Golfing with the Gators in Cozumel

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Cozumel Golf and Country Club: Warning: Do not try to retrieve your ball from any water on the course as there may be aligators present. Aligators are known to lunge twice their body length.

When we see the warning posted in our golf cart and the starter tells us to look around the tee boxes before we tee off for aligators, I think about little two or three foot aligators. We had been to the aligator sanctuary out at Punta Sur and had not even seen a single gator. This was not even close, in total, we see four or five aligators in various places throughout the course ranging in size from a baby swimming around to the largest about 10 feet long! No kidding, these guys are just right there on the course, sunning themselves on the shores of the water hazards. Ian is teasing me because I am actually scared of them. Some other wildlife we encounter includes iguanas, which are running all over the place. We see two Kamona Dragon lizards, they are both pretty big, maybe 30 pounds each. We also see some pretty cool birds, ducks and a large termite nest.

We are really spoiled at home in the Kootenays, where we have spectacular golf courses all around for pretty low prices. Sunday prices here are the lowest you can get at $99 which includes cart, green fees and rental clubs - so not too bad. The regular price is $169. We are told the the memberships here cost $30,000, that's crazy! The golf in Cozumel is ok, the course itself is nothing really special. They've carved it out of a jungle, so done the best they could. There's no real intersesting elevation changes like at home in the mountains. There's only a couple par 5's and more par 3's than we're used to. The paths between the holes, while paved, are very long. They don't allow walking this course, everyone must drive a cart. Ian doesn't care much for their grass, he says it feels like golfing on an sos pad. He also doesn't like the gravel pit hazards found on many of the holes. We don't understand these since you could really hurt your shoulder hitting a rock instead of your ball. We aren't serious golfers anyway, so when our ball lands in one of those, we just pick it up and throw it on the fairway.

The rough is all jungle, so if you hit your ball off the fairway into the rough, it's gone for good, on some holes we are loosing a couple of balls each. By time we are on the 17th hole, we have only a couple of spares. I decide not to try hitting over the large jungle hazard presented, I probably won't make it anyway, so I just drop my ball on the other side. Between us, we go through over 20 balls. It's a good thing we brought lots with us from home. Something tells me they would be very expensive to purchase here in the pro shop.

We are happy to have had the Cozumel golf and wildlife experience, but I don't think we will golf here again. If you are coming to Cozumel, don't bother bringing your clubs, the rentals are fine. Just bring along lots of balls - you'll certainly need them!

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