www.globalgolfpost.com
APRIL 16, 2012
LA ROMANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC |
Teeth of
the Dog and the Marina and Chavon nines at Dye
Fore are but a few of the golfing options at Casa
de Campo. The resort is also home to the re-
cently revamped Links, designed by Pete Dye in
the mid-1970s and located just east and inland
of Teeth, and a newly opened nine-hole track
called Lakes that is considered part of Dye Fore.
Two decades ago, the acclaimed architect also
created another 18-hole course on the property,
La Romana Country Club. It is a private track
generally reserved for club members, though
resort guests can obtain access, too.
F Point. Or that Punta Espada has as many golf
holes on the Atlantic as Pebble Beach does on the
Pacific. And even when you are not hard on the sea
on these D.R. courses, chances are you can still
see and appreciate the water.
Most of the holes at Corales and La Cana have
views of the Atlantic, for example, as do those at
Punta Espada. Ditto Teeth of the Dog, and even the
Dye Fore course at Casa de Campo gives you a pleth-
ora of sea vistas on the first nine as well as seven
holes on the second one that loom over the Chavon
River as it cuts through a canyon 300 feet below.
Then, there is the matter of the many holes on these
tracks also play over and around lakes and ponds.
Water is never out of sight or mind in the
Dominican Republic, which is reason enough in my
mind to visit again and again.
The most celebrated of the Dominican’s sea-
side courses is also the oldest of the bunch, Teeth
of the Dog. Pete Dye laid out that track in an area
once known for the sugarcane that grew there –
and the sugar mill that operated in the town of La
Romana. And it became the centerpiece of Casa
de Campo, which is now a high-end resort with a
sumptuous, 185-room hotel; a community of 1,400,
well-appointed villas; a marina featuring berths for
350 yachts; and 81 holes of golf. Named for the way
local workers described how the rock coral resem-
bled
diente del perro
, or Teeth of the Dog, during
construction, it was quickly heralded as among the
best courses the Hall of Fame architect ever built
and dubbed the finest layout in the Caribbean. Not
many golfers argued with those assertions.
w Golf is growing at Punta Cana as well, with
the recent opening of nine holes of a new P.B.
Dye track, dubbed Hacienda, and plans for the
second nine to be added to that inland course
within the next year or so. The resort will
then have three 18-hole courses, and Dye the
Younger, who resides for a good part of the
year in the D.R., says it will be the 11th course
either he or his Hall of Fame father has
designed in the Dominican. “And that is out
of 26 courses in the entire country,” he adds.
“There is a real Dye Trail down here.”
w One of the great off-course diversions in the
Caribbean is the shooting center at Casa
de Campo. There is a 240-acre facility
within the resort itself that includes
as complete and compelling a sport-
ing clays course as I have ever seen as
well as skeet, trap and box-bird shoot-
ing (for live, Barnaby pigeons). And the
resort also boasts a 7,000-acre hunting
preserve within easy reach by car, or
helicopter, where hunts for partridge,
quail, duck and pheasant may be ar-
ranged. Group shoots can also be orga-
nized, and instruction is available for
gunners of all ages and abilities. A
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Zoom level
fit page
fit width
A
A
fullscreen
share
print
clip
SlideShow
fullscreen
Open Article
article text for page
< previous story
|
next story >
add comment
|
read comments
Share this page with a friend
Save to “My Stuff”
Subscribe to this magazine
Search
Help
