The Winds of Change for The Dominican Republic Started at Teeth of the Dog
The Dominican Republic’s economic changes from agriculture to tourism started with a vision from Pete Dye and the Casa de Campo Resort
Only three of the 590 rounds produced subpar scores, and the windy, intimidating seaside finishing holes easily won their battle with the top amateurs, earning the nickname “Reload Alley.” - Bury Me in a Pot Bunker, a Pete Dye biography.
The golf course referenced above in the book “Bury Me in a Pot Bunker” is Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo Resort in the Dominican Republic. We are far removed from the sentiment of the 1974 World Amateur Championship quoted above, and the nation itself has since emerged as a golf destination. With other star studded courses on the island, Pete Dye’s masterpiece “Teeth of the Dog” remains the crown jewel.
The nation and the island experienced a near century of political unrest, regime change, independence, dictatorship and hardship in general. Previously dominated by cash crops, specifically sugar cane, the stabilization of the Dominican Republic has shifted its main industry from Agriculture to Tourism.
Casa de Campo Resort was ahead of the curve, establishing “Teeth of the Dog” golf course in 1971, well before the start of the tourism boom in the late 1980s. The resort’s impact to the economy is substantial, changing the earning potential and lives of entire families. In a country where the median income in 2023 was $4800 USD, the ability to bring home over $100/day in tips is impactful.
“As I made my way across the Rocky terrain on the desolate southeastern coastline of the Dominican Republic in 1969. I was certain that my motor trip was just another wild goose chase, attempting to find a suitable site for the golf course at proven difficult and although I had traveled much of the Dominican, I had not yet found the land that excited me,” said Pete Dye, the golf course architect responsible for Teeth of the Dog.
The course marked a huge pivot. The sugar company that controlled 400,000 acres of land throughout the island had decided to diversify their business, incorporating golf and hospitality into their portfolio. Pete Dye had recently completed Harbor Town with Jack Nicklaus and had seen his prestige grow as a golf course architect. It was serendipitous that the two paths would cross.
The paths of Gilles Gagnon and Bill Coore came to a headway at the resort as well. An accomplished Coore had interviewed and been offered the head golf position at the resort and the Teeth of the Dog course, an offer he would turn down to pursue a career in golf course design. Second on a short list, was Gagnon, who had experience running NCAA golf events and the Michigan State golf team. Along with speaking multiple languages, he was a natural fit to the resort and course.
“One day they called me and said, there is a job for you in the Dominican Republic. Bill Coore decided not to take it (the job) and I sold everything I had, my wife was pregnant at the time, and I took it and I am very happy I did,” Gilles Gangon current Sales Director and former head pro at Casa de Campo.
A piece of land on the southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, discovered by chance by an up-and-coming architect and established as a premiere destination by a director of golf from a far away land, Casa de Campo and Teeth of the Dog fit the mold of the island’s past. The course designed in 1971 is anything but a relic.
The first three holes open slowly. Handshake holes with simplicity in their difficulty. Miss here, not there, take less than driver, lay up to full shots to produce the best outcome. Simple golf hole trickery from arguably the best architect at doing so, Pete Dye.
Hole four eases you into what’s to come. An easy driving hole, it bends to the right around a grouping of fairway bunkers revealing a slightly elevated green and the OCEAN! The green, removed some 100 yards from the water seems to sit perched right on top of the ocean, the back edge of the green reaching south towards Venezuela.
Waves crash onto the forward tee boxes at hole five as the green sits suspended into the Atlantic. The wind coming off the ocean on the left pushes golf balls back into the mainland requiring the brave, bound for a green in regulation, to hit a hard right to left ball flight into the wind or to aim over the Atlantic and hope the winds push it back to safety. The putting surface is small by any measure, and although the hole requires a mid-iron at most, the wind makes it difficult to hold.
Risk and reward is next. A cape hole that requires a forced carry with a longer club, ocean on the left and ample escape on the right. Too far right, however, and the approach into the green becomes lengthy into a hurting and cross wind off the ocean. One begins to wonder if the wind will ever assist in moving the golf ball towards the hole.
The next hole, a par three that appears to be dropped into the ocean similarly to hole five has ample room short, right and long. The green site may invoke the same fight or flight response as two holes ago. My first lost ball, a hard draw, fought the wind so well it collided with rocks on the left side of the green, donating itself to the Atlantic Ocean. Ball Count: 1
Hole 8: If hole six wasn’t your thing, this slightly shorter, more angled cape hole will certainly disappoint. A harsh dogleg left best sets up to a hard right to left shot shape off the tee. Large, deep bunkering sits on the right side of the fairway and the green is protected of the left by the Atlantic Ocean and on the right by a large grass pit. Dye came back years later to install the pit to add to the difficulty to the hole. Fitting this hole is the third hardest on the course and the resting place of Pete Dye. Massive coral boulders sit behind and off the right side of the green and a plaque imbedded into one of the rocks marks Dye’s resting place. The exact location of Dye’s ashes remain a guarded secret of the resort but we were assured they are in close proximity.
“As a Pete Dye fan, I was moved by opportunity to visit his resting place and give my respects. Of all the amazing courses he designed during his career, he chose here, and even though I wonder why, why a foreign country so far away from Ohio and Indiana where he was born and started his career, he chose here, I understand,” said Timothy Corlett, golf course writer for Break80.
The next few holes were quintessentially Dye. Pot bunkering, waste areas, dog legs and pot bunkering dot the landscape of holes 9-10-11-12. Hole 13 is the twin sister of many of the green sites at Kiawah Island Ocean Course with a raised putting surface, steep drop offs all around and shaved down runoffs. Hole 14 was a short par 5 with an inland pond guarding the green. Ball Count: 3 (two in the pond)
Looking for a reprieve, the long cart ride opened to the sea. Under instructions from my caddie, Junior (nicknamed Big Papi), I started recording. The trees gave way and the Atlantic was visible again. Faced the opposite way, a left to right ball flight was necessary into the cape hole. The five foot birdie putt slid to the right of the hole. In frustration: Ball Count: 4
Somehow, every seaside shot is into the wind. The par three 16th hole has a small pot bunker sitting 9 feet below the putting surface, a bunker I visited. The waves crash onto this tee box with such ferocity that the spray can be felt and tasted.
All great things have to come to an end and the final seaside hole, number 17, marks the final chance to make memories alongside the Atlantic. A cape hole turning to the right, the green looks like a bacon sliver hovering above the ocean. Lipping out a birdie putt here ended my chances of making a mark on Teeth of the Dog.
A strip of tarmac cut through the land between the 18th tee and fairway. Remnants of the on property airport the number 18 still visible on the tarmac. A creative touch to the final hole of the course, the par 4 moves gently left to an elevated green protected by water left and run off area right and short.
I gave Junior a hand shake and a hug as I finished out for bogey on the last. Not my best round of golf by any means. The score lingers less than the memories of the ocean, the salty breeze, the lipped out birdie putts and Pete Dye’s resting place. The island holds history. Its rocky past crashes on the coral of Teeth of the Dog, swept away in the tides of opportunity as the future of the Dominican Republic with help from Casa de Campo shines bright. SPF 50 next time please.
Video 1: Hole 5 at Teeth of the Dog
Video 2: Small rocky island off of Hole 15’s fairway adorned with a pin