Well that is correct but not specific enough.

Pete Dye’s Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, A Must Play!

That’s specific but not completely true.

Pete Dye’s five golf courses at Casa de Campo, including Teeth of the Dog, All Must Be Played.

Casa de Campo is truly a golf resort with 90 Pete Dye-designed golf holes, seven of which are on the Caribbean Sea expertly contained within the Dog’s 18 Teeth. Did you know the average adult dog has 42 teeth? I wish Dye’s most beautiful golf course had as many holes as a dog has teeth to be honest with you. It is a round that no golfer, no matter how they are playing or scoring, ever wants to end.

To put it mildly, the golf at Casa de Campo is exceptional. This is vintage ‘Pete Dye,’ both in design and up close and personal. There are four golf course locations—‘Teeth of the Dog,’ ‘Dye Fore,’ ‘The Links,’ and the private La Romana CC. Dye Fore and La Romana have 27 holes to make the equivalent of five Pete Dye golf courses in one thrilling location.

I see the recently completed Pete Dye Course at French Lick as his final masterpiece. Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo was his first masterpiece. Dye came to the Dominican Republic in the late ‘60s and helped Gulf and Western find this perfect location close to the sea, same as the great Scottish courses the young Dye had toured just a few years before. When finished with the first course in 1971, Dye named it the name he had heard the workers use referring to the sharp coral rock underfoot as “diente del perro,” or “Teeth of the Dog.” While the coral rock is neutralized by the wearing of golf shoes, the wind and design, certainly made me fearful as though I was looking at the teeth of an angry dog. But he didn’t bite me or attack. Rather the beauty of the sea and the beauty of the design made me grateful to be alive and having this golfing experience.

Casa de Campo is the Caribbean’s leading resort and Teeth of the Dog is the Number One golf course in Latin America. It is that simple. You have to come and experience this original and vintage Pete Dye designed golf course!

CLICK here for a BEAUTY VIDEO of Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog.

The golf course starts off gently and then swings you around to play Nos. 5,6,7 & 8 with the ocean on your left. Then it quickly brings you back to the clubhouse for the turn and maybe a bite to eat to just have a few moments to reflect on the recent experience. The first five holes on the second nine are solid. The last, No. 14 being a reachable par-5 with a lake guarding the front right of the green. You don’t have to force a carry but if you do like I did from the right side of the fairway, then it is a 2-putt birdie. Then as if taken though a tunnel of bamboo trees, the cart path quickly whisks you back out to the sea. Almost like a dosey-doe there you are confronted with another three ocean front holes, this time with the ocean on the right. Good thing you figured out how to correct that slice on the inland holes. The 484-yard par-4 18th, a strong finishing hole, takes you back to the safety of the clubhouse to ponder one of the best, if not the best round of golf in your lifetime.

In adult dogs, approximate age can be determined by checking the wear on their incisors. In adult golfers, our love of the game and commitment to seek its full understanding and relationship to life itself, can be deepened and strengthened by a golf trip to Casa de Campo.

There is no bite, or even a bark, just the roar of the wind and the sea waiting for you at Teeth of the Dog!

CLICK here for a VIDEO INTERVIEW with Gilles Gagnon, Director of Golf Operations.

CLICK here for Andy’s feature article on Casa de Campo.

 

About mid way through the East Coast Golf Journey I got wind of the Rip Van Winkle Golf Trail and had to venture over to Palenville, NY in the Great Northern Catskills to play the namesake golf course—the Rip Van Winkle CC. ‘The Rip,’ as the local golfers call it, is owned and operated by Sara & John Smith. John is a third generation owner as his grandparents purchased the golf course in 1949. An ‘above par’ guy, apparently Sara moved him into a new pro shop and together they renovated the clubhouse as a restaurant & tavern with other space to host banquets, weddings and other events. ‘The Rip’ has quickly and successfully transformed from a one-season golf course business to a four-season family hospitality business.

CLICK here for a VIDEO INTERVIEW with GM John Smith.

