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WHEN the subject is Caribbean tourism generally and golf in particular the Dominican Republic has to be the hottest ticket in town. The island’s tourism grew throughout the 1990s and shows no signs of slowing in the new century. The fastest growing economy in Latin America has brought boom time in the development of new resorts and hotels and several have golf in situ or nearby.
Make that many with golf nearby because there are now 23 courses dotted around the country. Most notable are three built by Jack Nicklaus at Cap Cana, a huge new resort that out-shines even Casa de Campo, long regarded as the jewel of Caribbean golf resorts.
Gary Player, too, has made a major contribution with his creation at the Guavaberry resort with a course that’s been variously described as “awesome” and “a landscaping marvel that might have been there from the beginning of time.” A tad like the little maestro himself, one could say!
If your geography is fallible, the Dominican Republic, roughly the size of Switzerland, shares an island with Haiti about 90 minutes’ flying time south of Miami and eight hours or so from London. Its capital, Santo Domingo, was the first city of the New World, with the first cathedral and the first university, both influenced by Christopher Columbus who popped in around 1492, en route to you-know-where. He named it Hispaniola.
It's a sprawling country covering 18,800 square miles with 300 miles of beaches and a population of about six million. It has seven major airports and although initially aimed at family package holidays the emphasis has shifted in recent times to de luxe, US-style resorts, where golf is playable year-round, bringing obvious benefits to the economy.
THERE are a dozen or so beach side resorts with golf in situ and with other courses nearby, but which resort you choose presents further problems because currently no UK golf tour operator services the island. Most of the general travel companies do so but golf is not included in their packages.
With the exception of three clubs in the mountainous interior, the golf is coastal and in three groupings. There are two resorts only 20 minutes south of Santo Domingo airport and others are strung along the southern coast, which overlooks the Caribbean.
There are five country club-style courses at Puerto Plata, on the Atlantic coast to the north east, among them Playa Grande, one of the major golfing attractions. This region has its own airport.
The resorts closest to the city of Santo Domingo are the Coral Costa Caribe Beach and the Metro Country Club. Casa de Campo, formerly the island’s flagship resort, is about 70 minutes away. Nearby too is what may be the resort to top them all.
Known as Cap Cana, it is claimed to be “one of the most exclusive resorts in the Caribbean”. That’s some claim around here. Like Casa de Campo, it has its own airport; it covers 29,000 acres with five miles of beach front; it has a marina with berths for 1,000 yachts reached by a two mile long canal, it has 14 luxury hotels, casinos, beach clubs and thousands of residential properties.
The icing on the golfing cake comes in the form of three courses built by Jack Nicklaus, which is one heck of a hat-trick. The resort created 50,000 jobs and cost a cool US US$3 billion. You’ll gather the Dominican Republic is getting serious about this tourism thing!
The major problem with playing golf in the Dominican Republic is deciding which of the many courses to play.
Then you check into your resort and discover that such is the variety and quality of golf close to hand that you’ll stay right here, thanks. Aside from which, the size of the island means that moving around to play can be time-consuming, and your time is best spent luxuriating on the fairways or with a cooling drink by the pool!
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