Four days in the Dominican Republic

You might remember that back in 2008, I visited the Dominican Republic for a few days – the Roco Ki Resort, where my friend Damon (second photo) used to be the superintendent (he's now at a different resort in Puerto Rico).

Well, while I was there, Damon was kind enough to introduce me to all the superintendents in the area. We all met up at Soles, a beach bar within 200 feet of Damon’s apartment.

One of the people I met that evening was a gentlemen by the name of Julio Diaz. Julio is the superintendent of the largest golf operation on the island of Hispaniola, the Punta Cana Resort. I could go into detail about the operation, but needless to say, it’s big, and includes the world’s largest privately owned airport.

Me and Julio became friends, and would catch up at the Golf Industry Show and via email on occasion. I did a short feature about Julio’s turf nursery in the magazine. I asked him to keep me updated on his construction project, a Tom Fazio course called Corales, because I thought it might be newsworthy down the road. Photos from Corales follow.

(Shot of me hitting my drive on No. 18 here... hit a beautiful drive over the bay and had a nice par here to close my round.)

Fast forward to this most recent Golf Industry Show in San Diego. I bumped into Julio. He told me he brought a gift back from the Dominican (“Brugal! The rum you like!”) We made plans for lunch that week. At lunch, he told me he wanted me to return to the DR, for the grand opening of Corales.

So in mid-April I took a 4-day trip to the DR to see Corales, as a guest of Grupo Puntacana. Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias are part-owners of Corales, hence the photo with Oscar. The journalists in attendance at the grand opening (about 15 of us) were invited to a cocktail party at his house on the first night we were there.

A nice guy, Oscar. Beautiful home, as you'd expect. Right on the ocean, open air, giant walls of books on both sides of the main room... and a wait staff with plenty of drinks ready. I chatted with him briefly, nothing of consequence, but a gracious man for sure.

I played 36 holes of golf while I was there, and I also got a nice (exclusive) story for my magazine. I stayed in a villa at the Punta Cana Resort... awesome room with a great view of the Caribbean. I had a "villa manager," who is like a personal assistant. He showed me the room, showed me how everything worked, and then he said, "Most important! Here is your cell phone. Dial 2 if you need anything."

I look at the land-line phone on the desk and ask, "So... I use this cell phone if I want room service?"

"No! Use the regular phone if you want room service."

"So what do I use the cell phone for?"

"If you need anything."

"Like what?"

"I don't know... to set up a round of tennis, an appointment at the spa..."

"..."

"The cell phone calls my cell phone, sir."

"Ohhh."

I never called the guy. By day two, he left another cell phone for me in the room, as if my first cell phone wasn't working properly.


Here's a photo taken of the outside of Oscar's house. I could have snapped some photos inside, but that would have seemed tacky, so I didn't do that. Instead, I privately took this photo as I wandered around outside.

Here's a photo of my caddie teeing one up on # 18 at La Cana. He topped it into the beach.

Here's a photo of me and my playing partner for both rounds, Henrique, a Brazilian golf journalist.

Oh, crap, I forgot to mention the President of the DR. He was there at the grand opening too. Nice, but I barely spoke with him. There was a large group of us, and a bunch of security guards. My favorite thing about the prez? They brought him his own chair, like a throne, and whenever he stood up to clap, one of the guards would pull his chair out and then push it back in for him. Very sweet.

Anyway, that's my DR story. Thanks for reading, hope I didn't bore you!