Playing ‘The Rip’ is an extraordinary golfing experience. First you have the spectacular Catskill Mountains to gaze up to while walking a very beautiful golf course nestled on the floor of the valley. Second, it is an authentic 1919 Donald Ross design and lastly it is in great shape with a recently upgraded irrigation system. Rumor has it that the golfer Rip Van Winkle fell asleep in the woods to the left of the 4th hole and awakened on the long 15th hole. Sounds like my typical round of golf! ‘The Rip’ is a nine hole golf course with two sets of tees. If you want to play more you hook up with the Back Nine Bud Dog. I found like many locals do that “nine is fine,” as the East Coast Journey continued down to my sister Joanne’s place on Long Island with a side trip out of JFK to the inaugural Caribbean Golf Merchandise Show in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

CLICK here for a GOLFING VIDEO of Andy playing Signature Hole No. 3 at ‘the Rip.’

My only advice to Rip is to wake up, play your namesake golf course and enjoy ‘the rest of your life.’

 

If you ever get the chance, play Royal Isabela Golf Links in Puerto Rico.

Correct that, put Royal Isabela on your Bucket List and play it soon!

CLICK here for the article on my original visit to Royal Isabela in 2011.

CLICK here for the article on my most recent visit to Royal Isabela in 2014.

If after those two article you have yet to make your reservation, CLICK here to learn how Royal Isabela seduced me as I hiked down to the beach one morning.

There is no place like her on earth…

 

 

Golf Writer Andy Reistetter continues his exclusive “Play-Write” series with a round of golf on the Valley Course the day after the 2011 Nationwide Tour’s Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open presented by Planters. A course he is familiar with and plays often. Play along with Reistetter as writes about how different the set-up is for a professional golf tournament and what he discovers new about TPC Sawgrass’ “other” golf course.

Dye’s Valley of Opportunity.
What is a valley anyways?
This is Florida, doesn’t there have to be mountains for it to be a valley?

Yes, the first definition of a valley is an elongated depression between uplands, hills, or mountains, especially one following the course of a stream.

Well there’s definitely water in Dye’s Valley.

But the second definition makes more geographical sense- an extensive, more or less flat, and relatively low region drained by a great river system.

Well the nearby St. Johns River is the longest river in the state of Florida.

But it seems like Dye’s Valley doesn’t drain to anywhere in particular.

Water from above seems to seep down into the sandy soil quite nicely without any runoff to the river.

The third definition of a valley (as provided by Dictionary.com) is any depression or hollow resembling a valley.

Now I am confused- are we talking about a relatively big valley like the ones you feel off the tees on Nos. 6, 7, 8 on the front or Nos. 12, 13, 16 and 17 on the back?

Or perhaps the name of Dye’s Valley refers to the miniature valleys, bumps and hollows surrounding nearly every green?

So much for playing “if, ands, and butts,” let’s get into the opportunity side of Dye’s Valley of Opportunity for you and me.

Well, let’s start with them- those that are more proficient at the game of golf than you or I.

Back in 1988, Dye’s Valley hosted the Senior PLAYERS Championship.

Billy Casper, a dedicated family man with peculiar eating habits won on a Sunday in June that year.

Twenty years earlier he dedicated his book The New Billy Casper, More Important Things in Life than Golf to his daughter Linda.

That cute little girl once said “I guess Sundays are for mommies and their little girls to go to church while daddies go to the golf course.”

Things change in life and golf I guess… now families go to church on Saturday evenings and play golf together on Sunday mornings.

When kids grow up and leave the nest it is time for “senior” golfers to head to the golf course.

In 1989 on Dye’s Valley it was Orville Moody winning the Senior PLAYERS crown.

Moody was the first guy to win consistently with the long putter or what was known as “the broomstick” back then.

