Jay,
My dad played there every February since the course opened until his health prevented him from doing so.
I played there each February for about 20 years.
I always loved the golf course, although as Gary points out, maintainance in that climate was the primary challenge.
My routine was to play early every morning, then go to the pool/beach and then back in the afternoon for 9 or more holes.
It was quite a unique resort.
The same people returned every year even though the accomodations were "spartan".
The same staff returned there every year so it was like a big family reunion.
Chi Chi was the Head Pro and the staff were all good players.
Frank, the starter, was the man, a terrific guy.
He controlled pairings and access.
I can remember my father, lying in his hospital bed in January, right after his first heart attack, telling the doctors they had to "fix" whatever was wrong within the next week because he had reservations at Dorado and he didn't want to miss golf, gambing and his friends. One doctor pulled me aside and said, he's about to have triple by-pass surgery and won't be going anywhere this winter, what shall I tell him ? I said, "Don't tell him anything, he'll figure out that he's not going anywhere when he wakes up from the anesthesia. When he came out of the anesthesia, the first thing he said to me was, " I guess I won't be going to Dorado in two weeks. I said, "next year dad". It was a wonderful resort and the course was amongst the best, if not the best, in the Carribean.
But, my best Dorado story centers around a friend of mine from Kentucky.
His wife came up to me at the crap table and said, "you'll never believe what I saw today"
To which I said, don't tell me that you saw Ed ___ naked.
She laughed.
Seeing Ed ____ naked would be too much for the eye.
Not a particularly attractive fellow in clothes, frightening to imagine him without clothes.
"No", she said, "I saw an ape."
I said, "Shirley, there are no apes on the island, they're not indigenous to Puerto Rico."
She said, "I was playing 6th hole, the downhill par 4 and out of the right side woods I saw this ape, then he went back into the jungle."
I said, "No Way"
Her husband then confirmed the story.
I later found out that a traveling circus/carnival had allowed a chimp to escape a while ago.
From that day forth, at Breakfast every morning, she took extra fruit and bananas, and every time she played the 6th hole, she put them on the grass, in the rough right next to the jungle. She did this every day.
Each night at the casino, I would ask her, "Did you see the ape ?"
She'd say "No"
So, what did I do.
I went into town and rented a gorilla costume.
Then I found out what time she was teeing off the next morning.
I hid in the jungle, just off the 6th fairway.
She came by in her cart, put out the fruit and bananas and drove off.
Now Shirley was very attractive, a former model, but, her vision wasn't the best and she wouldn't wear glasses because they detracted from her looks. So, at 100 yards, the deception was perfect.
So, I let her get about 100 yards away, then made a tremendous commotion as I came out of the dark jungle into the bright Puerto Rican sun, on my knees, scooped up the fruit in one hand, and with the other hand, beckoned her to come to me. Then, I went back into the dark jungle where the dark gorilla costume became one with the blackness.
Now, her husband was in on this, since I didn't want anyone to have a heart attack.
He told me that she said, "look, look, he's taking the food. He's waving at us to come to him, maybe he wants more"
Her husband said to her, "look, that's a dangerous jungle animal, we'd better get out of here, plus, we don't want to hold up the group behind us."
Now, the entire golf staff was also in on it because they had to drive me out to the 6th hole in a cart in my gorilla costume.
At 6"4", in the gorilla costume I must have been 6'8", that's why I got on my knees.
That night in the casino she came racing over to me and said, "You'll never believe what happened to me today"
To which I said, " Did Ed ____ take off his clothes again ?" She said, "No, the ape came back, I fed him and he waved to me"
I said, "No way, there are no apes on the island." She said, "Yes there are and my husband and the couple we were playing with saw him too." Then the husband comes over and says, 'Yep, a real ape, right by the 6th hole, took all of Shirley's food."
She said, "you should see the size of him, he's big"
So, I said, "Well Shirley, you know that everything grows fast in the tropics"
So now, what does Shirley do.
Every morning she's now taking baskets of food, puttng the food in her cart and dumping it by the 6th hole.
And, every day, after she's gone, I scoop up the food, so every next day, she thinks the ape the ape is eating the food and/or feeding his family.
And every night she tells me that the ape must have a voracious appetite because she keeps leaving more and more food and he's taking it all.
About 4 days later, I'm at a crap table rolling the dice when I feel a good kick in the ass.
Someone ratted me out.
She said, "how could you do that to me, do you know how much food I'vd taken every morning?
I said, "Don't worry, it's on your husband's bill"
And, as for the gorilla costume, I said, "It seemed like the right thing to do at the moment.
We all laughed and the story became a legend of sorts.
A picture of me, dressed in that gorilla outfit, with a visor on my head, with driver in my hands, addressing a banana on a tee, hung in the Pro Shop for years.
As I type this, I'm looking at a photo of me in that gorilla costume, with the visor on, with a driver in my hands, addressing a banana, with my dad giving me a lesson/pointer.
Those were great days.
Oh, one other thing.
When it's 90 degrees and humid, and you've been in a gorilla costume for an hour, you lose 10 pounds.
It must have been 120 in that suit.
They invited me to visit them in Kentucky, where they owned a horse farm.
I pulled off a similar prank while staying with them, but, that's another story.