A tour of Argentina: Golf, steaks, the tango and so much more for Golfweek’s Best raters

The Red Course at The Jockey Club (designed in 1930, along with the sister Blue Course, both by Alister MacKenzie) is characterized by a network of shallow ditches dug to drain water from a flat piece of property. The ditches double as playing hazards – to the degree that MacKenzie originally suggested they were hazardous enough and the course did not require sand bunkers. The club management thought differently and instructed Mac to add at least a modest number. 

MacKenzie used the dirt removed from these ditches to build the course’s green pads, some resulting in significant rises with stern associated slopes. It’s these complexes that give The Jockey Club much of its character. The half-horseshoe 10th (a tribute to the Road Hole at St. Andrews) and punchbowl 16th greensites are examples of his use of stern contouring, bold mounding and precipitous drop-offs, all making the Red a study of your approach-shot prowess.

Back to Buenos Aires for showers and drinks (such as refreshing locally brewed beer such as Quilmes and Patagonia and an array of delightful Malbec wines) before dinner. Like many European dining establishments, most of the restaurants of Buenos Aires don’t open until 8 p.m., so later evenings quickly became the norm. All OK, since the golf courses also generally opened later, most not until 9 a.m.

Next up for the raters was The Olivos Club – designed by MacKenzie’s Argentinian associate, Luther Koontz, and open for play in 1950.

Luther Koontz? 

“Turns out he was an architect … who was involved in five of the golf courses played during the rater trip,” observes veteran rater Steve Backstrom. Koontz was an American who became the most prolific architect in South American with around 25 designs to his credit.

The Blanca and Colorada nines at Olivos are generally considered the championship pair in the three nine-hole complex (Azul is the third). A parkland setting featuring gently rolling terrain, ponds, mature conifers and hardwood, the Blanco/Colorada eighteen will remind you of venerable classical courses in the U.S. and U.K. A longer course with sprawling undulating greens and shallow sweeping greenside bunkering, it’s easy to see why Olivos has hosted many prominent tournaments, including the Argentine Masters and Open.

Standout holes at Olivos include the 15th, a striking dogleg par 5 sweeping through a tree-lined corridor, culminating with a forced carry over a fronting pond to an undulating green. 

Back to town for a group dinner of something Argentina is widely known for: beef!

While there may not be an airport entry sign saying “Vegetarians beware”, steak houses seem to be everywhere and the vast norm. The raters had reserved a private room at an upscale Buenos Aires restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful dinner of various beef cuts and Argentinian red wine. For golfing carnivores, this was easily a plus-2 dinner.

Argentina has a fine golf tradition, thanks largely to the British influence starting in the late 1880s. With 300, Argentina has far and away the most golf courses compared to any other Latin American country. Argentina can also boast the home of two major champion winners – Roberto De Vicenzo and Angel Cabrera. 

In a bit of irony, the first winner of the Argentine Open in 1905 was Scotsman Mungo Park. It certainly ran in the family as Mungo’s father, none other than Willie Park Sr., won the first Open Championship at Prestwick in 1860.

A capybara at Bueno Aires Golf Club (Golfweek’s Best/Paul Shouse)

Next on the golfing rota was a pair of more modern courses, the first being Buenos Aires Golf Club, designed in 1994 by Robert von Hagge. A decidedly American layout, BAGC features holes that navigate around several large lakes, all under a canopy of not-so-attractive high-power lines. Von Hagge used the excavations from the lakes to create framing and containment mounding – literally hundreds of them resulting in a more engineered look to the playing field. Standout holes include the 2/3 shot option short par 5 at the Green’s sixth, and the Blue’s ninth with its split tees and excellent green complex.

The most memorable aspect of BAGC may not be the golf but the indigenous animals. Capybaras – docile 150-pound giant rodents – roam the course, oblivious to any playing woes of their two-legged golfing companions. 

“Sharing a tee box with a wild capybara at Buenos Aires Golf Club is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Florida rater Ron Schroeder.

Indeed – another addition to golf’s wild kingdom. Maybe as eye-popping as the goats you use as caddies at Oregon’s Silvies Ranch, the huge elk at Banff, grizzlies at Jasper, crocs at Sun City, golf ball-thieving monkeys of Tuck Tuck in the Philippines and the wallabies of Tasmania, but those are all other stories. 

Pilara, site of the last of the rater’s Buenos Aires rounds, is a suburban course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Set adjacent to 100-year-old polo grounds, the site is gently rolling and expansive, an easy walk. Nicklaus provided wide playing corridors and large greens, all protected by 76 deep bunkers with water hazards on eleven holes. Get to a green in regulation and you may well still be faced with an iffy two-putt proposition – a quality and championship layout. 

South America? Tango dancing! Thought to have originated in the 1880s from the lower-class dance halls and brothels of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, a tango was a high spirited, fast and sensual form of dance, first performed exclusively by women. 

High society shunned the dance as immoral and flirty, the polar opposite of the stuffier and more formal waltz, then the widely embraced dance of the Victorian era. 

The Golfweek’s Best raters took in a tango dinner show in Buenos Aires. (Golfweek’s Best/R. Adams)

But the tango caught on. By the early 1900s, it had become widely accepted and was danced in upscale halls throughout the U.S. and Europe. It has since become one of the best-known and most enjoyable forms of ballroom dancing across the world.

Arrangements were made for the rater group to take in an outstanding tango/dinner show at an upscale downtown nightclub. An energetic and fast-paced show, the raters were all glad to be fine-dining rather than called to the dance floor.

Dining in Buenos Aires is truly wonderful. From Pizzeria Guerrin, the best pizza this side of Mamma Mia’s Tuscany kitchen; to La Brigada, an otherworldly old-town steak house where the server cuts your fillet with a spoon; to Floreria Atlantico, a speakeasy hidden below a florist that serves a scrumptious array of tapas dishes; to a million bistros and street front cafes, Buenos Aires is a foodie’s paradise. 

Puente de la Mujer bridge in Buenos Aires (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images)

The final day in Buenos Aires was devoted not to golf, but to touring. A professional guide showed the raters sites such as Puente de la Mujer (Woman’s Bridge), the Metropolitan Cathedral (opera house) and the Obelisco (half-sized version of the Washington Monument). Other sites included Eva Peron’s crypt, Casa Rosada (presidential “pink” house) and Plaza de Mayo, maybe the most famous of Argentina’s plaza landmarks.

Although now a peaceful and prosperous democracy, politically Argentina, like many countries, has a tumultuous past. For much of the early and mid-20th century, Argentina’s rule ping-ponged between democratic presidents (Juan Peron being the most noted) and military dictatorships. There was a span when the Argentina government changed presidents five times over a ten day period. A number of the generals and military juntas were particularly harsh. 

Every Thursday since 1983, women come out to the plaza with signs bearing names of children. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo pay tribute to the “disappeared,” the 30,000 children missing during the 1976-1983 rule, or “Dirty War”, over the reign of a brutal regime. It’s a sobering reminder of the past in what is currently such a vibrant city.