Orville Who?
The Army sergeant from Killeen, Texas.
The guy who met a Marine from Dallas Texas for the first time in Okinawa, Japan.
Moody then dusted his little Texas brother, the Merry Mex, in the Far East All-Service Championship.
Moody shot a 64 on Saturday to win by two strokes on Sunday over Charles Coody and won $105,000.
Another golfer by the name of Gavin Hall shot a 64 on Saturday on the same course on his 17th birthday and went on to win the 2011 Junior PLAYERS championship.
What will be his destiny?
Hall, one of the top rated junior golfers, earned a spot in the field in the Nationwide Tour’s Winn Dixie Jacksonville Open on Dye’s Valley.
The AJGA star shot 75-73 and missed the cut by five strokes.
Another Gavin shot 64 in Round 2 and held on down the stretch to win the same tournament.
Gavin Coles, the only player in PGA TOUR history to earn a tour card for a fourth time this year won $108,000 for his fifth career Nationwide Tour victory.
Coles who made $3,000 more than Moody did 22 years earlier, moved to No. 15 on the Nationwide Money List and a PGA Tour card for 2012.
There is no doubt there is opportunity for ranked amateur and professional golfers on Dye’s Valley.
What opportunity awaits us mere golfers on Dye’s Valley the day-after?
An opportunity to play and experience the same challenge as the professionals faced while competing in a pivotal tournament on the Nationwide Tour schedule.
This was to be no ordinary round of golf.
I was more than excited after four days and nights of Dye’s Valley.
During the day I was assigned to do (provide) yardages for Golf Channel’s on course reporter Kay Cockerill.
During the night I would watch the DVR replay of the tournament.
It’s fun, exciting and revealing to watch a tournament on television being played on a golf course you are familiar with.
You see the golf course and its challenges from a different perspective.
Listening to expert analysis you learn the secrets to its design.
Hope emerges even for the amateur that knowing her better, you can understand her better and enjoy the challenge in a more intimate and fulfilling manner.
I was mesmerized by the beauty of Dye’s Valley- the shadows in the valleys giving tone and texture to her beauty. The reflections of the tall pine, hearty oak and graceful palm trees in the body of her waters caused me to see her in another light.
Being on course with the feature and final groups one realizes it isn’t all fairways and greens with putts dropping left, center and right.
Coles’ victory came from perseverance, especially on the final day with difficult hole locations and the ever-present though changing ocean breezes.
The 43-year old veteran would hack it out of the rough on 16 then get it up-and-down to save par. A birdie on the par-5 16th and another on the converted par-5 to par-4 17th by virtue of a heroic putt brought him to the 18th with a two-stroke lead over playing partner Jonas Blixt.
Playing the home hole safe and smart was enough, even with a three-putt for victory by the slimmest of margins.
Could I do this with my own game?
The course setup is there for everyone to see so it follows that it is fair and a good competitive test.
Gavin Cole commented on the 8th and 17th, both par-5 made par-4 holes: “It’s just a number (they say), (it) doesn’t matter how difficult the green (complexes) are.”
There are valleys around those greens.
The day-after the par on the 8th and 17th is five- that’s the number I know.
Were the fairways made narrower for the tournament?
This I am not sure, perhaps the 15th was the only one with a significant difference?
I am not sure if the five foot first cut collars emerged from the fairway or the rough?
I do know the fairways and especially the greens were “firmer and faster” than I had ever before experienced.
The rough was definitely higher and my latest competitive thought to follow the flight and path of all the golf balls I hit came in handy in terms of “search and rescue” missions when my balls flew in unintended directions.
Playing the same Sunday hole locations was definitely a treat and added to the reenactment of a wonderful tournament week.
Skill level and scoring proficiency excluded from the above comment, of course… on the course.
I know myself and my location better than ever on the expertly designed golf course.
With two loops in different directions- the front nine being clockwise and the back nine being counter clockwise, it is easy to get disoriented.
Throw in the relatively flat topography spread out over a very large area and one is as lost as sea as Gilligan, Skipper and his compatriots.
Which wind direction do you believe?
The grass clippings dropped in front of your eyes, the tops of the towering pines or the overall, predominant and verified wind direction?
It takes a compass to know where you are heading. Even though a valley there are no mountaintops to see and gauge location.
The results of my endeavor to play Dye’s Valley the day-after the pros did?
Not my best round ever though only three strokes off it.
I managed to hit the first five greens, six of the first seven and suffered only three three-putts.
The driver got me into trouble on three holes- way left on No. 6, ditto No. 8 and water right on No. 10.
With only five fairways hit, nine greens in regulation and 35 putts I would keep my day job if I had one.
My lone birdie came on the 17th and yes it was a score of four- par for them, birdie for me.
It was a magical round on a perfect day in my life.
As one often does at TPC Sawgrass I made two new golfing friends- two snowbirds named Dan and Bob.
After this week and this round I also realized that I am in love with Dye’s Valley.
Now what do I tell the Stadium?

