El Tinto Golf Course Cancun — Local services in Quintana Roo

I wasn’t going to write a reveiw, but would not want what we experienced to happen to anyone else.

The course was nice, but the staff tried to steal our clubs, and almost got away with it. We live in the area, and were playing with a large group, including two local pros. Several of us went to the restaurant onsite after the round. Most people put their clubs in their cars, but my wife and I left our clubs on the racks in front of the clubhouse where the caddies left them. We figured it would be safe, since the course not easy to access, and security guards monitor the one entrance and exit.

When we finished eating, we went to where the clubs were, and they were gone. I asked the guy working the pro shop where they were, and his response was that there were never any clubs on the rack. I told him that I saw them there before we went to lunch, but he insisted that our clubs were never out in front of the clubhouse. He called the caddies, who said they did not know where they were.

One of the girls in our group noticed security cameras, and insisted that we be allowed to see the video. My wife and I are not native Spanish speakers, so this is where our friends took over. The guy in the pro shop told us the video was offsite, so we might be able to see it the following day.. One of the pros with our group knows the director of the club, so he called him to try to get a straight answer. Then the story changed.

The pro shop guy said that one of their drivers might have “accidentally” picked up our clubs when he was taking two guests back to the hotel zone in Cancun. We described the bags, and he said that shines like what the driver had. He said the driver would send photos when he got to the hotel in 10 minutes. 10 minutes turned into nearly an hour. When we questioned the guy in the pro shop, he got very defiant, and said we were being pushy.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but when pressed, his story kept changing, and it was obvious he was lying. The hotel was no more and 20 minutes north of us, so by this time, the driver should have been able to drop off the guests, take a picture of our bags, and return them to us.

Finally about an hour after the driver said he would send the photos, he finally sent them, and the pro shop guy told us he was in Playa del Carmen, which is almost an hour south of the Cancun hotel zone. This is when we knew pro shop guy and driver were in cahoots. Nothing was adding up.

The driver said he couldbe back at the course in n 45 minutes. We finally agreed to meet the driver in a grocery store parking lot in Puerto Morelos, got our clubs and returned home.

Had it bot been for our friend that knew the club director, we are certain we never would have seen our...

Our group played three rounds on two different days here. Paid a good price via some sort of hotel discount, around $85 in the morning. They also have a twilight rate which I think is around $50 and a replay rate of around $35.

*The short version is that everyone enjoyed it, we would go back at the same price and hopefully same conditions. Multiple people said they preferred this to Mayakoba, which we also played. While I imagine that is definitely a minority opinion, it was certainly the better value of the two.

The facilities give off the vibe of a course which is just hanging on. The clubhouse is a very large building, only a small part of which is being utilized for the pro shop. Aside from the gym the rest appears to be unused. The snack bar is outdoors. The cart fleet is badly in need of replacement. The course apparently very recently changed its name to El Tinto from Cancun Country Club, and under the paint of the tee markers you can read TPC Cancun, so perhaps that was a previous name as well.

All that said, the course is nice. Layout is interesting, conditions good but not great - greens were a little splotchy but generally rolled well. Fairway and rough turf is also a little spotty but not awful. Saw the drink cart more than enough times over our three rounds. It's an absolute beast of a course from the back tees, insanely long at sea level. Even one tee up is over 7000 yards. I can't recall the last time I moved up two tees but it was a no-brainer here and all I could handle.

Though inland a bit, one benefit of that is it might be a little less windy. Mayakoba seemed to be the windiest of the rounds we played. In comparing the two, another thing I liked better about this course is it had been watered plenty. Greens were soft and receptive, and we had our share of mud balls elsewhere. Beats being bone dry. Mayokoba's greens were like concrete and the run-ups were so soft if you landed short it stopped. That was not an issue here.

Last note in this impossibly long review: people who play here are comically bad at raking bunkers. No shortage of rakes but they might as well have been invisible. Not the staff's fault, but given all the footprints I suspect they only drag the bunkers...

There is a lot to like, but because of the rain we had during most of the week left the course soggy and resulted in mud flying everywhere.

The fairways are pretty wide, the greens were soft and slow and caused every chip shot to divot. There was almost no release, including the fairways shots. I'm not sure if I can lay that issue on the course as it was rainy, so keep that in mind if you're going there after a couple of days of rain.

The club rentals were old and pretty heavily used. They were a Callaway Epic set where the driver was adjusted with the sliding weight to fade. After the front 9, the driver got loose (physically wiggly) and I wish I had my driver key to tighten it down and adjust the club to draw. Took a star for these clubs as other courses I've played in Riviera Maya offer new or newer clubs (especially considering the price). If you pay $60 USD for the rental they give you 6 golf balls for free.

The course was more reasonably priced than the surrounding courses, and they do maintain it as there were maintenance people all around working on the course (also trying to sell you golf balls).

Bring your range finder or a course map as the golf carts do not have GPS (mine showed the course as the TPC course as that's what they used to be called) .

Overall, this is a nice course with plenty of water hazards, sand traps, gently changing elevations in a jungle setting. The sun wasn't out and neither were any bugs (like zero bugs). I enjoyed myself, greens are relativly on the flat side, saw the cart person 3 times during my round and found 2 bathrooms (1 on the front and 1 on the back 9). Hope this is helpful as it was an enjoyable 4 hour round with the first...