Punta Carretas Golf Club

Punta Carretas Golf Club House

This is the Rolex Starers clock as seen from the first tee

Green and Traps on PC Golf Course, Uruguay

Fairway on PC Club, Uruguay

walk towards first tee box, montevideo UY

wide fairway in Uruguay

Fourth Hole Punta Carretas Golf Club, par 4

The Punta Carretas Golf Club (aka club de golf punta carretas) is an interesting place to visit if you are are living or visiting Montevideo and find yourself in the Punta Carretas neighborhood, nothing to do, and able to break the tractor-beam like grip that the prison-turned-mall has on locals and visitors alike.

The golf club is a bit strange to the uninitiated in that it is both public, and private, depending on the day of the week.

Let me explain.

According to locals, the property that the golf club resides on, which could only be considered “prime” at this point given what has happened to real estate values along the coast in punta carretas, was ‘given’ to the golf club from the city. The club is, of course, private, and the price of membership (around 12k to matriculate per person, 16k for myself and my fiancee plus another 100 or so a month last I checked) puts it out of reach of the average Uruguayan citizen.

In fact, unless you are a hardcore golfer, or plan on being in Uruguay for life, have a corporation paying your entry fee, or desperately need to meet ‘wealthy’ locals, it doesn’t make a whole lot of fiscal sense.

For the less financially fortunate, or more fiscally prudent, the golf course is open to the public for ‘walks’ (I’m not making this up) on Sunday — and for the occasional golfer, like myself, it’s open to the public for GOLF on Mondays.

Obviously, Monday is a lame-o day for golfing as most of the people who could take advantage of this have to work on Monday, but hey, if there was ever a reason to phone in sick on Monday, free golf is it!

Free Golf!

The course is the same course, but it’s also the day that the grounds crew likes to do maintenance, shutting down a number of holes or greens or tee boxes that same day.

There is no starter. Occasionally, someone out front will ask you to ’sign in’ at which point you can sign in as yourself, or make up a pseudonym in case your boss or wife will be checking the rolls later.

To get to the first tee-box, walk down the tree lined driveway which fronts of Bulevar Artigas. Walk past the guard shack without saying anything until you arrive at the tee box on the right side of the drive closest to the end. There is a large ‘rolex’ ad (clock) on the first tee which will mark the first tee box.

Sometimes, especially outside of the tournament season which happens in Uruguay’s winter interestingly enough, they will be working on this hole (and/or) others. No matter. There is very little to no control over who goes and what hole you start on. Frequently, while trying to get in 9 or 18 you will have people jump in front of you and play out a few holes. Often times, these are club people playing with caddies or instructors. While this would be pretty heavily frowned on during the rest of the week, golf etiquette takes a back seat on Monday’s when the doors are thrown open to the unwashed masses.

No Driving Range

Of course, as everyone knows, people with less money are worse golfers. To assure this impression, people who are not club members cannot use the driving range, ever. This goes a long ways towards convincing the wealthier people that they are indeed more gifted golfers since every time anyone has ever seen a non-member tee off on the first hole, can tell you it is very seldom they hit a nice long straight drive off of the tee. Given the mechanics of things, it’s typically been a few weeks to a few months since the last time anyone who isn’t a member has hit a golf ball, so you can imagine the typical results.

The Club House

In spite of all the restrictions on nonmembers using the course or gym or pool, the restaurant and club house are available to non members, and Uruguayans who are trying to impress will often rent the club house for an event.

I’ll add some photos to this post later…I swear!