TPC Sawgrass, the Home of THE PLAYERS Championship. While it is easier to play without thousands of people outside the rope line, the Stadium Course is a very difficult golf course to score on. My recommendation is to bring a friend and play a friendly gentleman’s match. That way the score doesn’t matter, a triple bogey is like a bogey back home, and each hole begins anew stroke wise. My golfing buddy Stokes and I did just that and we both had our fun though on separate nines. He started hot and had me four down after four holes making a sensational birdie on the par-5 11th hole (we started on No. 10). Though, as the video shows, I started to mount a comeback with a birdie on the par-5 16th hole. Down three at the turn, our fortunes reversed and I won the match 2-Up with a birdie on the par-5 9th. It really didn’t matter who won, we headed to Nineteen to talk about the fun experience, PLAYERS history (the Clubhouse is a near museum of anything and everything TPC Sawgrass and PGA TOUR, including a President’s Cup library), and hang out with like minded people from around the world who come to play the iconic island green on the par-3 17th. Stokes flushed one there (meaning good shot) while I really did flush one in the water. I am excited to play the newly restored (with minor tweaks) Dye’s Valley Course after the Web.com Championship in mid September. Where is this summer going?

CLICK here for a brief video recap of our fun time on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Playing Stadium w my golfing buddy Stokes, looks like a little practice range renovation is in progress.   (Facebook Post with 2 pics, Andy Reistetter, 6/4/13)

 

 

 

Andy Reistetter continues his exclusive “Play-Write” series with one of American golf’s true treasures- The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. The author was delighted to have the opportunity to play the Old White Course shortly before the inaugural Greenbrier Classic in 2010. He shares his thoughts on the historical aspects of the Old White course, the lore of Sam Snead and the excitement of competitive golf’s return to The Greenbrier.

In 1979 golfing history changed at The Greenbrier when Spaniard Seve Ballesteros and others from continental Europe first competed against the Americans alongside Great Britain and Ireland in the Ryder Cup.

Team United States still prevailed over Europe by a score of 17 to 11 points.

In 1987 it was Australian Bruce Crampton winning the last Champions Tour event played at the Greenbrier.

In 1994 at The Greenbrier, in only the third Solheim Cup, it was a strong Sunday singles performance led by Beth Daniel and Meg Mallon that regained the Cup for American captain JoAnne Carner.

Sadly it was nearby The Greenbrier in Hot Springs, Virginia where Slammin’ Sammy Snead passed on May 23, 2002 after showcasing his sweet swing one last time earlier that year at The Masters.

Remember Sammy’s little gig on the Swilican Bridge as he bid farewell to St. Andrews?

In between his birth and his death in the same town, during the nearly 90 years on this earth Snead became and still is the most victorious golfer ever. Winning in six decades his triumphs totaled 82 including seven majors.

Talk about almost shooting your age…

Greenbrier’s Professional Emeritus since 1994 won the Open at St. Andrews in 1946, three Masters and three PGA Championships though he never won the U.S. Open, finishing second four times.

The beauty of an American treasure, the lore of Sam Snead and the warmth of West Virginia welcomes the golfing world back next week for the first of six committed Greenbrier Classics.

With a prominent slot in the PGA TOUR’s regular season Fed Ex Cup points competition and Golf Channel and CBS Sports television coverage, born and raised West Virginian Jim Justice’s planned reemergence of the Greenbrier is well underway.

Current playing golf legend Tom Watson is on board as Professional Emeritus since 2005.

West Virginians voted in gambling for the Greenbrier and the Casino Club opened with a red carpet gala over the July 4^th weekend.

The initial playing of the Greenbrier Classic will be the cherry on the top of the cake for Justice and the PGA TOUR.

Class and an ancient and royal game will go well together.

While the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup were played on the Greenbrier course, The Old White Course, the Greenbrier’s first of four golf courses will host the Greenbrier Classic.

