Great golf courses are years in the making. That was certainly the case with the first golf course at Querencia in Los Cabos, Campo Bajo, which opened to acclaim in 2001, thanks to the first international design from legendary course architect Tom Fazio.
“Once I experienced this land, I knew it was an extraordinary setting for world-class golf,” Fazio told Golf.com in 2019. “I’ve designed the course to maximize views of downtown San José del Cabo and the Sea of Cortés and provide a fair balance of risks and rewards.”
Golf Digest agreed when it declared Campo Bajo No. 73 of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses for 2022-2023, noting that the routing “wanders the rugged terrain and low-growth vegetation of a high desert plateau above the Sea of Cortés. Holes jump across or sidle up to the edges of rocky canyons and arroyos, with rippling, humpbacked fairways and a number of greens tucked behind stone outcroppings.”
By then, however, another course was also under construction at Querencia, and it too has now been years in the making.
The differences between Campo Bajo and Campo Alto
When I recently visited Campo Alto, the course, as one might imagine, given its expected opening by the end of this year, was a hive of activity. Some 80 or so workers swarmed across the property, busying themselves in projects large and small with a bewildering variety of machinery. The first 13 holes on the course have already been grassed and look almost ready to play. Not so the five dramatic finishing holes, which are still very much a work in progress.
Given Campo Bajo’s world-class reputation and Tom Fazio’s return, one might think that Campo Alto will be something of a sequel. But that was never the plan. While Campo Bajo is immaculately landscaped, from its colorful bougainvillea to the palm trees that artfully frame many greens, Campo Alto will showcase more of the natural sweep of Baja California Sur terrain, including voluminous elevation changes, as the course winds through ridgeways, valleys and canyons.
What sets Campo Alto apart
According to Fazio, Campo Alto will also be more of a second-shot golf course than Campo Bajo, with smaller and less undulating greens. Even the grass will be different. Campo Baja has, since its 2018 renovation, featured Tifgreen 328 Bermuda for its fairways, TifEagle Bermuda on the greens. These are excellent fine-textured choices, but Campo Alto’s Bermuda TifTuf, a hybrid developed in 2014 at the University of Georgia, has an even better sustainability profile and requires significantly lower water usage.
Two courses do have commonalities. Where the water comes from, for example. Querencia has an agreement with the city of San José del Cabo to receive its gently used wastewater, which it then filters and recycles as “greywater” for irrigation. So there are no demands on local water resources from Campos Alto or Bajo.
Each course also boasts spectacular ocean views. Campo Bajo, famously, has ocean views from every hole on its front nine. Campo Alto, meanwhile, promises jaw-dropping vistas of its own.
2022
How does one start work on a golf course in Los Cabos? The team at Querencia began the process for Campo Alto in early 2022, when it hosted Tom Fazio and his team for the initial site visits and the development of a routing plan.
“What I really do is to first analyze whether a piece of land is good or bad,” Fazio said of this initial phase in an interview with Cigar Aficionado. “I don’t immediately see golf holes with bunkers, greens, etc. Instead, I see a piece of paper that has natural contour lines on it, that has restrictions, property lines on it; then I start to think, ‘Where do the holes go? If they have elevation, valleys, how should they be sculptured, and where should the green settings or tees be?’ Determining where holes fit the best is easy, like breathing to me. I just do it, for it’s life, living, surviving.”
2024
The land for Campo Alto, like that at Campo Baja — sourced from the 2,000 available acres at Querencia, just outside San José del Cabo — is extraordinary. However, work could not begin in earnest until the permits were approved, which happened in early 2024. With this crucial stage completed, heavy machinery was purchased and the routing and irrigation plans finalized as clearing began. Then came the heavy earthworks, moving and shaping the landscape to bring Fazio’s vision to life.
“On every hole, you want people to say, ‘Wow, I can’t wait to play this,’” Fazio enthused to Golf.com in 2024. “And when they’re finished, you want their first thought to be, ‘Can we go play again?’”
2025
In addition to grassing the first nine holes, drainage and irrigation works began in earnest in early 2025. They wouldn’t be complete until a year later. Part of this process was the pump station start-up, which can pull from water stores and push water through the network of pipes to any part of the golf course. This crucial step was accomplished at Campo Alto in July 2025.
2026
More remains to be done before Campo Alto opens later this year. Irrigation and drainage works have to be completed, the final five holes have to be grassed (which they will be in May), and numerous details and finishing touches have to be added — including the comfort stations, a Los Cabos specialty.
Once all the work is finished and Campo Alto at Querencia is ready, then it can start earning its own acclaim. The first and most important part of this is winning over Querencia residents, who now have two courses on-site to choose from. That should be easy.
“Because there are a lot of elevation changes through valleys and ridges, there is a lot of movement to the land and natural definition to the holes,” Fazio explains. “That creates interesting drama and variety.”
In fact, the new course is sure to attract new residents to the private master-planned community, including at the 54 new homesites in La Cresta, which feature striking ridgeline views of Campo Alto as well as the picturesque surrounding landscape.
Step two is garnering the good opinion of the golf world at large. Links Magazine has already named Campo Alto one of the top international course openings for 2026. More raves are sure to follow.
“As an architect, you never want to repeat yourself, and we haven’t here. The common denominator is the ocean. That’s what’s really special.”
Chris Sands is a writer and editor for Mexico News Daily, and the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He’s a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise and Travel, and Cabo Living.
