Punta Blanca golf course, Dominican Republic

Punta Blanca, a great Nick Price design, is a remarkably fair test of golf for the great variety of golfers who visit the Punta Cana region for a golf holiday. It is located within a few minutes drive from many of the popular ocean-side hotels, and is in excellent condition with fast greens and manicured turf.

The terrain is predominantly flat, and so the variation in hole design tends to focus on mangrove swamps and water hazhards. Price has sensibly made a real effort to ensure that there is ample room to drive the ball, and in the usual windy conditions to be found year-round, the golfer is asked to drive the ball a good distance, albeit to fairways that can be 75 yards wide. However, you are then faced with a series of very challenging approach shots and where there is elevation, it tends to be around the greens, which are well bunkered and feature some severe slopes.

Four sets of tees from 5583 to 7174 yards allow the course to be challenging for all golfers. The 18th hole, for example, ranges from 338 yards to a tough 443. A dog-leg right, with an enormous waste bunker on the corner of the dogleg running almost 150 yards up to the green, requires a huge tee shot to cut the corner. Taking the safer indirect route requires a fine drive which skirts a bunker on the left, and then leaves an approach of some 176 to 140 yards to an undulating green of just a few yards width, with a run-off area behind into OB.

The 5th is a very fine par 4, 373 to 479 yards. A downwind tee shot to the ubiquitous wide fairway is followed by a long second to a green bordered by water on the right and a large waste area to the left. Miss it here and your next shot from a sandy lie must land on the green without rolling into the water.

All the par 3s are good, some long, some short, and the latter particularly demanding where a full carry is usually required over swampy ground or large sandy waste areas.

Whilst the course may not have the glamorous ocean views of its upscale neighbours at Punta Espada and Roco-Ki, this is a very fine course which has been intelligently designed and will leave you with very pleasant memories.