By Tom Cunneff
I’ve had the good fortune to visit Casa de Campo Resort & Villas in the Dominican Republic twice in the last year, in October 2024 for its 50th anniversary and again this past October for my nephew’s wedding. I’m already looking forward to a third visit because it’s about to get even better with the reopening Pete Dye’s iconic Teeth of the Dog, on Dec. 6, after a nearly yearlong restoration. What can’t be improved upon, however, is the location, with seven holes on the Caribbean and another three with clear views.
But playing the No. 1 course in the Caribbean is just one of many reasons to visit. Located in La Romana on the southeastern tip of The DR on the island of Hispaniola, Casa de Campo sits on 7,000 acres and has about every amenity imaginable: three golf courses, a 245-acre shooting center, equestrian and polo, a racquet center, a newly renovated spa, fitness center and classes, a full-service salon, and a shopping center. Sprinkled throughout the property are eight diverse restaurants, six of which are included in the all-inclusive option, along with half a dozen bars and lounges, including Gensis Nightclub, which as been a fixture since the resort opened in the 1970s.
Lodging options abound, too, from expansive rooms and suites with tasteful, minimalist décor to luxurious villas with pools and staff to prepare meals. For something in between, try one of the new Premier Club suites, which come with several upgrades over the standard room, including a private reception and lounge area, custom pillow and aromatherapy menus, and a four-seat electric golf cart (all guests get the use of a cart to get around). But if you’re coming with a few others, I highly recommend one of the Garden Villas along the Links Course for their tropical vibe and the way they blur the line between indoor and outdoor living.
With direct flights from all three major New York City airports into Punta Cana International, followed by a 45-minute taxi, which the resort can arrange, it’s a cinch to get to, too. It’s even easier for those of you who live in South Florida in the winter with direct flights right into La Romana from Miami.
To help you recover from your four-hour flight (or 2.5 hours from Miami), hop in your cart and head to Minitas Beach Club for a dip in the turquoise Caribbean. The club also has family and adult-only pools, the latter with an infinity edge that blends right in with the sea as you relax in a lounge chair, hopefully with a piña colada served in a fresh, local pineapple. Beach lovers and snorkelers will also want to take the short catamaran ride over to Catalina Island, a six-square mile national park with pristine beaches and teeming reefs.
Other excursions include driving your own two-person motorized catamaran up the Chavón River; a tour of Santa Domingo, the oldest city in the New World about two hours away; and, just minutes away, a tour of the world’s largest hand-rolled cigar factory to see workers make such famous brands as Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo, and H. Upmann.
For your first round, start with the Links Course, a fun and relatively forgiving layout (for Pete Dye, anyway) that’s a good way to warm up for the more challenging Dye Fore and Teeth of the Dog courses. With its 27 holes, Dye Fore was a very pleasant surprise, especially the Chavón and Marina nines. The views of the Chavón River and marina from high above are as good as the design of the holes, with six of them on Chavón hugging the cliffs hundreds of feet above the river, which has substituted for Vietnam in Apocalypse Now and Rambo: First Blood Part II.
Dye Fore is located at Altos de Chavón, an all-stone replica of a 16th-century Mediterranean village about a 10-minute shuttle ride (or 20-minute trip in a cart) on the higher eastern end of the property. Created by Italian set designer Roberto Coppa at the behest of Charles Bluhdorn, the chairman and CEO of Gulf + Western, who turned the former sugar plantation into a private executive retreat in 1974. None other than Frank Sinatra christened the village in 1982 with a performance in its Colosseum-like amphitheater. In addition to several shops and restaurants, the quaint village overlooking the Chavón also has an art museum and a charming church, St. Stanislaus, where my nephew was married (the reception on the Dye Fore terrace was spectacular).
Stone, or rather coral, was what Dye had to contend with in building Teeth of the Dog. It took more than 300 Dominican workers – who compared the sharp coral to the “diente de perro” – most of 1970 to craft his masterpiece, which is better than ever after the renovation. Led by Jerry Pate, who famously threw Dye into the 18th-hole pond after winning the first Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in 1982, the 11-month project gave Teeth a good cleaning – capping the entire course with new sand before re-grassing it with Dynasty Paspalum, a salt-tolerant turf ideal for seaside courses. With the help of photos from the 1970s and ‘80s, Pate also expanded the greens to their original size, redid the bunkers to make them more dramatic, and moved the new cart paths out of sight and play whenever possible.
“I created 11 holes, and God created seven,” Dye once quipped. But some of those inland holes, like the par-5 third with its volcano green, look to be divinely inspired. The infinity green on the par-4 fourth is a great introduction to the seaside holes, which begin in earnest on the 168-yard fifth. To keep the waves at bay, Pate and his team built up the rock break to the left of the green. Three more seaside stunners (two par 4s that sandwich a par 3) come next before the holes head back inland after No. 8.
“The views can be distracting,” says the director of golf, Robert Birtel.
Dye designed more than 200 courses in his life, but when it came time to fulfill the title of his autobiography, Bury Me in a Pot Bunker, he chose Teeth of the Dog. His ashes were spread in a deep grass pit to the right of the eighth green, and anybody who finds themselves in it might want to just bury themselves, too, since the chance of getting up and down with the sea staring you in the face on the other side of the green is a tall order. (A monument behind the green pays tribute to Dye, who also owned a home at the resort.)
The back nine begins inland with some of Dye’s trademark features: long waste bunkers, double doglegs, and angled greens that fall off to tight surrounds that give players all kinds of short-game options. As golfers turn back into the prevailing wind on the reachable par-5 14th, they encounter one of the greatest – and most challenging – stretches in golf. Pate moved the three bunkers on the left in to tighten the landing area, “a theme that carries through the renovation,” Birtel notes. A giant waste bunker runs the entire length of the hole on the right around a lake that the second shot has to carry to get home. But good luck holding the angled, turtle-back green.
“The restoration will allow the course to play tougher in the Latin America Amateur Championship,” Birtel says, noting the course hosts the prestigious event, with the winner getting into the Masters, every four years, the last in 2022. “It will also help with maintenance.”
The par-4 15th is a dogleg right with the Caribbean hard on the right and a peninsular green that flows right into the back tee of the 183-yard 16th, which juts out into the sea. Standing on that beautiful spot, you’re hesitant to pull a club for two reasons: the views are so great you just want to soak it in, and the all-carry tee shot is so scary you want to delay it as long as possible. The dogleg right par-4 17th is another great walk along the sea, especially with one of the great caddies on hand, before the routing heads inland again on the long, par-4 finisher.
Teeth of the Dog’s first tee is just a short walk from the main hotel area with its lively restaurant, La Caña, which takes its name from the sugar cane crops that surround the town of La Romana and have been the driving force of the local economy since the 1900s. The bar and lounge area is a nightly hotspot where guests enjoy the sounds of local live music as well as hand-rolled cigars and an extensive selection of Dominican rums.
La Caña is included in the all-inclusive option, as the nearby Lago, which overlooks Teeth’s 18th hole and the Caribbean beyond, and has terrific breakfast and lunch buffets. Also included in the option are the La Casita (Spanish) and Causa (Peruvian) in the marina, which is filled with shops and boutiques, along with Chilango Taqueria (Mexican) and La Piazzetta (Italian) in Altos de Chavón.
As great as the amenities and accommodations are, what truly sets the resort apart is the friendly staff, who never miss a chance to elevate an experience. When my girlfriend complimented the homegrown coffee, Santo Domingo, that Lago serves, the waiter brought back two pounds of it for us to take home.
Clearly, Casa de Campo comes with a lot of perks.