Cocotal Golf and Country Club

The verdict

Cocotal is the everyday workhorse of Punta Cana golf, and that is meant as a compliment. The Spanish amateur champion Jose Pepe Gancedo, sometimes called the Picasso of golf design, laid out 27 holes through old coconut groves in 2000, and the three nines of Hibiscus, Bougainvillea and Benjamina give the resort the flexibility to keep tee sheets moving in high season. It is not a clifftop showpiece like the courses on the southern coast, but it is generous, walkable in spirit and genuinely fun.

What sells Cocotal is location. It sits in the middle of the Bavaro hotel strip, so a guest at the Melia or Paradisus properties can be on the first tee within minutes and back on the beach by lunch. The palms are everywhere, water comes into play on a dozen holes, and the greens are large enough to reward a confident approach. For a group splitting time between golf and the all inclusive life, it is the most practical base on the east coast.

The holes worth the trip

Cocotal asks you to drive the ball into corridors of palm rather than over the sea, and the best holes use water and angle to do their work. The closing hole of the Bougainvillea nine plays to a green guarded by a lake on the left, a classic risk and reward finish where the brave line shortens the approach and the safe line leaves a long iron. Several par 4s dogleg gently around stands of coconut palm, so the tee shot that finds the proper side opens up the green.

The par 3s give the round its variety, played across water to greens framed by palm and bunker, with the trade wind freshening through the afternoon. The greens are big and roll true, which keeps the course forgiving for a holiday field while still punishing the lazy approach that finishes on the wrong tier. None of it is brutal, and that is the point: Cocotal is built to be enjoyed by a mixed group rather than to defend par.

Conditioning is reliably good for a course that hosts heavy resort traffic, and the staff keep play sociable and unhurried. Take a cart, take a caddie if you want the local read, and treat Cocotal as the relaxed counterpoint to the bucket list rounds elsewhere on the island.

Where to stay nearby

Cocotal is wrapped by the Bavaro hotel cluster, so the natural base is one of the large all inclusive resorts on its doorstep, from the Melia and Paradisus properties to the Hard Rock and the Bavaro beach hotels a short transfer away. Staying inside the strip puts you minutes from the first tee and on a wide white sand beach the rest of the day.

Cocotal works best as the easy round in a fuller Punta Cana week. Pair it with the marquee coastal courses, the Tom Fazio designed Corales at Puntacana and Nicklaus designed Punta Espada up the coast at Cap Cana, and build the beach, the dining and the nightlife of Bavaro around the golf.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts near Cocotal.