Los Cabos’ reputation as a world-class golf destination originated with its incredible collection of courses. Since the late 1980s, Los Cabos has welcomed 18 new courses, with layouts crafted by a who’s who of legendary players and designers, from Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — who together have accounted for eight, with two more in development — to Tom Fazio and Robert Trent Jones Jr.
The quality of these courses alone would place Los Cabos in the top tier of golf destinations worldwide. However, as anyone who has visited the southernmost rim of the Baja California peninsula in recent years can attest, it’s not just the golf itself that’s spectacular: it’s the entire golfing experience. Los Cabos, as Golf Pass points out, “is the only golf destination that’s gone all-in on the comfort station. Almost every course worth playing, resort or private, offers the experience.”
Comfort stations, of course, are an extension of the old halfway house concept, meaning a place where players can grab a quick drink and a bite after finishing the front nine and preparing to tee off on the back. However, in Los Cabos, comfort stations — plural — are likely strategically placed throughout the course, and instead of a mediocre hot dog on a wilted bun, players are more likely to find a chef cooking up freshly caught fish for tacos, or a mixologist offering the best margarita you’ve ever had. Properly designed, comfort stations aren’t meant to distract from the course but rather to elevate the entire experience to another level — to turn the memorable into the unforgettable.
Comfort stations par excellence at Querencia Golf Club
Querencia Golf Club is an excellent example of this idea. Tom Fazio’s superb 7,284-yard, par-72 layout is the unquestioned star, as it should be given that Golf Digest has declared it one of the “World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses.” But its comfort food stations stand out in cameo roles. Originally, it had only one, Comfort Uno, accessible from the 6th and 13th holes. But as the comfort station “arms race” heated up in Los Cabos, Querencia moved Comfort Uno to make way for expanded offerings that include Comfort Dos, available from the 13th and 15th greens, and The Oasis, a comfort station-slash-restaurant at the turn.
Each is meant to provide refreshment and respite, a place to cool off after a great par — or a missed putt. The comfort stations are unstaffed and akin to a kid’s idea of a candy store, with a mix of treats and beverages golfers can enjoy in the moment or take with them for later. The Oasis, meanwhile, is staffed and offers everything from soups and sandwiches to Mexican specialties and desserts. To avoid slowing the pace of play, taco orders can be placed while players are still on the ninth hole. These waystations inject added and often unexpected pleasures into the golfing experience. Make those shared pleasures, reflecting Querencia’s status as a private, family-friendly community.
“Querencia has always been a golf-first property and our recent enhancements and additions to our stations and offerings have boosted our members’ enjoyment of the social and family aspects of the game,” notes Seth Westfall, PGA Director of Golf at Querencia. “Family, friends, great golf and the right snack or frozen margarita make a good day great!”
Mexican dishes are menu favorites at Los Cabos’ golf comfort stations
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Los Cabos’ location, Mexican specialties are a signature offering at many comfort stations. At Querencia, it’s tacos and burritos. At Solmar Golf Links, no less than three taco styles are offered — arrachera, Baja style fish and chicken pastor — on the Greg Norman-designed Pacific Coast layout, with samplers featuring all three as an option, plus cocktail pairings that include the mezcalita and the Cadillac margarita.
Meanwhile, at Puerto Los Cabos (PLC) — the unique 27-hole Jack Nicklaus course encompassing three separate 9-hole layouts — an even larger selection of Mexican specialties is available. For those who tee off early, breakfast bites may include tacos with egg and a choice of chorizo or machaca, and at subsequent stops, the menu may boast burritos, empanadas, quesadillas and tacos of the chicken, cochinita pibil, pastor, shrimp and steak varieties. Yes, there will be subsequent stops. PLC has a comfort station for all three Mission, Ocean and Vista course routings, ensuring visiting golfers never have to play more than three or four holes without a bartender to make rounds of icy cocktails and a chef to cook up delicious, freshly-made comfort food fare.
What sets Los Cabos’ comfort stations apart
All comfort station menus come with asterisks, it should be noted, as they’re frequently rotated at virtually all Los Cabos courses. For example, PLC — the only one of the three public golf courses managed by Questro Golf — rotates its menus every two weeks. If players know what to expect, the thinking goes, then the comfort stations lose one of their greatest assets: the power to surprise and delight.
PLC’s exceptional comfort stations are something of an outlier, as most of the best examples of these amenities, generally speaking, are provided not by public courses but by private ones like El Dorado, Cove Club and Querencia, or by courses that are ostensibly private but open to guests at select resorts. The latter type of course includes Cabo del Sol, Chileno Bay, Costa Palmas, Diamante’s trio of courses, Quivira, Solmar Golf Links and Twin Dolphin.
These private and “private except” courses generally have larger budgets for their comfort stations — Querencia’s is in the six figures annually — and more impressive real estate. One of the wonders of Quivira, for example, is an elevated comfort station near its sixth hole that features magnificent unobstructed views of the Pacific coastline of Cabo San Lucas all the way to Land’s End.
The ongoing evolution of the golf comfort station
Comfort stations at Los Cabos golf courses mostly feature comfort food, along with a curated selection of brand-label liquors and accompanying cocktails, The service is outstanding and the fare filling, but, generally speaking, not particularly luxurious. Still, some believe Los Cabos might have taken the concept too far. This number includes Mike Abbott, the man Golfweek calls “the godfather of the comfort station.” Abbott has helped to develop the signature amenity at golf courses at Diamante – where he’s currently overseeing the PGA World Wide Technology Championship and comfort stations at the in-development Legacy Club – and at El Dorado and Chileno Bay.
Following El Cardonal and the 12-hole Oasis Short Course, the Legacy Club will be the third Tiger Woods-designed course at Diamante, with an exclusive membership capped at 250. But that doesn’t mean its comfort stations will be particularly posh. Instead, Abbott wants to evoke the nostalgia of the old halfway house. “We’re going to change the profile again,” Abbott told Golfweek. “It’s going to have a creaky screen door and a greasy burger and all the great smells you associate with it.”
Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook, and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.
Source: Mexico News Daily
