Always A Summer Day in the Dominican Republic

By David R. Holland

CAP CANA, Dominican Republic -- Just days before Fred Couples hoisted his third straight trophy for a win on the Champions Tour in late March he looked out over the Caribbean Sea at The Cap Cana Championship at Punta Espada Golf Club and said: “I don’t know anyone who would not like to look out at those views and play the golf course and not have a good time,” Couples said. “It is just spectacular and I know the Champions Tour players are excited for hot weather. I love hot weather.”

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You like summer in the winter? Then the Dominican Republic is for you complete with views of turquoise water, blinding white sand and rocky bluffs.

We’ve all been there. As avid travel golfers we’ve anchored ourselves in Scotland or Ireland against sideways wind, blustery, bone-chilling rain, and dressed ourselves in layers -- head-to-toe in a Gore-Tex rain suit with those winter golf gloves. Last time it happened to me I asked, why?

Why not say no to snow and ice - even Dallas and Atlanta had numerous snow and ice storms because of this “El Niño” winter weather pattern. Just say no and head for the Dominican Republic.

“You know, Stuttgart’s weather sucks on its best days. Just look at this. I’ve been coming to the Dominican Republic for more than 40 years and it is sunny and hot 365 days a year. There’s never a rainstorm you can’t walk through. There’s no lightning. If someone in Germany wants to get on an airplane and fly for hours what are the options?

“You could go to Israel and lay on the beach, you could go visit Libya and see President Qaddafi. But there are no available women or whisky. Or you could come here,” said P.B. Dye, the youngest son of legendary golf course designer Pete Dye, and designer of three Dominican Republic golf courses - La Cana, La Estancia and a yet to be opened Punta Cana Resort course called Hacienda.

Punta Espada, located in the southeast corner of the Dominican Republic just 10 minutes from the Punta Cana International Airport (world’s largest privately owned international airport), is a mere coming attraction of Dominican Republic new venues.

Golfweek named it No. 1 on its list of Caribbean and Mexico golf courses. A second Nicklaus design at Cap Cana, Las Iguanas, has nine holes finished.

Also in the Punta Cana vicinity (45 minutes north) is Nick Faldo's The Faldo Legacy Course, Roco Ki Golf Resort with an awesome routing and ghost town shell of what was to be a massive Westin and almost zero finished infrastructure.

Tom Fazio's Corales, a private membership club (exclusive, but accessible) at Punta Cana Resort & Club is finished setting an April 2010 grand opening, and P.B. Dye's La Hacienda, an inland course, is under construction.

“Punta Cana’s Corales and Cap Cana’s Punta Espada are the two best golf courses in the Caribbean that are 10 miles apart,” said former PGA Tour Player Jay Overton of Corales. Overton, as a club pro at Pinehurst and Innisbrook, holds the record for all club pro’s in history - qualifying for 26 major championships.

Here’s a closer look at the must plays of the eastern coast Dominican Republic:

Punta Espada Golf Club, Cap Cana

The 7,382-yard, par 72, Punta Espada routing includes eight oceanside holes and others that cling to the sharp coral rock daggers that dangle over cliffs with a background of turquoise ocean. Nicklaus even compares No. 13, a par three of 250 yards, with Cypress Point’s world-famous No. 16.

This is a beautiful hole, but from the back tees it is way too hard for the average golfer. The Champions Tour guys got to play it from 187 yards. This treacherous minefield demands a daunting line over ocean to a slightly elevated green in windy conditions.

Another element of Punta Espada is a limestone ridge that runs through the routing creating some elevated tee boxes and panoramic views of the ocean.

Punta Cana Resort & Club, Punta Cana - La Cana Golf Course

P.B. Dye had plenty of experience when he came to Punta Cana to build a world-class golf course on land similar to Teeth of the Dog. Coral rock dominated an overgrown, jungle-like land with very little top soil. P.B. spent two summers on the back of a bulldozer helping to shape Teeth of the Dog.

