Any course in the subtropics serves as respite from a Canadian winter, but the best golf in the Dominican is found on the southeast and east coasts. Most famous, without doubt, is Teeth of the Dog. This Pete Dye classic is named for the jagged coral reef just off the shoreline that fronts a half-dozen holes on the course. Not far from the pretty seaside town of La Romana, it opened in 1971. It is frequently ranked the best course in the Caribbean, and among the top 50 in the world. The Dog is superbly groomed and stunning to look at, and at 7,300 yards from the tips, it can take a bite out of players who take it on. It will also take a bite out of the wallet. Green fees run between $400 and $550, slightly less for guests staying at the nearby Caso de Campo Resort and Villas complex. It is a bucket-list course, but one that will have to remain there for a while. The course will close in 2025 for a full restoration by former PGA Tour player Jerry Pate and his design team.
There are two other Pete Dye courses at Caso de Campo — the Links and Dye Fore. Both are less expensive than the Dog, but impressive in their own right. Dye Fore is a 27-hole gem that serves up panoramic terrain over three distinctive nines (Chavon, Marina and Lagos). We started our round on Dye Fore, which features dramatic elevation changes and treacherously sloping fairways built on high ground overlooking the lush rainforest hugging the Chavon River. That waterway was used to film scenes in movies such as Apocalypse Now and Rambo. Vultures, nesting in cliffs above the river, could be seen coasting lazily back and forth over the course.
The Tortuga Nine on the 27-hole La Cana Golf Course.
For me, it was a dark-humoured reminder of just how tough and unforgiving golf can feel. For our back nine, we played Dye Marina, built just above La Romana, with fairways lined by towering palms and dozens of multimillion dollar villas owned by home-grown celebs such as future MLB Hall of Fame slugger Albert Pujols.
Half an hour’s drive from Caso de Campo along the coast is PGA Oceans 4. This golf course is part of Grupo Pinero, a Spanish company that owns all-inclusive resorts and gated residential enclaves under the Bahia Principe banner. Designed by Jack Lund of Maverick Golf, Oceans 4 takes its name from the four different ecosystems reflected in its layout: parkland, Scottish links, desert and Caribbean. The four Caribbean style holes run along the sea, with tees and greens backed by rolling breakers and roaring surf. Green fees at Oceans 4 are a relative bargain, with an average rate of $150. Almost as good as the golf here is the seafood — fresh, delicious and pleasing to the eye.
Punta Cana’s rise out of the jungle
The eastern tip of the Dominican Republic is known as Punta Cana. Fifty years ago, the area was remote and sparsely populated, with mosquito-infested jungle broaching the beach. In the early 1970s, Frank Rainieri, then a brash 20-something son of Italian immigrants, envisioned an international holiday hotspot and somehow managed to talk high-profile investors like Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias and Dominican-born fashion designer Oscar de la Renta into backing his venture. On 58 million square metres of land, they opened their first hotel, the 40-room Punta Cana Club, in 1971. Today, its 30 kilometers of white-sand beaches front multiple world-class resorts and luxury neighbourhoods.
The top three courses in the area are La Cana, Punta Espada and Corales. La Cana, designed by Pete Dye’s son P.B., has three nines — Tortuga, Hacienda and Arrecife — with 14 holes offering spectacular ocean views among them. The younger Dye keeps a home on the sixth hole of Tortuga. He is said to occasionally emerge from his yard to chat with passing golfers about their round and thoughts on his design. Whether or not these guests know they’re talking with the guy who built the course, I suspect they raise two thumbs up.
Punta Espada is a striking Jack Nicklaus signature course carved out of the volcanic rock above the beach at the base of a small escarpment. Impeccably conditioned, with eight holes played along (and, in a couple of cases, over) the Caribbean Sea, it has hosted PGA Tour Champions events. The golf club is part of a large development called Cap Cana that features several all-inclusive resorts, gated residences, fine restaurants, boutique shopping and other outdoor recreation options such as tennis, ziplines and sportfishing. One evening, our group was hosted for dinner by executives from the ownership team. They proudly showed us their new marina where a couple of super yachts worth hundreds of millions were moored.
Corales Golf Club, a few minutes north of Punta Espada, is a Tom Fazio course. This is another breathtaking seaside layout, with three difficult finishing holes collectively dubbed the Devil’s Elbow capped by a 555-yard dogleg that teases the brave to shortcut a tee shot across the swirling waters of Corales Bay. The course has been home to the PGA’s Corales Punta Cana Championship since 2017. A first win there in 2021 helped jumpstart the career of Joel Dahmen, who became a compelling character on Netflix’s golf docuseries “Full Swing.” Billy Horschel (the 2014 FedEx Cup champion) won his eighth PGA title at Corales last spring, carding a final-round 63 to finish 23 under and edge out Wesley Bryan. The tournament also featured a solid showing by Canadian Taylor Pendrith, who clearly built some confidence off his tie for 11th at Corales to finish atop the leaderboard at the CJ Cup Bryon Nelson two weeks later.
While there, we caught a little action from the third and fourth rounds of the tournament. The event is a great source of pride for Dominicans, and everyone from business leaders like original Punta Cana development wunderkind Frank Rainieri, now in his late 70s, to head-turning fashion models, social media influencers and all other manner of celebrities, turned out.
We wrapped our week in the DR with a round at Corales on the Tuesday following the tournament. Most of our group even made it across the bay on 18, albeit from forward tees. By then, the patio and grandstand next to the green were mostly dismantled. Not that anybody but a weary golf course worker on a water break would have taken the time to watch any of us finish up. Just the same, although none of us left the island with a big cheque in hand like Horschel did, I’m pretty sure we’d each echo the winner’s heartfelt sentiments about his stay there: “A remarkable experience. A week I will never forget.”
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Publish date : 2025-02-14 03:01:00
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