There is no other place in the world that offers untouched, historic courses and unrivaled tastes of exclusivity like Uruguay.
A golf trip to Uruguay offers unrivaled tastes of exclusivity and a rare opportunity to play an untouched, historic course. My ball sails over a cluster of palm-flowered butia trees as I block my drive on the eighth hole at Garzón Tajamares Golf Club. On the other side of the butias, a white Titleist quickly emerges, sitting high in the rough. It is unusual behavior for me to select a club before assessing the ball’s position and selecting the best angle to hit my approach shot. Under normal circumstances, such behavior would constitute a lack of proper golf etiquette.
While I finish the front nine, the realization slowly sinks in that these aren’t normal circumstances.
In southeastern Uruguay, near a thriving new wine region and only 15 miles from the coast, Garzón Tajamares is a private golf course – so private, in fact, that only about 20 rounds are played there annually. Because of that, my three playing partners and I are the only golfers on the course today. It’s possible we’ll be the only golfers playing the course for weeks, maybe even months, as I learn later. After having fired an errant shot, I’ve learned that I can assume that any ball that turns up in the general location of the misfire is mine. The logic is simple: No one else on the course could have hit it.
A membership in The Garzón Club, an exclusive wine and social society costing $200,000 initiation fees and $10,000 annual dues, gives access to Garzón Tajamares. While both were designed by Alejandro Bulgheroni, the golf course was initially built as a private backyard oasis for the billionaire entrepreneur, a place where he could occasionally play golf. Angel Cabrera, a two-time major champion, was eventually hired to tweak the routing, lengthen the course, and improve playability. In addition to that, much of the course remains as Bulgheroni envisioned it – a series of holes that curve over and down gentle hillsides, with beautifully maintained water hazards and more than 50 bunkers that will test any golfer’s mettle.
Access to the Garzón Club is not the only way to get there. PGA Tour Preferred Golf Courses are affiliated with the TPC Network, and therefore, any of the 30 TPC golf clubs around the world can play Garzón Tajamares, which is a PGA Tour Preferred Golf Course.
A dozen courses exist in Uruguay, the majority of which are private, but all welcome public play on Mondays (Garzón Tajamares is the lone exception). In contrast to Garzón Tajamares, Uruguay’s most historic golf course, Club de Golf del Uruguay, offers a striking contrast.
The course, which is set in downtown Montevideo, boasts a well-preserved layout designed by Alister MacKenzie. During the golden age of golf in the Americas in 1930, Club de Golf del Uruguay played more than 500 yards shorter than Bulgheroni’s contemporary course. Almost a century ago, golf was played on tight, tree-lined fairways, fast greens, and precipitous bunkers at this course.
“You’ll find some of his signature designs here,” Carlos Crispo, the club’s captain, says of MacKenzie’s revered architectural work.
“We don’t want to lose the MacKenzie design,” he adds, explaining that the club has invested resources to preserve the layout as it originally existed. “It’s very interesting and important to us. We want to preserve that.
