Manzanillo, Mexico
Today we arrived in Manzanillo, Mexico. We decided after reviewing all of our options that we would play a round of golf. Las Hadas was the closest course and were able to book a 2 pm tee time.
The ship had a later than usually arrival time and we were able to get off the ship a bit after noon. This gave us the opportunity to have breakfast and lunch on the ship.
There was a long pier for the ship. We collected our clubs at guest services and were on our way. Long walk off the pier and then we did manage to secure a taxi for the 10 mile drive. Much more reasonable here than the other locations we hired a taxi for. $15 out and $15 back. Raul spoke no English but I managed to communicate that he could come back to get us at 6 pm.
I had learned earlier in the week that Manzanillo was made famous by being the location that the 1979 movie starring Bo Derek and Dudley Moore “10” was filmed. What I didn’t realize was that the course we played was at the Las Hadas Resort that was made world famous by the production. I never thought much of the movie but it did make Bo Derek, the cornrow hairstyle, and Ravel’s “Bolero” famous.
We met the golf pro Jaime that I chatted with yesterday. We questioned the high price for a round of golf and only managed to get use of the driving range for free. Jaime recommended a caddy since the course was not marked well. We didn’t use the caddy. Jaime said it is a challenging course and 14 of the 18 holes have water hazards.
We followed the driving range attendant to the range and met another golfer that obviously was not Mexican. He was from Alberta, Canada but now lived here permanently 6 months out of the year. Our first clue about the condition of the course came from this gentlemen and the range attendant. There were no balls ready for us on the range. The attendant took a shag bag and his cart and proceeded to pick up balls using the shag bag. The Canadian told us how the course was built after the filming of the movie and it was absolutely beautiful. Hard times hit and the course went into a slump. An investor purchased it and decided to put some money into it. I got the feeling that this golfer lived down here because it was famous 45 years ago. Maybe he thought he would find Bo Derek here. The city of Manzanillo saw no signs of being famous and neither did the resort. The golfer I chatted with joked about how many balls he loses on this course during a game.
I did a search of the course from the 1970s and it looked beautiful. The many stone bridges that went over a river that flowed through the course now only went over weeds. The pumps that kept the water flowing are not running and some of the bridges had collapsed.
The greens weren’t bad, the fairways were ok but if a ball went off the fairway, good luck finding it. If I ever play this course again, I’ll be sure to bring a wheelbarrow full of balls.
We did enjoy our round of play and our many jokes about the condition of the course. I had asked Jaime if we were going to have the course to ourselves and he said that the members will start to show up later in the afternoon. We had the course to ourselves. No members showed.
We finished about 5:30 and stopped in the clubhouse for a drink. Raul showed up on time and took us back. We had dinner back on the ship and finished with some cards on the Lido while the ship left for our next destination, Puerto Vallarta. We arrive tomorrow at 8 am and then a 6 day cruise to Hawaii follows.…