Robert von Hagge's Lagoons Course at Isla Navidad.

On Mexico’s west coast, about an hour north of touristy Manzanillo, you’ll find one of the lesser known, but better golf courses you can play on a Mexico golf vacation.

There, in the somewhat less touristy town of Barra de Navidad, on an island between the Pacific Ocean and an estuary called Laguna del Navidad, is the Isla Navidad resort and its 27-hole, Robert von Hagge-designed Isla Navidad Country Club.

Of its three, nine-hole courses, Ocean, Mountain and Lagoon, the latter is the toughest and most dramatic, with water hazards on seven holes and some of Von Hagge’s best-designed par threes anywhere.

For example, No. 2 on the Lagoon Course is a 231 yarder, with the lagoon on the left, an impenetrable mangrove on the right and a knee-knocking peninsula green.

No. 7 is not long (only 164 yards from the back tees), but it is equally stunning. You play over a small pond and more mangroves to another peninsula green with the Grand Bay and the mountains in the distance.

If you play here on your Mexico golf vacation, be sure to look up from the ball once in a while and take in the beauty of the natural surroundings. Wildlife abounds, and it’s common to see alligators gliding past in the lagoons.

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