Hola Rob, which shopping centres are you talking about that are decaying?

All of them in Ixtapa across from the hotels. Some have sat empty for years. Many are literally crumbling. Some restaurants and many shops have closed. Discos abandoned. Most lack a paint job.

"It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh...people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.” They will line up, gladly hand over their money Ray....

Padrino probably knows about Baha Mar golf course between Rosarito and Ensenada Mexico. 55 bucks to play and many holes on the ocean. Short drive across the boarder from San Diego. We’ve all played enough courses in different locations. This rate for 125.00 will be bad for all. No way the owner or the course will survive. If someone pays that price that has not played the course before they will not play it again unless they make it a top notch course and that won’t happen in Ixtapa.

I have passed it many times (I think) but in the interests of full disclosure, my only experience with golf is miniature golf. To me, real golf seems like an invitation to hours of painful frustration, heartache, and self-loathing. Of course, if you can get that little white ball into the cup 350 yards away in three shots, then you can make a whole lotta' money!

Ha! That's what I thought until I discovered a cheap golf course near my home in Gainesville. They even had night golf. We'd huff a big one or two, smack a bucket of balls on the driving range, then play Zen Golf where you check your brain at the gate and don't worry about playing like Jack Nicklaus. We just had fun. A couple of beers and joints later we were back at the clubhouse wearing big grins and red eyes.

125 bucks a game in Ixtapa's Palma Real is simply ridiculous!

Padrino probably knows about Baha Mar golf course between Rosarito and Ensenada Mexico. 55 bucks to play and many holes on the ocean. Short drive across the boarder from San Diego. We’ve all played enough courses in different locations. This rate for 125.00 will be bad for all. No way the owner or the course will survive. If someone pays that price that has not played the course before they will not play it again unless they make it a top notch course and that won’t happen in Ixtapa.

I have passed it many times (I think) but in the interests of full disclosure, my only experience with golf is miniature golf. To me, real golf seems like an invitation to hours of painful frustration, heartache, and self-loathing. Of course, if you can get that little white ball into the cup 350 yards away in three shots, then you can make a whole lotta' money!

Thanks for the clarification, amigo. High-tech golf! Who'd a-thunk it?

Some folks are so crazy about golf that if a company invented a "smart" golf ball that would use artificial intelligence to change direction towards the cup, no price would be too high.

The gps will give you distances to the front, middle and back of the green. Maybe the owner took a trip to Cabo and got confused, $125 would be a bargain there. At $125 a round, 2 guys could do a full day fishing on a nice panga with a good captain. Not much of a decision for me. Zihuatanejo will never be Cabo or Cancun, at least in my time, thankfully.

Thanks for the clarification, amigo. High-tech golf! Who'd a-thunk it?

Somos Chachalacas!

Years ago I used to go to Barra de Navidad. I watched them build a beautiful golf course on the other side of the lagoon and an over the top clubhouse and restaurant/bar. The green fees for the getgo were ridiculous. The course was empty from the beginning and I'm betting it still is!

That must be over in Michoacan, across the bay/inlet from Barra de Navidad. The latter is in Jalisco. Someone apparently built a casino over there....you could just make it out from Barra. Chisme at the time said the development on the Michoacan side was drug money/laundering. Did you try the casino?

The new owner has made it clear that his focus is on the AI hotels and Timeshares along the beach on Playa El Palmar. He is a successful real estate developer who recently completed a project on the hills overlooking Playa La Ropa. And yes, his future plans are to have a restaurant upstairs and remove the tennis courts in front of Palma Real and build condos. He's also planning on reconfiguring hole #15 (their signature hole with the green adjacent to the beach) and build more condos there. He claims in three years or so the course will be among the best in Mexico. It is a beautiful Robert Trent Jones design that was damaged pretty bad from Hurricane Rick last October. As a full time resident I would have to play an average of twice a week for a year to get the price down to a reasonable $50U.S. Not impossible, but my physical health and the iffy weather over the summer might not let that happen. And $60,000P is a lot to bet on a dry summer and a healthy back! There is another course in town, Marina Ixtapa G.C., with more reasonable rates, but the course is in terrible shape IMO. You can buy a fifty round package, golf and cart, for just under $1,000P; there are packages available for fewer rounds. Their cart situation is terrible as well right now, although they are supposed to get carts from Palma Real this fall when Palma Real gets "newer" carts with GPS this fall.

Not being a golfer, what is the need for GPS?
Is it that easy to get lost on a golf course?

It's so the people who run the golf course can keep track of golfers and carts.

The new owner has made it clear that his focus is on the AI hotels and Timeshares along the beach on Playa El Palmar. He is a successful real estate developer who recently completed a project on the hills overlooking Playa La Ropa. And yes, his future plans are to have a restaurant upstairs and remove the tennis courts in front of Palma Real and build condos. He's also planning on reconfiguring hole #15 (their signature hole with the green adjacent to the beach) and build more condos there. He claims in three years or so the course will be among the best in Mexico. It is a beautiful Robert Trent Jones design that was damaged pretty bad from Hurricane Rick last October. As a full time resident I would have to play an average of twice a week for a year to get the price down to a reasonable $50U.S. Not impossible, but my physical health and the iffy weather over the summer might not let that happen. And $60,000P is a lot to bet on a dry summer and a healthy back! There is another course in town, Marina Ixtapa G.C., with more reasonable rates, but the course is in terrible shape IMO. You can buy a fifty round package, golf and cart, for just under $1,000P; there are packages available for fewer rounds. Their cart situation is terrible as well right now, although they are supposed to get carts from Palma Real this fall when Palma Real gets "newer" carts with GPS this fall.

Not being a golfer, what is the need for GPS?
Is it that easy to get lost on a golf course?

The new owner has made it clear that his focus is on the AI hotels and Timeshares along the beach on Playa El Palmar. He is a successful real estate developer who recently completed a project on the hills overlooking Playa La Ropa. And yes, his future plans are to have a restaurant upstairs and remove the tennis courts in front of Palma Real and build condos. He's also planning on reconfiguring hole #15 (their signature hole with the green adjacent to the beach) and build more condos there. He claims in three years or so the course will be among the best in Mexico. It is a beautiful Robert Trent Jones design that was damaged pretty bad from Hurricane Rick last October. As a full time resident I would have to play an average of twice a week for a year to get the price down to a reasonable $50U.S. Not impossible, but my physical health and the iffy weather over the summer might not let that happen. And $60,000P is a lot to bet on a dry summer and a healthy back! There is another course in town, Marina Ixtapa G.C., with more reasonable rates, but the course is in terrible shape IMO. You can buy a fifty round package, golf and cart, for just under $1,000P; there are packages available for fewer rounds. Their cart situation is terrible as well right now, although they are supposed to get carts from Palma Real this fall when Palma Real gets "newer" carts with GPS this fall.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Looking for the cheapest tourists we've ever seen to pay US$125 per round at Palma Real golf course is the epitome of stupidity. The foolish owner need only look at Ixtapa's decaying shopping centers where hardly any Time-Share or All-Included tourists venture, much less BUY anything. And the same OVERDEVELOPMENT and the arrival of Time-Share and Blue Flag is having the same effect in Zihuatanejo. Shops that used to sell thousands of pesos of goods a day are lucky to sell a few hundred pesos worth now. Someone needs a REALITY CHECK.