Tulum Hosts Nine US Universities and Team Mexico at NCAA Division II Golf Shootout

Tulum, Quintana Roo — PGA Riviera Maya at Tulum Country Club hosted the DII Shootout for a second consecutive year, bringing nine NCAA Division II universities and a Team Mexico squad to the Riviera Maya course from Sept. 27 to 29.

UT Permian Basin captured the team title with 888 strokes, 24 over par. Colorado Mesa and UT Tyler shared second place at 890 strokes, 26 over par.

In individual play, Dian Wilmot of UT Permian Basin and Blake Harwell of UT Tyler tied at the top with 213 strokes, three under par. They were the only two players to finish below par on the Robert Trent Jones II-designed layout, which winds through jungle, mangrove and cenotes.

Team Mexico — represented by Juan Pablo Duarte, Luis Arrista, Daniel Morgado, Jaime Escudero and Marcel Petitjean — finished 10th in the team standings with 923 strokes, 59 over par. Duarte was the squad’s top performer, placing fifth individually with rounds of 76, 70 and 77 for a 223 total, seven over par. His 70 was the lowest single round posted by a Mexican player in the field.

For the Mexican players, the event offered a chance to compete against NCAA programs on an international-caliber course.

“That a college tournament of this level returns to Tulum for a second consecutive year speaks to the appeal the Riviera Maya has as a golf destination,” said Andrés Brictson, golf director at PGA Riviera Maya. “Teams find a course that rewards good strategy and good play from start to finish, under tournament conditions and with an operation to match. We are positioning Tulum as a host city that golf programs want to come back to.”

Beyond its promotional value for the destination, hosting college events exposes local children and teenagers to student-athletes who combine golf with university studies — a path that can lead to scholarships and higher education. Tulum Country Club already supports that route through its educational offerings: the Colegio Internacional Alemán Riviera Maya became the first school in the region this month to receive authorization for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, which prepares students to apply to universities in various countries.

“At Tulum Country Club we are committed to sport and education as the foundation for developing children and young people,” said Álvaro Moya, country manager of Tulum Country Club. “We want them to see in these student-athletes a concrete path, and we already have young people from the community who are walking it. It is the same message we work on every day with the PGA Academy, the Real Madrid Foundation’s Educational Football Program and the Colegio Internacional Alemán Riviera Maya.”

One such case is Noémie Chetzroni, who arrived in Tulum as a child and grew up playing golf at PGA Riviera Maya. Her athletic and academic development earned her admission to Cameron University in Oklahoma with an athletic scholarship — a story that underscores the rationale for continuing to back these initiatives, with the goal of sending more young people from Tulum to international stages.

The DII Shootout is part of PGA Riviera Maya’s broader effort to attract national and international events that raise the level of competition and bring positive role models closer to the community. Its competitive calendar also includes Korn Ferry Tour events.