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PUERTO VALLARTA, México - In sleepier days, one could have bumped into John Wayne in the bar at the Hotel Oceana or gotten a glimpse of Elizabeth Taylor with
Richard Burton when "Night of the Iguana" was filmed here back in the 1960's.
Puerto Vallarta was a tiny pueblo back then, a town with cobblestone streets and white
-washed buildings with red-tiled roofs. The city was splashed with bougainvillea and hibiscus flowers and surrounded by mountains, ocean and deep jungle, where "The Predator" was filmed.
Today, it stills holds on to its Mexican charm. The old-fashioned taco stands are abundant and the Malecon, a pedestrian
promenade that parallels the Pacific Ocean beach, is lined with shops, restaurants and hotels. This is where locals and tourists come to watch the sunset.
But it was only a matter of time before Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Internet Cafes, Planet Hollywood, Outback Steakhouse and
Hooters reached the Mexican Rivera, the Western Pacific coast of México.
Since Puerto Vallarta shares the same latitude as Hawaii, with temperature averaging 78 from December through April, it
was also only a matter of time before golf became a focus of tourism. Puerto Vallarta would love to someday challenge Los Cabos-Cabo San Lucas as the premier golf destination in the country.
Graziano Sovernigo, founder and director of Paradise Village Beach Resort and Spa, just minutes away in Nuevo Vallarta,
has done his part bringing golf here. "I'm happy to say Puerto Vallarta is finally arriving as a golf destination. It took too long, but now we have seven courses."
The seventh course, El Tigre Golf Club at Paradise Village, opened in March with grand festivities. It was Robert von
Hagge's 11th design in México, making him the most prolific golf course designer south of the border.
Today's Puerto Vallarta golfer has six other choices for golf -- Vista Vallarta Golf Club Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf
Courses, Marina Vallarta Golf Course, Los Flamingos Golf Club, Mayan Palace Golf Club and 40 minutes away is Punta Mita Golf Club.
"Puerto Vallarta has come a long way," said von Hagge, who teams with Richard Baril and Mike Smelek in Spring, TX.
"You have Vista Vallarta up on the hill with the Nicklaus and Weiskopf designs on great terrain and now you have El Tigre,
which was not the most romantic piece of property I've ever worked with. But I think this golf course is going to kick some butt."
Framed in all directions by the Sierra Madre Mountains, El Tigre is 7,239 yards, par 72, of manufactured golf course. It was
built on a flat piece of land and the von Hagge layout called for a lot of dirt movement and nine separate bodies of water,
just a minute away from the Pacific Ocean and Paradise Village Beach Resort and Spa.
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