Playa Grande Golf And Ocean Club

Dominican Republic's Latest Seaside Course Is Ready For Play

Courtesy of Ron Whitten
Golf Digest

Playa Grande is paradise rediscovered. Stretched along three miles of jagged coastline on the north shore of the Dominican Republic, with 10 of its holes perched 100 feet above the turbulent Atlantic (as turquoise as the Caribbean in this locale), Playa Grande is as stunning to look at as the most outrageous fantasy golf calendar, and perhaps more thrilling than your favorite golf video game. It’s real and surreal; heartthrob and heart-stopper; hardly new, yet brand new.

Conceived by a legend, Robert Trent Jones, in the mid-1970s, it wasn’t built until 1997, just three years before his death, and is considered by many to be Trent’s last and greatest design. But it had awes, some holes that merely occupied space near the ocean, too many shots played with one’s back to the deep-blue sea, a serviceable hotel jammed between fairways with an access road that put you in harm’s way of errant shots.

When Dolphin Capital Investors bought the property, it invited Aman Resorts, that exotic made-of-gold hotel chain, to establish a flagship operation, Amanera, beside the course, and hired Rees Jones, younger son of Trent, to reimagine the layout. Gone are the weak links, some sacrificed to make space for Amanera’s $950-$6,500-a-night casitas (you’ll likely have to stay there to play the course), others reversed to pile on the drama. It’s close to perfect now, its sole mar being the par-4 16th and par-5 18th, lookalike fishhook fairways embracing ocean coves. Then again, because both pose gambling routes that mimic the daunting approach shot of the eighth at Pebble Beach, duplication isn’t such a sin. Who doesn’t want a do-over in paradise?

— Ron Whitten

See more at www.playagrande.com