Dateline November 21, 2015, Casa de Campo
In 1975, Janice was a young programmer at Warner Lambert who decided to take a golf vacation. She walked into the Liberty Travel on Route 4 in Paramus, New Jersey, and the agent steered her toward Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, home of Pete Dye's famous Teeth of the Dog. The resort would later turn up on Robin Leach's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." Here we were, forty years on, back at Casa de Campo for its annual Senior Golf Week. There are four courses now, with Teeth of the Dog still the star, its loveliest holes running right along the ocean.
Janice still laughs about the old 18th, where the local airstrip used to cut straight across the fairway. There was a little guardhouse with a man who would tell you whether it was safe to hit, and sometimes you simply waited while a plane took off or landed. The airstrip has long since given way to a full airport five miles off, though a short stub of the old runway still sits by the forward tee, kept around for the memories.
Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore.
The courses are all Pete Dye designs. Most golfers know his stadium course near Jacksonville, with that nerve-jangling island green on the 17th. Teeth of the Dog has long ranked among the top hundred courses in the world, sitting around 67th at the time of our visit, and it has been the best in the Caribbean for as long as anyone can remember. The resort has grown over the years, adding the marina, the beach club, and the Dye Fore course, which runs high above the Chavón River and the village of Altos de Chavón, with grand views back over the water. The homes have kept pace too, some listing as high as $24 million, with well over 1,700 of them now. One of our caddies swore that a single house on Dye Fore had 25 bedrooms. We laughed, wondering how we would ever fill it, then decided that if we had that kind of money, the friends would find us.
Altos de Chavón is a re-creation of a Mediterranean hill village, set above the river and looking down on Dye Fore's back nine. It is worth a visit on its own, anchored by the Church of St. Stanislaus, named for the patron saint of Poland and a favorite spot for weddings. It went up in the late 1970s, yet you would swear it had stood there since the Middle Ages.
The week itself is built around the individual golfer. Each day brings a different format, you sign up the day before, and you can pair off with friends or fall in with people you have not met yet. There are individual events, team events, and mixed events, a little of everything, which is just the way Gilles Gagnon, the resort's longtime director of golf, likes to run it.
A small world.
We arrived on Saturday, checked in, and met the rest of the field that evening at a cocktail reception and dinner. As we sat down, we got a surprise: across the table were Gino and Cathy Angella, old friends from Fort Lauderdale Country Club, along with Dave and Patty Zell, also from the club, and a few other couples in for Senior Week. Small world indeed.
The golf.
There was golf every day, and the pairings kept changing, so we were always meeting someone new. On Sunday morning Eric Lillibridge, who has taken over the Jim McLean Golf School at Casa de Campo, ran a short-game clinic for the group, and afterward we played Teeth of the Dog in an individual best-ball. It had been seven years since our last visit, and the course was in fantastic shape. The fairways, tees, and greens shrug off the salt air and the surf that comes crashing over in a heavy wind. Our memories had not oversold it; the course was every bit as beautiful as we remembered.
Monday was a Stableford on the Links course, a fine layout that nonetheless pales next to Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore.
Tuesday brought a morning threesome scramble at Dye Fore, and since we never tire of that course, we went back out and played a second eighteen on our own. Needless to say, we were thoroughly spent by the time we got back to the room. Wednesday started with another clinic from Eric Lillibridge, this one on the driver and putting, and after lunch we headed back to Teeth of the Dog for a partner best-ball. The weather was perfect, a little overcast with a nice breeze. Out at the 16th there is a small rock island about 200 yards off the tee, where someone had planted a patch of grass and a flag, and naturally a few of us could not resist taking a swing at it, a fun little break from the serious golf.
The pool bar.
At the end of a round it is impossible to walk past the bar in the pool. Before the pool area turned respectable for the evening, we would empty our pockets, pull off our golf shoes, and settle onto the bar stools for a tropical drink or a cold beer, then change into our suits and wade back in. One afternoon we fell in with a group of gentlemen from the New York construction business who had rebuilt the tunnels under the World Trade Center. After a few drinks, one of them challenged Janice to a match on the cards. She played from the men's tees and lost by a single stroke, all in good fun.
Thursday we were back on the Links for a best ball of the foursome, with a fine time alongside Gino and Cathy. Friday was the last round, a Stableford against quota points off our handicaps, with the groups shuffled one more time.
The awards.
Friday night brought the closing dinner and the awards. The overall champions were decided by the total of the pro-shop credits earned across the week's tournaments. Dinner was at La Piassetta up in Altos de Chavón, with wonderful Italian food, and then came the results. We had both played well: Janice won the women's division and John won the men's. They handed us Teeth of the Dog flags with our names stitched across them.
The whole field owed a real debt to Kathie and Bill Johnstone of the Husband and Wife Golf Championships, who put the program together at Casa de Campo. Their work made for a wonderful week and the chance to meet so many fine people.
We came away from another fine week at Casa de Campo already looking forward to the next time. And that is it until our next adventure.
