La Romana Country Club

The verdict

Casa de Campo is Pete Dye's Caribbean masterwork, and most golfers know it for Teeth of the Dog and the cliffside drama of Dye Fore. La Romana Country Club is the resort's quieter, more guarded creation, the course built for the members rather than the visitors, laid out by Dye above the Marina and around the country club itself. Extended over the years to twenty seven holes, with the newer nine threaded near Dye Fore on paspalum turf, it plays to a par 72 of about 7,197 yards.

It carries the unmistakable Dye signatures, the sleepered edges, the angled bunkers and the small, firm greens that ask for a precise approach, but it does so on a more intimate, parkland scale than its famous siblings, with glimpses of the Marina and the Caribbean beyond. The catch is access. La Romana remains the only course at Casa de Campo where even residents and resort guests must be accompanied by a member to play, which keeps it calm and quietly exclusive. For the right traveller it is the connoisseur's round on a resort full of great golf.

The holes worth the trip

La Romana sits a little inland from the coastal theatre of Teeth of the Dog, set among the villas and gardens above the Marina, and it plays at a gentler, more parkland pace than the resort's famous ocean holes. The Dye fingerprints are everywhere, in the railroad tie bunker faces, the diagonal hazards that pull the eye, and the slick, well guarded greens.

The figures tell their own story. None of the par 4s stretches much beyond four hundred yards, the par 5s all sit under five hundred, and the short holes average a comfortable hundred and sixty five yards, so this is a course of placement and touch rather than brute length. The reward goes to the player who works the ball into the right portion of the green and respects the run offs Dye has tucked around them.

The newer nine, fashioned closer to Dye Fore on hard wearing paspalum, adds variety and views toward the Chavon River country, rounding the property out to a full twenty seven holes. It is a course that flatters a thoughtful game and quietly punishes the careless, the kind of layout the members come to know hole by hole.

Where to stay nearby

Casa de Campo is one of the Caribbean's grand golf and leisure resorts, seven thousand acres above the south coast with its own marina, beach club, hotel rooms and a village of private villas, all within a short ride of the courses. Most golfers base themselves on the resort itself, where the Pete Dye courses, the polo, the shooting and the dining are all part of the same estate.

A La Romana Country Club round, where access allows, sits naturally within a Casa de Campo golf week built around Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore, with the wider Dominican Republic adding Punta Cana's championship courses an easy transfer away. It is a destination for travellers who want world class Dye golf wrapped in full resort comfort.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts near La Romana Country Club.