dunes course offers nine holes of some of the finest tropical golfing in Mexico.

Each of these three nine hole courses offers a distinct environment and a unique personality that caters to the surroundings, yet the Dunes is simply incomparable and unprecedented. Being the third and final course allowed the Nicklaus team sufficient time to engineer their masterpiece by using the faults of the Lake and Jungle courses as a learning experience. The greens and fairways were crafted with meticulous precision and the entire Dunes course is almost an aquatic work of art. The condition of the course is immaculate, complete with a pristine lagoon and a fabulous fusion of greens, blues and turquoise waters. A couple of the tee boxes may show signs of abuse, but if they can maintain this course in its current state it will be truly extraordinary. There is simply no other course like this in the Yucatan peninsula, and Nicklaus has raised the bar considerably for Cancun courses of the future.

The Dunes Course is not all style and scenery, there is true substance to these nine holes, and even those who look down upon nine hole courses will find something to praise about this one. Accuracy is the name of the game here, and you’ll be tested on almost every hole. This is not another Mexican golf resort course where you can pull out that Big Bertha and swing to the heavens like a demented Jon Daly on performance enhancing substances. There is something to be said about subtlety, and the Dunes course at Moon Spa & Golf Club personifies precision and patience.

If the Dunes course was eighteen holes you might end up frustrated and annoyed, but that’s the beauty of Moon Golf Club. You can combine this brutal nine with either the Lake or Jungle--both courses offer an open and more conventional layout--ideal for power golfers looking to let loose after the challenge of the Dunes. The Lake and Jungle courses are often buzzing with golfers like bees in a hive, while the Dunes course sometimes sits in silence waiting for courageous golfers to step up and enter the center of the belly of the beast. Reluctance is the virtue most often bestowed upon those who choose the more traditional courses, but for a true taste of Mexico’s finest you need to take a bite out of the Dunes.

The Dunes course is an adventure into the infinite possibilities and greatest unlimited vision of what Mexican golf can be. There is an aura of enchantment and magnificence about this course that sets it apart from all the others, and Nicklaus wouldn’t want it any other way. You’re going to lose some balls here, let’s face it, but if you’re courageous enough to battle this monster you will earn respect from the golfing gods. The Dunes course is reminiscent of when Nicklaus was criticized for creating courses that only Jack Nicklaus-caliber golfers could appreciate. This still might well be true, but if you never try you’ll never know.

The amenities at Moon Spa & Golf Club include two fantastic restaurants, offering some of the most delicious Asian and Italian cuisine in Cancun. A world class spa overlooking the courses also forces us to rank the facilities up there with other luxurious golfing oases of the Yucatan. The Dunes Course is a picturesque triumph of golfing architecture and even if you come only to admire the property, it is better than nothing. The wind is always an element on the Dunes course and it’s a mental nine holes like nothing you have ever imagined. Eventually, to post a good score you’ll need to gamble and aim for some of those narrow openings--so you’re either going to get burnt for being too greedy, or rewarded with the good fortune of mastering one of the finest new courses on the planet.