© Dale Leatherman 2004
Everyone feels like a sugar baron at the Dominican Republic’s premier resort, but on the four Pete Dye golf courses, princes and peasants are equals.
By Dale Leatherman
I’m sipping Presidente beer from an icy bottle, reviewing the scorecard from my latest round of golf, and watching an international polo match raging on the field before me. In a few hours I’ll be dining in an open-air restaurant overlooking a pool, then driving my private golf cart to my comfortable fairway casita. Tomorrow? Another great golf course and an afternoon of sailing, shooting, riding or tennis. The day after? More bliss, topped by a choice of four Pete Dye-designed golf courses.
Life is good, very good. I have easily adopted the “sugar baron” frame of mind that Casa de Campo induces, the feeling that the 7,000-acre Dominican Republic resort is my own personal playground.
Developed by the sugar-producing Fanjul family of Palm Beach, Florida, the resort makes it possible for guests to have just about anything. A villa with maid, cook and butler. A spotless, full-service marina. World-class facilities for almost any tropical sport. A dozen dining choices and lively lounges. A modern airport 10 minutes away. And some things no one expects to find on a Caribbean island – such as Altos de Chavon, a remarkable clifftop recreation of a 16th-century Mediterranean village which houses shops and restaurants. The village also contains a 5,000-seat stone amphitheater where operas and musical shows are held.
Golf architects Pete and Alice Dye have had a home at Casa de Campo since the early 1970s, when they guided 300 local laborers with machetes to blaze a golf course through the jungle. By oxcart the workers hauled cachaza, an organic byproduct of sugar-making, from the local refinery to mix with dirt and sand. This “Dye topsoil” was spread and planted with Bermuda seedlings.
“It was the Dominicans who built this course, virtually by hand,” says Dye. “It’s got a lot of their soul in it. ”
Contact me to read the entire story or to discuss second rights or a rewrite. daleatherman@cs.com