The Player’s Paradise
From November 2008 By
Mike Offit
Where to Play - Golf in the Dominican Republic just keeps getting better.
To a man stranded in the
desert with an empty canteen, the difference between natural spring water and a trickle
from the tap is hardly relevant: It’s all good. To a Northeasterner in February, his
home course entombed in ice and snow, the thirst for golf is just as desperate. At times
like this, the vision of a white ball sailing into the deep blue sky over the turquoise
sea appears like a mirage, lingering with the faint sound of steel drums and the scent of
rum, just out of reach.
Golf in the Caribbean used to rely on that winter longing, when sunburned visitors were
happy to play burnt-out courses with ancient carts and jaded loopers (ever met a Jamaican
caddie who didn’t tell you he’s the best in the land?). But much has changed in
the past decade, and these days announcements of new courses and luxury resorts seem to
come every week.
The Dominican Republic, home of the first truly promoted course in the Caribbean, Teeth
of the Dog at Casa de Campo, has seized the lion’s share of this new bounty. Long one
of the West’s poorest nations, the D.R., as it’s known, is enjoying a luxury
boom that will vault it to the highest echelon of golf destinations, and not just in this
region. Development on the island’s eastern coast has reached a breakneck pace;
meanwhile, a hidden jewel (PLAYA GRANDE) has been produced on the north coast that is
among the most dramatic and spectacular layouts anywhere. A recent trip to the D.R. area
revealed a modern airport with nonstop flights from the East Coast on major airlines,
roads that have been vastly improved, and massive new mega resorts under construction.
These newcomers join the long-list to yield a collection of diverse and aesthetically
thrilling golf courses, all with a welcome focus on exquisite accommodations and great
service.
Trip Planner: Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic has a semi-tropical climate, with temperatures averaging in the
mid-seventies.
The D.R. has modern international airports conveniently located near each of the
courses mentioned. Most major airlines fly to one or more of them, some offering direct
flights as often as three times a week. Traversing the Dominican Republic with SSPA Inc is
easy; their drivers know the roadways well and the scenery is outstanding.
Where to Play -Playa Grande (5 stars)
Robert Trent Jones Sr. is said to have invented the “heroic school” of course
design. This layout is a prime expression of that concept.
Playa Grande - Architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., 1997.
If you’ve led a good life, the Dominican Republic’s ultimate reward for you
is a round at a little-known gem on the north coast, Playa Grande. (Some may advise you to
try Playa Dorada. Ignore them. It’s a pedestrian course.) Charter a helicopter, rent
a plane, hire a car: Do whatever you must to get to Playa Grande,
about an hour east of Puerto Plata airport. One of Robert Trent Jones Sr.’s last
executed designs, the course sits on a high plateau at the edge of a tropical rainforest.
When you pull up to its simple pro shop and 1970s-era clubhouse, there is a tang of ozone
in the air from the fine salt mist rising above the cliffs.
The first two holes are solid warm-ups, but at the par-three third, 236 yards across an
overgrown ravine, you realize something very unusual is happening here. The tee shot on
the par-five fourth hints at trouble right, and your caddie points the line to the bunker
at the far corner of the dogleg. As you walk over a bridge and then down the fairway, the
back of your neck may begin to tingle. Opening up to your right is an immense and
jaw-dropping view, the Atlantic sweeping a hundred feet below you into a long, articulated
cove and to infinity beyond. The second shot is a classic gambler’s play: To gain a
distant promontory green and go for eagle, you have to allow for a draw wind and aim for Europe.
The course has twelve oceanside holes, each of them remarkable and perched atop those
Brobdingnagian cliffs. The view from the seventh tee, a par three across a huge cove, may
be unequaled in golf, combining the sixteenth at Cypress Point and the eighth at Pebble Beach
with a shot of steroids. The drive at the par-five twelfth spans another massive cove,
this one receding to the left, begging you to cut the corner. At the thirteenth, great
plumes of water jet from a concave cliff wall when the waves are up, a hissing geyser that
requires total concentration so as not to pull your tee shot into the briny deep. At the
green, the pristine mile-long strand that gives the course its name stretches ten stories
below. The par-three seventeenth plays slightly uphill and straight out into the ocean on
salt-burned grass that lends the hole an otherworldly aura, as if it ascends directly to
heaven.
Playa Grande may not be a secret for long on that fine shoreline, and has retained Rees
Jones to tweak his father’s masterpiece. But as of February, the course was still in
fine condition, and I saw only a handful of golfers—fellow worshippers, if you will,
at the Dominican Republic’s ultimate altar of golf.
Book Your Trip Now! - info@sunshineservices.net
