Cancun and the Mundo Maya region in general, have its sights on gaining market share in the World of golf. Rumor has it that the Riviera Maya will see six courses open over the next five years. Cancun’s Robert Trent Jones designed Pok-Ta-Pok course is currently getting an overhaul via the good folks at ClubCorp, and near Playa del Carmen is the highly rated Robert von Hagge course at Playacar.

Off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, the island of Cozumel has unveiled its first golf course, designed by Nicklaus. Having been granted the first permit in almost 20 years for golf construction in the Yucatan, ClubCorp in conjunction with Diamond Golf Constuction fashioned a championship course that is expected to serve as the ecological model for all pulverizing rock into bunker sand to hewing trees into lumber for a bridge over a mangrove swamp, this project is an environmental masterpiece. For years, Cozumel has been known for its world-class reef diving, but this new course will encourage any diver to trade in his fins for a set of clubs.

The courses of the Mexican Caribbean offer practice areas, putting greens, golf-cart rental, golf clubs for men or women, special shoes, and tips from on-site pros.

Golf courses owe their success and prestige to the designer or group that prints its signature, some of them internationally renowned with a presence in, of course, the Mexican Caribbean.

Some of the golf courses in Cancun are members of the Mexican Caribbean Golf Course Association.

Among the most well-known is Robert Trent Jones Jr., who has designed more than 700 golf courses, including the Cancun Golf Club (also known as Pok Ta Pok). Jack Nicklaus, with more than 200 golf courses world-wide, signs and endorses The Golf Club at Moon Palace as Nicklaus Signature, and his company, Nicklaus Design, takes the honors for the Mayan Resorts Golf Riviera Maya golf course and the Cozumel Country Club.

On the other hand, among the victors of the International Gold Tee Winners 2004, of the famous Meetings & Conventions magazine, is the Hilton Cancun Golf Club golf course, designed by Isao Aoki and Pedro Guereca.

The Gran Meliá Cancún and Grand Oasis executive golf courses are worthy of mention due to their beauty.

The Golf Club at Playacar, designed by Robert Von Hagge and Puerto Aventuras, designed by Thomas Lehman, complete the interesting golf circuit of the Mexican Caribbean.