The Old White Course opened in 1914 and was designed by America’s first recognized golf course architect Charles Blair Macdonald. His associate Seth Raynor made several alterations and then went on to design the Greenbrier course which opened in 1924.

After 92 years of continuous play noted architect Lester George recently restored the OLD White Course to its original historic vision.

If you are familiar with the “Tour 18” concept of replicating famous holes for amateur play, go back almost 100 years and put yourself in the shoes of Charles Blair Macdonald.

He grew up in Chicago and was sent to St. Andrews University in Scotland at the age of 16. There he took up golf learning from Old Tom Morris himself. After returning to Chicago he rarely played golf for the next 17 years as he worked as a stockbroker.

In 1892 he lays out some golf holes and forms the Chicago Golf Club. He helps form the United States Golf Association and wins the first U.S. Amateur in 1895.

Macdonald’s legacy would become “the father of golf course architecture.” Building upon his youthful exposure to Scottish golf links he went on to design Shinnecock Hills, the National Golf Links and at nearly the age of 60 the Old White Course at the Greenbrier.

Inspired by the original Scottish courses of the game he duplicated many features in a peaceful and beautiful upland valley of the Allegheny Mountains.

The Old White Course is the PGA TOUR golf professional’s version of our “Tour 18.” Nearly 100 years ago, the first golf course architect paid homage to the ancient courses across the pond by duplicating several of their features.

All the golfers in the field at the Greenbrier will be in for a special treat.

They will experience and you will see on television: cross bunkers, Hog’s Back fairways, the deepest green ever with its own “Valley of Sin” in the middle, mounds that look like Hershey Kisses but are called the Alps, horseshoe bunkers, North Berwick’s Redan, punch bowl greens, St. Andrews’ Principal’s Nose and Hell’s Bunker, the Narrows, and a water “cape” hole.

The most unusual feature- a horseshoe ridge in the 18^th green may very well be the last challenge for the golfer that cashes in on a big payday come Sunday afternoon.

With a legacy dating back to 1778 this National Historic Landmark will encompass you soon after you come upon its grounds. The drive opens up to a beautiful view of the clinical white Greenbrier main building amidst sculptured landscaping.

After a gaze into the past two centuries the road meanders down a swale. There stands the iconic green dome above the white-columned springhouse that locates the original sulphur springs.

Back then folks came to the Greenbrier for relaxation, medicinal and health purposes.

You can do the same these days too.

The ride is short to the flat valley floor where the sign marks the location of the Greenbrier Golf Club.

Three of the four courses start and end at the clubhouse. The fourth course is a nearby private equity and residential Sporting Club with the Fazio designed Sam Snead course.

The Clubhouse hosts Sam Snead’s fine dining restaurant with an adjacent Slammin’ Sammy sports bar. Panoramic windows overlook the 18^th green surrounded with hospitality seating covered with distinctive green-striped awnings.

The Greenbrier is ready for an exciting week of competitive golf and a whole lot of fun.

Country music icon Reba and the award-winning Rascal Flatts will perform as well as country music stars Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.

The casino is open for play too.

The Greenbrier resort is putting on her Sunday best for what will surely be a classic tournament next week.

Portraits of Sam Snead himself the inventor of the sidesaddle putting style, another one with “The Great One” Jackie Gleason riding in a golf cart, it seems as if all of golf history on the 20^th century is documented on these grounds.

Right there outside the West Portico of the clubhouse is the first tee.

Set upon a bluff with the fairway below leading to the golf course that seemingly stretches to the far side of the valley to the multiple ridges of the Allegheny Mountains.

At the site of Arnold Palmer’s first professional victory and paycheck in the 1955 Sam Snead Spring Festival

Here where Sam Snead recorded the first ever 59 in the 1959 Spring Festival on the Greenbrier course.

At the enshrinement of all of Sam Snead’s 35 hole-in-one golf balls along with the sweet swinging King of Swing’s banjo and trumpet.

At a place where presidents and golf’s legends have come to play golf.

Come visit this American treasure, experience the lore of Sam Snead and the warmth of West Virginia.