Diamante Cabo San Lucas features courses by Tiger Woods and Davis Love III.
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Venture about 20 minutes west of the hubbub of the pier and downtown Cabo towards the Pacific Ocean and you’ll find the bustling Diamante Cabo San Lucas, hunkered down near the coast of the Pacific Ocean on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.
The area at Diamante is vast and host to four offerings to scratch your golf itch. One of those is a 15-hole putting course that changes its routing daily. Another is the 12-hole Oasis short course. The main draws, however, are the Dunes course designed by Davis Love III and ranked third on Golfweek’s Best: Top 50 courses in Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic islands and Central America, and El Cardonal, the first golf course designed by Tiger Woods, which ranks 26th on that list.
Coming soon: the Legacy, set to be an ultra-private experience for the membership.
Golf fans will get good, long looks at El Cardonal in November 2023 when it hosts the PGA Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship.
Take a look at some of the best photos of the golf at Diamante Cabo San Lucas.
“It’s so cool. It warms my heart seeing everyone here.”
Brian Harman received a hero’s welcome when he arrived home to McKinnon St. Simons Island Airport in Georgia on Friday.
Fellow major winner Davis Love III, PGA Tour pro and fellow Georgia alum Harris English and Harman’s swing coach, Justin Parsons, were among more than 50 friends and fans that surprised The Champion Golfer of the Year upon his arrival.
“It’s so cool. It warms my heart seeing everyone here,” Harman told PGA Tour.com. “My wife played it off pretty good. I was thinking we would just scoot home and not see anybody, so I’m thrilled everyone came out. It’s really touching.”
Harman, who won for the first time in more than six years on Sunday and collected his first major championship, stepped off the plane holding his youngest of three children in his left arm and the Claret Jug, the famed trophy that the winner of the British Open is awarded custody for one year, in his right.
Harman hung around and posed for pictures, signed autographs and drank a Coors Light from the Claret Jug.
“There’s booze in there, sorry,” Harman said with a grin in a video posted to social media by the PGA Tour.
Young fans settled to touch the trophy.
The Champion Golfer of the Year has returned ❤️@HarmanBrian was welcomed by friends and fans when he arrived home in Sea Island. pic.twitter.com/MmpMSY2q0d
Harman flew back to the U.S. early Monday morning following a celebration the night before at Hickory’s Smokehouse, not far from where he won the British Open at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England. Harman met up with his wife and three kids, who watched his victory from her family’s home in the Syracuse, New York, area.
“The last three or four days have been really nice,” he said. “We’ve been secluded up there by the lake. But it’s nice to get back and see a bunch of familiar faces and get to celebrate with them.”
Harman has called St. Simons Island, part of a chain of barrier islands nicknamed the Golden Isles, for most of his career. Based on his arrival home, the party is just beginning for Harman’s career-defining moment in this picturesque corner of southern Georgia – halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida.
Love withdrew just ahead of the opening round of the U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Davis Love III withdrew just ahead of the opening round of the U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Love was selected by U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson to serve as a vice captain for the 2023 matches which will take place from Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome. He was one of 72 exempt players in the field and was scheduled to make his third appearance at a U.S. Senior Open.
He was replaced in the field by 55-year-old Tom Werkmeister, the first alternate. Werkmeister went off in a threesome with Jerry Kelly and Kevin Sutherland at 9:42 ET and will play with that pairing through the first two days. The event will be broadcast on Golf Channel from 12-3 p.m. ET and 6-8 p.m.
This isn’t Werkmeister’s first appearance in the event, in fact, it’s his fourth. He finished T-43 in 2019 when the tournament was staged at The Warren Course at Notre Dame, in South Bend, Ind.
“I get inspired when I get here, so hopefully things will come together for the weekend,” said Love.
The RBC Heritage means a little more to Davis Love III, especially this year.
A five-time winner of the event, Love was 5 years old when his father competed in the inaugural RBC Heritage in 1969 (won by Arnold Palmer). The tournament will be held for a 55th time this week at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, with Love as its honorary chairman.
“This has been such a big part of my family’s golfing life, and the Heritage means a lot to me, not just because of winning it but being able to play in it for so long, so close to home,” said Love, a resident of St. Simons Island, Georgia. “My kids grew up coming here, now my granddaughters are growing up coming here, and just a big part of my life. It’s great to be the honorary chairman.”
In March of 2020, Love’s three-story, 12,000-square foot plantation-style home of more than 20 years caught fire, and his family lost a lifetime of mementos and memories.
