LA CANA GOLF CLUB, PUNTA CANA RESORT - Althone Golf and Sports

PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Punta Cana Resort & Club’s first course is 7,152 yards and is a favourite of all who come to the Dominican. Long, innovative, demanding and thoroughly enjoyable, this celebrated course includes 12 holes boasting magnificent sea views and four superb holes playing directly along the Caribbean Sea. The course has many PB Dye signature features, including an Island green at 12, deceptively difficult when viewed from the tee, but with a green some 36 yards in diameter.

This is a classic P.B. Dye design, and the course has a number of moguls and hazhards which obscure your view of many greens and calls for very accurate shot-making. In keeping with design for a windy golf course, the fairways are by and large very generous. However, many of the greens are slightly elevated, and run off areas abound. Practice your chipping and pitching before the round as it will pay dividends.

The 18th is a masterpiece, a par 5 which is reachable for many players, driving downwind to a generous fairway almost insisting that you “have a go”. The green is 72 yards long and narrow, protected by 5 nasty bunkers lined up like sentries, and the entire left side of the green is the Caribbean sea.

The 7th hole is a great short hole with a 90° dogleg left. Big hitters can try to cut the corner over the coconut trees, whilst other players can lay up to the end of the short fairway. But beware: on the corner of the dogleg, you will find Mr Dye’s “Hecklebirnie” – a cluster of 21 pot bunkers known in Gaelic as “purgatory.”

Although the course is in excellent condition, La Cana is due for a re-vamp and turf upgrade in summer 2009, ready for play again in the 2009-2010 season. **UPDATE. All the work is completed and reports are that the course is in great condition.

After a round of golf, or for those who prefer to watch rather than play, The Oscar de la Renta designed La Cana Golf & Beach Club provides an elegant setting for a game of backgammon, a bite to eat, or simply a place to relax. The Beach Club Grill serves a light lunch including seafood, pasta, salads and sandwiches; and for dinner, the sophisticated Cocoloba specializes in nouvelle Caribbean fusion cuisine accompanied by an extensive selection of wine.

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