By Dave McKibben
It has become an annual rite of passage in Yuma. Every winter, hundreds of seniors pile in buses jammed with golf bags, suitcases and bathing suits for a 3-hour drive to Puerto Penasco, Mexico.
The buses turn off just before hitting town and head straight for the Mayan Palace resort, where a picturesque Jack Nicklaus designed links course and a 700-room, 5-star resort and spa are situated along a two-mile peninsula.
“The first time my wife and I saw the Mayan resort, we were awestruck,” said Mark Croft, a PGA pro at Cocopah RV and Golf Course. “The hotel is beautiful, the pool is one of the most gorgeous you’ll ever and the golf course is a gem.”
Croft has been taking groups of golfers to Puerto Penasco for years.
“It’s a secret setting down there,” he said. “Anybody that goes there is going to come back with a great experience.”
Seventy-two-year old Evelyn Pribble is a believer. She’s been relocating her Yuma golf league south, to her favorite resort for three years.
“The course is tough and it’s always in excellent shape,” said Pribble, who expects to bring 85 seniors with her in January. “The hotel is something else. I was absolutely unable to inhale when I walked up there for the first time.”
Long-term plans for the resort are grandiose—more upscale time shares, high-rise condominiums and villas, a marina and two more golf courses, one designed by Nicklaus and the other by Greg Norman.
“Before the slump, this was going to be a small city,” said Andrew Gilchrist, director of golf at the Mayan resort.
The slump is related to a number of factors beyond Puerto Penasco’s control-- the prolonged economic recession in the U.S. and Mexico and a slowdown in the American golf industry.
But even though residential building has nearly ground to a halt—there are some 1,200 unfinished condos sprinkled along the sea--work has begun on a $15 million convention center that will host business gatherings now held at condo towers, hotel rooms and even restaurants. City leaders are also pushing for a home port that would serve as a terminal for cruise lines that already sail in the Sea of Cortez.
An international airport was built a few years ago by Grupo Vidanta, which owns the Mayan and four more golf resorts throughout Mexico. But the runway that nearly backs up to the Mayan resort has not had any commercial traffic in over a year. The hope is that in a few years, the convention center, the airport and the city’s three golf courses—two other courses are located closer to town--will feed off each other.
For now, Croft and Pribble say they will continue to make the 3-hour trek to the Mayan Palace and cash in on “the steal of the century. “One of my friends keeps telling me that we’ve got to go there as much as we can now,” Croft said. “Once everybody finds out about this place, we won’t be able to afford it.”
Special:
The resort offers three nights lodging, four days of unlimited golf and all meals for under $400 per person. A two-night package is priced under $300.
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