“Three years ago, we lost our house in a fire. (Tournament director Steve Wilmot) gave me a new trophy with all five years of winning the Heritage on it, and one thing I was missing was a plaid jacket,” explained Love on Tuesday. “It’s nice — I asked the first thing when he said would you be the honorary chairman, I said, ‘Yeah, can I get a jacket?’”
Love has played the Heritage a tournament record 33 times and was just 23 years old when he won in 1987 for his first PGA Tour win. To this day, he still holds the mark as the event’s youngest champion. He’ll celebrate his 59th birthday with more than just a new plaid jacket. On Thursday, he has an opening-round tee time alongside Si Woo Kim and Kevin Kisner.
“I’d like some birdies for my birthday this year since it’s on Thursday, the first round, and I’d like to get off to a good start on my birthday,” said Love.
With its new status as a designated event for 2023, seven of the top-10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (and 38 of the top 50) are heading to Hilton Head. While that’s great for the tournament and the area, it’s tough for long-time competitors like Love.
“I’m going to have to play really well to get in again,” explained Love. “It’s a little bit sad for me, but I’m excited for the growth of the tournament.”
Love has 10 top-five finishes over the years at the Heritage, but has only made the cut twice in his last eight appearances.
“It’s not ready yet. Maybe something will happen between now and Thursday,” said Love of his game. “But coming off a lot of injuries. I haven’t really been able to get a lot of rounds in. You know, like Freddy Couples at the Masters, I get inspired when I get here, so hopefully things will come together for the weekend.”
Jack Nicklaus is the only three-time winner of the Players, and he did so at three different courses.
All jokes about being golf’s fifth major aside, the Players Championship has a knack for delivering each year.
Turnover is the main theme, seeing as no player has ever defended their title at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, which has been held annually at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, since 1982.
In fact, over the last 20 editions of the Players Championship, 20 different winners have hoisted the trophy. Eight past champions are in the field this week with the aim of joining the short, distinguished list of six players who have won the tournament more than once, including Jack Nicklaus, the lone three-time winner.
Love played in six Ryder Cups and has served as captain twice.
U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson has selected Davis Love III to serve as a vice captain for the 2023 matches, Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome.
“I’ve been involved in the Ryder Cup since 2006, and I can tell you, without a doubt, that Davis Love III’s passion for the event is unmatched,” Johnson said in a release. “As I thought about the 2023 U.S. Team and those who we’d ask to serve as a Vice Captain, there was no doubt that Davis would be one of those individuals. I will lean heavily on the experience and insight of DLIII in Italy as the U.S. Team works to retain the Ryder Cup.”
Love’s Ryder Cup resume includes two stints as captain (2012, 2016) and six appearances as a player.
“The Ryder Cup is one of the truly special events in all of sports, and I am so honored to be named a Vice Captain in Italy in 2023,” said Love in a release. “Zach has worked tirelessly since he was named Captain, and I’m ready to do whatever it takes to help Zach and the entire U.S. Team to win in September.”
In September 2022, Love led the U.S. side to victory at the Presidents Cup.
As of now, the six automatic qualifiers for the U.S. team are Scottie Scheffler, Will Zalatoris, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young and Dustin Johnson. It’s unknown if Johnson will be eligible for the event due to his ties with LIV Golf.
Here’s the roll call of players considered “local” to TPC Sawgrass and Ponte Vedra Beach who have won majors. It’s impressive.
Despite the best efforts of the PGA Tour and a younger demographic of players and media who are keeping an open mind, The Players Championship still can’t crack the public consciousness of joining The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in being considered a major championship.
The Players will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024 so it’s had time. And the fact that it still isn’t widely recognized as a major has more to do with how entrenched the other four are.
Attitudes and history can change. When Bobby Jones was considered the best golf in the world in the 1920s and 1930s, he won 13 major championships. However, at the time, the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur were considered majors, along with the U.S. Open and British Open — largely because amateur golf was considered a higher level of competition since the professional game hadn’t yet blossomed and the Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club were still unrealized dreams by their founder — Jones.
Six of Jones’ majors were amateur events, five U.S, Opens and one British Open. And in 1930, when he won all four in one year, New York sportswriter George Trevor termed the feat, “the impregnable quadrilateral.”
Respect for Jones was so universal that gradually the Masters came to be thought of as a major, and when professionals such as Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson got into the prime of their careers, the PGA Championship also became more elevated.
Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus solidify the majors
The final piece of the puzzle in why the current four are accepted as majors was Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, whose powerful style of golf and charisma captured fans’ imagination. They especially cemented the Masters as perhaps the top dog of the grand slam events when they combined to win 10 times at Augusta.
Fast forward to the Tiger Woods Era. He had a poster of Jack Nicklaus on his wall at home as a young boy, with a list of Nicklaus’ 18 major championships. Woods dreamed of getting to that goal and he has 15, winning his last at the 2019 Masters — his fifth green jacket.
Woods followed the same script that Nicklaus and Palmer did: save his best for the majors, which only further served to keep their status at the top of the worldwide tournament food chain intact.
Majors history goes back nearly 160 years
Obviously, the majors have a rich history. The British Open is the oldest golf tournament in the world, having started in 1863. The U.S. Open launched in 1895, the PGA in 1916 and the Masters in 1934.
But the history of the world’s two main amateur events can’t be left in a dusty book. The U.S. Amateur began the same year as the U.S. Open and the British Amateur in 1885. Let’s just call them the amateur majors, which is both historically accurate and relevant to the modern game.
The history of those events also involves First Coast and South Georgia natives and those who have lived in the areas on a long-term basis. Six of those men have combined to win the four professional majors nine times. Six more have combined to win the amateur majors 11 times.
Here’s the roll call of players considered “local” to TPC Sawgrass and Ponte Vedra Beach who have won those 20 majors, listed on a chronological basis of when they won their first or only major:
“I stood in that barn and watched my house burn down. I don’t think I can ever go back in there.” — Robin Love
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Day after day, Robin Love would wake without an alarm at the same time every morning: 5 o’clock, the time when their three-story, 12,000-square foot plantation-style home of more than 20 years caught fire on March 27, 2020.
“When you see 4:55 or 5 o’clock on the clock, you can’t go back to sleep,” her husband, World Golf Hall of Fame member Davis Love III said.
Often after the catastrophe, Robin would rise from her bed, drive over to the site of their old home and sit by the seven-stall horse barn that survived the flames and watch the sun rise. When Davis would get up, he’d wonder where his wife had gone and would call her. With concern in his voice, he’d ask, “Why are you doing this to yourself?”
“I’m doing it because it makes me feel better,” Robin would say.
The Loves hosted the RSM Classic Pro-Am party in their backyard before it burned to the ground in 2020. (Courtesy Davis Love III)
In the aftermath of losing their home, and with it a lifetime of mementos and memories, in a two-alarm fire, the Loves experienced a range of emotions from disbelief to anger and finally acceptance. Nothing symbolized this transformation more than the horse barn.
“She wanted to tear it down,” Davis recalled. “She’d say, ‘I stood in that barn and watched my house burn down.’ She said, ‘I don’t think I can ever go back in there.’”
This is the story of how Robin Love came full circle, and now the couple is on the verge of breaking ground to rebuild their family home nestled among live oaks and palms on a secluded five-acre lot with prime marsh frontage.
Glynn County firefighters battle the blaze at the St. Simons Island, Ga., home of Davis Love III. [Kyle Jurgens, Glynn County Fire and Rescue]Davis and Robin Love dated in high school at Glynn Academy, and the couple are the unofficial mayors of this picturesque corner of Southeast Georgia, the largest of a chain of barrier islands nicknamed the Golden Isles. For a decade, the Loves hosted the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic pro-am draft party for tournament participants in a tent in their backyard, where guests feasted on the island’s best low-country cuisine and Robin made sure that every detail – down to the flowers on the tables – were right. Their daughter Lexi was married at the home, as were a handful of friends. Charity events were held there. Losing their home was a traumatic experience, and each handled the pain and anguish in different ways.
“I remember hearing about Raymond Floyd (whose home burned down in 1992) and thinking that’s really sad but until you go through it you can’t imagine,” Davis said. “It’s hard because people ask questions all the time such as do you have that putter from that time? And I’m like, no, I actually don’t.
“It’s kind of like when somebody passes away, say you lose a parent, and you come up with something you say to everybody. I’m really good at deflecting. I’ll say, ‘Look at my new putter.’ I’m really good at changing the subject because you don’t want to say, ‘I lost everything I have in a fire and I have nothing left.’ And they go, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have brought that up.’ ”
Davis Love III and wife Robin present Tyler Duncan with the winner’s trophy after the final round of the 2019 RSM Classic on the Seaside course at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
As he had done so many times before, Davis relied on the counsel of noted sports psychologist Bob Rotella.
