A golf course all alone on the Dominican North Coast

[Eric Smith]

Playa Grande GC (Robert Trent Jones).  11 oceanfront holes.  And I mean oceanFRONT. On gorgeous cliffs overlooking sand and surf.

The land it's on is so good it's hard to imagine it will remain a golf course. We've played three straight days and hardly anyone is here. There are no hotels, no condos in the immediate area. Our villa is 16 minutes away in Cabrera.

When I get home I'll put together a proper photo essay. I hope the photo I attached appears in this post.

This place is awesome.

Eric

[Greg Clark]

I look forward to your pics.  I played the course not long after it opened.  The area has never taken off as a resort destination, where other parts of the island are booming.  I think it is one of the real undiscovered gems going.  One of the top publications (Golfweek?) recently listed the top 50 Caribbean courses and Playa Grande wasn't listed.  That goes to show how little the course is played, because several of the ocean holes are world class.

What did you think of the Par 5 12th?  I think of that tee shot often and hope you got a shot of it.  Forced carry over an inlet with (at the time I played anyway) trees jutting out of the cliff on the other side.  You either had to carry them to get home in 2, or play to the right.  I hit the very top of one of those damn trees and watched my ball drop into the agua.

[Eric Smith]

Greg,
I do love that tee shot on 12. On my first trip around the course the wind was dead in our face, at least 30 mph and the carry from the blue tees stretched the carry from probably 245 to 280 in the wind. My brother in law and I are both pretty long hitters and we played to the right to the little neck near the cart path and managed to keep our balls in play for the next shot.

On day 2 we played early in the morning before the wind kicked up and we cut off at least 75 yards for the next shot, going straight up the gut over the chasm.

Today was really windy, again 30-35 mph and I played right again with a draw not challenging the water below.

Here's a pic from the 12th tee.  I'll try more while we're here, but I'm using my wife's mac and I'm not real savvy with it.  This post took about 25 minutes 

[Greg Clark]

Thanks for posting Eric.  It's great to get out on a course like that and have it almost to yourself!  My hazy memory recollects that the par 5 4th, and par 3 7th were pretty interesting on the front.  Along with 13, 14 and 18 on the back. 

Have a great time, and if you can I would recommend hopping a plane to get down to La Romana and play Teeth of The Dog.  Well worth the adventure.