La Cana Golf Course, opened in 2001, measures 7,152 yards at par of 72 and has sweeping vistas and five holes played along the sea. It's fun and quirky, just like its designer -- the Dye pot bunker is ever present. The seventh hole boasts a cluster of 21 traps that P.B. jokingly refers to as “Hecklebirnie” - a type of golfer’s purgatory according to Scottish lore. Seashore Paspalum and other salt tolerant turf, dominate the courses of this area.

Corales, Punta Cana Resort & Club

Overton thinks that when this brand-new 7,555-yard, par 72, Tom Fazio course is rated it will be among the best international courses, or perhaps the world. What’s amazing is that there are more than 230 acres of flawless, irrigated Paspalum Supreme - just imagine what someone from Arizona would think? Arizona is allowed 90 acres of irrigated turf per 18 holes.

Homes of Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias line the final holes and there are two holes that have two separate greens so you can have even more variety from day to day.

Also included are jutting inlets that demand shots to carry the ocean for the shortest route to green, like No. 18, a 448-yard par 4. President and CEO of Punta Cana Resort, Frank Rainieri, says “it is the Mother of all golf Holes”.

After your round it doesn’t get any better than sitting on the porch of the clubhouse, having the local Presidente beer, with a view of the crashing blue surf, white sand bunkers, green grass and a natural “blow hole”.

Roco Ki Golf Club, The Faldo Legacy Course, Macao, Punta Cana

Roco Ki, a 7,152-yard par 72, begins in the headlands just below the unfinished Westin Hotel shell, presenting a view right of the ocean and the mountains beyond. He takes you through a tropical jungle, where tee shots are demanding and through 100-year old mangroves that line the fairways.

Then 16 brings you back in sight of the blue sea with 17, a 100-yard tee shot much like Pebble Beach‚s No. 7. Beauty is a 360-degree sight. You have to see this one to believe the beauty.

But 18 doesn’t disappoint, either. This 508-yard, par 5, demands a precise tee shot just over one inlet short of another inlet.

If you negotiate the rugged coastline and rocks then the approach has sand an ocean left to a heavily guard green against the prevailing wind. This hole is aptly named “Los Dos Rezos” or Two Prayers. These two holes just might be the most dramatic finishers in the Caribbean.

Casa de Campo, Teeth of the Dog, Dye Fore, La Romana

Casa de Campo is the forerunner for golf in the D.R. This 7,000-acre resort is truly the most complete outdoor playground in the Caribbean. Name an outdoor activity and you can find it here.

Pete Dye brought a vision to transform an overgrown, but scenic turquoise-tinted coastline, jagged and rugged with coral rock, into one of the world’s best golf courses. Named for that same rock that bites unmercifully at bare skin, Teeth of the Dog, 7,471 yards, par 72, is the gem of the Caribbean.

But Dye didn’t stop with just those two. Actually, there’s private La Romana Country Club, The Links, and now there’s Dye Fore, which cost $6.25 million. Green fees at Teeth of the Dog aren’t cheap, like most golf in the Dominican Republic, but when you reach the par-3 fifth, with the Caribbean on your left, you will think it’s worth the price.

Dye Fore, originally named Pete’s Dream, is a 7,700-yard, par 72 high on a plateau 500 feet above the Chavón River. Golfers also enjoy views of the Caribbean Sea and the resort’s remarkable Altos de Chavón -- a 16th-century replica of a Mediterranean village.

La Estancia Golf Club, La Romana

Designed by P. B. Dye, La Estancia sits on the edge of a cliff, above the Chavon River, and was opened in 2007, and measures 7,382 yards at par 72. Plans are for a resort hotel and semi-private entry. The golf course includes a variety of holes including one 200-yard plus carry over a huge gorge, that feeds the deep river gorge, where the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now’s helicopter scenes were filmed.