“He’s a psychologist first, sports psychologist second. He’s helped me through my brother-in-law’s suicide, losing my dad, and all the things that have happened to me. He was all over it,” Davis said. “If it wasn’t for Rotella, I wouldn’t have gotten through it.”
Love’s first question? “What do I say to my granddaughter?” Davis recalled. “She wants to go see the house that is still smoldering. What do I do? She was 5. He says, ‘If she wants to go, take her. You tell her that it’s just things and we’re going to rebuild it and you can help pick out things for the house. Let her know everything is OK and life is going to move on.’ We got there and she said, ‘Poppy, is the barn, OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah, the barn is fine.’ She goes, ‘What about the boat?’ I said, ‘The boat is fine. It’s at the dock.’ She said, ‘Well, then everything is going to be OK.’ Rotella let me let her be a part of it, and she saved the day for me. There’s 10 other stories like that, that he helped me say or do the right thing that made everyone else feel OK.”
Rotella said Love handled “this gut check” the way he always does: “He’s the strong one who turns his energy to helping everyone else.”
Rotella has long preached the importance of looking at everything that happens in life as a blessing. As such, all of his teachings are about perspective and how to respond to the ups and downs of life. He advised Love, “If you can find a silver lining, you can deal with anything.”
Rotella had another refrain he repeated: it’s going to take time, so, don’t do anything drastic.
The Loves moved into a nearby house on the island and went so far as to put the property where their former home once stood on the market, but Davis deliberately set a price so outlandish that he knew it wouldn’t sell. In the back of his mind, he hoped Robin would have a change of heart. Their new home was beautiful in its own right, and it quickly became a popular gathering spot for friends as Robin resumed her role as ‘the hostess with the most-ess.’ (Georgia football is undefeated the past two seasons since Robin started screening Bulldog games at their new pad.) But as Robin said of their new home, “It’s like it really isn’t mine. I’d built everything else where we had lived.”
Captain Davis Love III of the United States Team and wife Robin Love ride in a golf cart during Friday four-ball matches on day two of the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Before long, Robin started to be drawn back to the site of the old home. She fed her kittens there and tended to the garden and dealt with the emotional trauma she had suffered in her own way. Davis remained concerned. He insisted he wasn’t going to leave her to play tournament golf until she met with a therapist. Robin set an appointment, went to the first session and at the end shook the therapist’s hand and said, “Thank you very much, I did this for my husband, and I won’t be coming back.”
Slowly but surely, Robin determined there was nothing to be gained by dwelling on the past. The wheels shifted in motion to move forward, and she began finding comfort on the grounds of their old place.
“The land is still here,” she said. “Just the house is gone.”
The Loves continued to maintain the swimming pool at their former home and this is where Robin did her healing. Davis says that’s still a work in progress for her, and admittedly she was reluctant to talk for this story. Certain memories can trigger a flood of emotions.
“Christmas will be hard. My mom’s needlepoint stockings for everybody in the family, that’s the stuff that gets you. Golf things, that’s just stuff, but family heirlooms can’t be replaced,” Davis said. “I’m not going to have pictures to pass down to my kids because 90 percent of them are gone.”
From the rubble of the fire, Love recovered this Ryder Cup 2016 flask. (Courtesy Davis Love III)
On the one-year anniversary of the fire, Robin went to the barn and watched the sunrise, said her prayers thanking God for the two of them getting out of the house alive and pledged that she would build a new house.
“She’s an incredibly strong person and has gone through a lot,” Davis said. “A lot of people would have crawled into a hole and never come out.”
The Loves hired the architect that designed the home they bought after the fire and have incorporated their favorite elements of their temporary digs into the new design. They are set to seek approval on plans in January, and hope to begin building a seaside cottage-style house early next year. The goal is to host the RSM Classic Pro-Am party in their old yard at their new house in November 2024. Then, and only then, the circle will be complete.
“It was my forever house and it’s gone, so this next one will have to be my forever house,” Robin said. She paused, chuckled, and said, “It will have to be. I’m getting too old.”
Love withdrew from the tournament before play began, citing a left wrist injury.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Tournament host Davis Love III pulled out of his own tournament on Thursday.
The 58-year-old Love, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, was expected to make his 788th PGA Tour start this week at the RSM Classic. But he withdrew from the tournament before play began, citing a left wrist injury. He had made the cut six times in 12 previous appearances in the tournament, with a T-4 in 2012.
