Gamble Gamble goes to Mexico

Viva Mazatlán!

I am on the West Coast of Mexico this week at a resort called Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay. It is a beautiful location with the majority of the guests from the West Coast of the US and Mexico.

Positives: Beautiful scenery, exceptional staff, great food and really nice guests.

Negatives: I had to watch my Philadelphia Eagles lose to the Seahawks in front of an entire room of Seattle residents. They were by far the nicest fans I’ve ran into and were nothing like the Giants fans I typically run into. They even did “golf claps” when their team got a first down rather than our typical opponent’s fans who yell some variant of “take that you f***ing Philly scum.” So that was nice.

In order to sooth the pain of that loss, I have decided to take a journey to Estrella Del Mar for a round of golf. There are three courses in Mazatlán and they are:

1. El Cid - closest to our resort but it looks like a standard flat well kept municipal course from back home.

2. Marina Golf Course - this one was about the same distance but since I could only go to one course this trip, I decided to go with the third one...

3. Estrella Del Mar - this course looked beautiful on the website and for only $20 (360 MXN) more you can play this over the Marina course. Plus the website said they had New Taylormade clubs for rent. FULL DISCLOSURE I expect that to mean they have R15 drivers in December 2017 but anything post SLDR will be a win in my book. If they have the 2016 M1 that would be epic. (No pun intend... ok maybe it was intended.)

I’ll make another post after I play it to let you know how it went. The pictures of me going there are dark since my tee time is at 7:15 and it is a 45 minute drive.

Ok maybe 39 minutes since my taxi driver is driving like he’s attempting to go back in time...

Early morning pictures:

Apparently Gamble Gamble disappeared in a black Suburban and is being held for ransom?

Sounds like fun. Go Patriots!

Photos:

Part 2:

Part Tres

Love food pics, but those eggs are clucking! Obviously you had the kidnapping insurance, looks like a great place.

Love food pics, but those eggs are clucking! Obviously you had the kidnapping insurance, looks like a great place.

Seriously I did not have one meal under an 8 out of 10 the whole time I was there.

I am heading back to the states after my 2nd trip to Mazatlan. I am having trouble sleeping since someone decided to use fireworks at Midnight just outside our window. The perfect ending to a relaxing trip.

I played the other two courses.

El CID is meh, but their caddy setup was nice. They have three 9’s: Marina, Moro, Castilla. I played their Marina/Moro course. Moro was very basic and reminded me of a Bermuda grass covered muni. Their Marina course was much nicer. If you play there make sure you get on the Marina 9. Ask for Felipe the caddy, he was excellent.

Mazatlan Marina course, THIS IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT 18 hole course not affiliated with El Cid.

If you want to play golf and do not want to drive 50-60 minutes this is a great option. Estrella Del Mar is still my favorite but if you include the short drive (5 minutes from Emerald Bay) this is the winner. It is well maintained and has a friendly staff. The course gets very windy but is fair. The course has very little rough but errant shots will find a desert like lie somewhat like TPC Scottsdale. When I get home I will post some pictures. It is a beautiful course and if you go on Fridays ask for the local price of $55 instead of the $110 standard price. I played the course 3 times and it got better with each play.

If you go there as a single you can play super fast as long as you don’t get stuck behind some of the retirees that are regulars. I found that vacationers let me pass through whereas the “locals” (READ: retired Americans with no golf etiquette) would not let me pass through even though they played at a pace that rivals the Havercamps from Caddyshack and I was on pace to do a sub 2 hour round.

Also, get the tacos at the halfway house. This is not a joke. They were THE BEST TACOS I had during the whole trip. Keep in mind we went to every restaurant we could during our 9 days and the best tacos were ordered a the turn and delivered to me on the 11th tee box.

EDIT: I almost forgot to add... I had one of the funnier experiences while playing there on Friday. As we were playing the 14th hole I had a little dog come out to say hi to me. He was acting very timid until he sprinted out to my ball, picked it up and fumbled it back into the fairway. Sweet, he just reduced my approach by 2 yards. Thanks little buddy. (Buddy was the name his owner was yelling at him while he started barking after fumbling the ball.) I went back to my cart to get the correct club (and my phone to take a picture) and the little guy took my ball and sprinted into his house. His owner threw me back another ball to make up for it. Usually I wouldn’t trade a TP5 “my number” ball for an Aeroburner ball but this time I think Buddy earned it.

The trip was excellent and I highly recommend Mazatlan to anyone looking for a getaway. Let me know if you guys have any questions. I got a few via PM from the last one but I’m here to help.

Adios for now.

Here are some pictures.