Bob,
The Helms-Burton law does not apply to your northern neighbours.
Philip,
Thanks for the response, and yes, Varadero is the most resorty spot on the island, however, it is fairly close to Havana - and we intend on spending a couple of days there to capture a bit of the authentic Cuban culture. The golf looked rather plain from the website, and unless somebody tells me otherwise, I'm not very likely to bring my clubs along (especially because there are NO other golf options).
Jeff,
While in my first year of architecture school, our very well-travelled, educated and heavily PhD'd professor was showing slides of her trip to Cuba. She was enamoured by the group of Fine Arts & Performance schools that were built shortly after the 1959 revolution and occupied land that used to be golf courses for the American elite. While she was right that the new architecture was fascinating, it was her flippant attitude that a golf course could not be of any architectural merit or historical importance that irritated me. Coincidentally, that day I had a copy of Donald Ross' "Golf has Never Failed Me", and double checked that Ross had built a few courses in Cuba. Perhaps it was the intimidation of such a well-educated professor, but to this day, I regret not taking her to task for such an irresponsible comment. I'll try to take some photos of the site, although knowing it has been built over...the natural landscape may be long since lost.
TK