Scott Brown was the benefactor of Love’s decision not to play. Brown teed off at 9:20 a.m. ET on the Plantation Course with Cameron Champ and Sahith Theegala.
Love, winner of 21 PGA Tour titles including the 1997 PGA Championship, is the unofficial mayor of this barrier island, and will still be involved in tournament activities including the trophy presentation on Sunday. The Davis Love Foundation is the tournament’s main benefactor.
Anders Alberts also withdrew from the tournament due to a back injury, but there were no more alternates on site to take his spot so the field size has been reduced to 155.
Anders Albertson WD from The RSM Classic due to a back injury. Without an alternate available to fill Albertson's spot in the field, the field size is now 155.
Cole Hammer and Philip Knowles (9:50 a.m./Plantation Course/No. 10) are playing as a twosome.
Davis Love III has a veritable museum of his achievements on display all over the island at Sea Island Resort.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – In 1978, Davis Love III’s father, renowned instructor Davis Jr., was given a blank slate to start an instructional school anywhere in the country. He chose Sea Island Resort here in this picturesque corner of southern Georgia—halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida—and it’s been Love’s home ever since.
Love, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017, has a veritable museum of his achievements on display all over the island. A local restaurant, Brogen’s North, has a caddie bib worn by brother Mark at the 1995 Ryder Cup matches at Oak Hill and a framed print of Love after his cup-clinching putt at The Belfry in 1993. Some of Love’s winning hardware have been the focal point of an elegant trophy room at Sea Island Resort.
When Love won the 1997 PGA Championship, hand-painted banners and a billboard along U.S. 17 offered congratulations. After the 2016 Ryder Cup victory, Love was welcomed home by a live band at McKinnon Airport, a small airstrip on the island favored by players who fly private.
Love has returned the community’s affection by hosting the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, a tournament that has raised nearly $29 million for local charities. He does everything from handing out the trophy to hosting the pro-am party, and is making his 788th Tour start in the tournament this week, which kicks off its 13th year on Thursday at the Resort’s Seaside and Plantation courses.
Sea Island Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia. (Photo: Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
“The community rallies behind it every year,” said Zach Johnson, a Sea Island resident who is one of two players in the field that has competed in every edition of the RSM Classic to date (the other being Chris Kirk).
Johnson, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, already has claimed the John Deere Classic, his true home game, and now he’s gunning for his adopted hometown tourney. Somehow, none of the local boys, who are collectively known as the Sea Island Mafia, have ever had bragging rights as champion of the RSM Classic.
“Based on the amount of talent that lives here, based on the resumes that live here and having that course knowledge, it is a little bit surprising. I find it a little bit odd. But it’s hard,” Johnson said. “At some point that’s probably got to happen.”
Johnson, who has three top-10 finishes in his last five RSM starts, would love nothing more than to set off a celebration on the island. But the 12-time Tour winner hasn’t won on the since hoisting the Claret Jug in 2015 at St. Andrews.
“It completely and utterly eats at me,” Johnson said of his victory drought. “But I know how hard this game is and typically, you know, when I’ve had valleys, if you will, the motivation to go work and try to get out of that valley has never been an issue.”
It should be noted that technically a resident already has won the RSM.
Kevin Kisner, a longtime Sea Island member, won the 2015 title and was living on the island while his home in Aiken, South Carolina, was being renovated. But Kisner’s home course is Palmetto Golf Club and he’s only an unofficial member of the Sea Island Mafia. Harris English, who is attempting to climb back into the top 50 in the world, counts as a full-blooded member, one of 16 local residents in the field this week, and plays enough at the two Sea Island courses that he figures he should have an advantage.
“I never get tired of playing this place,” English said. “The challenging part about playing this week is we never play it in these kind of conditions.”
A view of the sixth green during the final round of the 2020 RSM Classic at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Asked where he would head on the island to celebrate with the local folks should he hoist the trophy, English smiled and said, “I don’t think Ziggy Mahoney’s will be open on Sunday, but that’s a pretty good celebration spot.”
Stat of the week
116. That is how many birdies Patrick Rodgers has made during the first seven events of the 2022-23 season, the most of 10 players who have topped 100 birdies. The annual RSM Birdies Fore Love competition concludes this week at The RSM Classic, with the player making the most birdies (or better) throughout the fall portion of the schedule receiving $300,000 to donate to a children- or family-focused charitable organization of his choice ($150,000 for second, $50,000 for third). With this being the final week of the competition, each birdie (or better) will count for two.
