CLUB CLASS
Club Class - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Club Class | |||||
| By: Andrew Marshall, Issue 29- Summer 2007 | |||||
| Class (Domenican Republic- Casa De Campo, Jamaica – Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, Bahamas – The Abaco Club, Barbados – Sandy Lane, Nevis – Four Seasons) | |||||
| DURING THE PAST 10 YEARS, PARTICULARLY THE LAST FIVE, GOLF COURSE HAVE BEEN POPPING UP ALL ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN, GROWING FASTER THAN THE ISLANDS’ LUSH TROPICAL VEGETATION, BANANA TREES AND SUGARCANE FIELDS. FROM BARBADOS TO THE BAHAMAS, TOP-DRAWER COURSES BEAR THE STAMPS OF NOTED ARCHITECTS SUCH AS ROBERT TRENT JONES II, PETER DYE, JACK NICKLAUS, GREG NORMAN AND TOM FAZIO. MANY OTHER DESIGNS ARE IN THE PIPELINE. | |||||
| All the key ingredients are here: golf sunny-side up and year-round, generous helpings of sugary sand beaches, clear aquamarine waters and cheek-caressing trade winds. No two islands are alike, and neither are the golf courses. The mix of cultures and races gives the Caribbean a unique style in cuisine, music, architecture, language, dress, religion and mannerisms. You can almost choose a golfing destination by your cultural preferences, and with nearly 50 top-quality layouts waiting, the Caribbean presents a delightful dilemma. Almost without exception, the courses are linked to luxury resorts, where you’re guaranteed the ultimate beach-vacation lifestyle with romantic sunsets, pampering service and gourmet dining. Here are five of the best: | |||||
| DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – CASA DE CAMPO | |||||
| A tempting-trio of Peter Dye-designed courses awaits golfers staying at Casa de Campo – one of the Caribbean’s most luxurious resorts. Dye said that he actually only created 11 holes on the Teeth of the Dog, and God created the seven skirting the Caribbean Sea. Currently ranked number 34 in the world’s top courses, Pete Dye’s masterpiece skirts a jagged, rocky coastline, so close you can feel the salt spray. The first of the coastal holes, the 143-metre fifth, is a par 3 to remember and one scary-looking hole. The only option is to hit the green, because short, left or long is definitely shark food. The signature holes on the back nine are numbers 15 and 16, a medium- length par 4 and long par 3. In direct contrast to the front nine, these holes are lined along the entire right side by the Caribbean and are elevated above a coral cliff. Inland lies the designer’s clever, lake-studded Links Course, and his third track, Dye Fore is a 6,943-metre monster that marches along a plateau perched 150 metres above the mesmerizing Chavron River. With a collection of forced carries over yawning chasms, plus the speed and severity of many of the putting surfaces, Dye Fore is a real test even from the front markers. Casa de Campo is so extensive that guests are provided with a map and golf cart to help them get around. Besides the golf, there are tennis, clay-pigeon shooting, a marina, horseback riding, charter fishing, nine restaurants and the remarkable Altos de Chavron. Built entirely by hand in the 1970s, it’s an exact re-creation of a 15th-century Mediterranean village, complete down to the cobbled streets beneath your feet. A collection of fine restaurants with enviable settings adds to the options. | |||||
| JAMAICA – RITZ-CARLTON GOLF & SPA RESORT | |||||
| Picture this: you are at one of the Caribbean’s most stunning golf courses, carved out of 243 hectares (600 acres) of lush greenery and rolling countryside, with panoramic views of the Caribbean Sea from 16 of the 18 holes. Golf clubs, balls, scorecard, tees, beverages and snacks are neatly arranged in your cart as you survey the surrounding landscape. This is the eye-opening 500-metre, par 5 first hole at The White Witch golf course at Jamaica’s Ritz-Carlton. The par 71, 6,113-metre course was so named by its creators, golfcourse architects Robert von Hagge and Rick Baril, in reference to Annee Palmer, the notorious ‘White Witch,’ who was mistress of Rose Hall Plantation in the early 19th century, on which the course is built. She was purported to be beautiful and beguiling, and to have done away with three unsuspecting husbands. Says co-designer Rick Baril: “We’ve tried to create a course that will give you a different experience each time you play. We’ve done that at The White Witch by creating multiple tees throughout. Whereas the low handicapper might have to carry a yawning ravine to reach the green, there are also tees allowing the shorter hitter to get there as well. The topography is unique, making each hole memorable and distinctive in its own right.” From pewter golf bag tags inscribed with each player’s name, the elegant dining verandah of the clubhouse, to the luxurious changing rooms and well-trained white-suited caddies – called ‘golf concierges’ – everything about the White Witch is decidedly top-drawer. The golf concierges are a service offered exclusively at The White Witch, providing traditional caddie services as well as restaurant reservations, such as ordering flowers for loved ones or making spa appointments. “Their knowledge of the golf course includes everything needed to negotiate the gusty winds, drastic elevation changes and deceptive greens,” says White Witch Golf Director Kenn Depew. “All of our guests’ needs are attended to, leaving them to just swing the club.” | |||||
| BAHAMAS – THE ABACO CLUB | |||||
| When you first glimpse The Abaco Club’s new golf course, nestled in a Garden of Eden setting called Winding Bay on Great Abaco Island (the biggest of a chain of Bahamian islands known as the Abacos), it provides an unforgettable sight, with lush emerald green fairways skirting pristine beaches and the deep-blue backdrop of ocean. Billed as the world’s first ‘tropical links’ golf course, without the sun-drenched weather and swaying palms, you could easily be excused for thinking you’re on a seaside course in Ireland or Scotland. This spectacular layout is the centrepiece of a US$250million ($A350million) resort being built by British tycoon Peter de Savary, who hired two of the world’s best golf-course architects, Donald Steel and Tom Mackenzie, to bring a slice of Scotland to the tropics. They have incorporated classic links ingredients – swales, humps and hollows, small pot bunkers and undulating greens – into the design. Add the unpredictable nature of coastal winds and you have a demanding test. The gin-clear waters of Winding Bay are in view on the first 14 holes, while the final four traverse a coral cliff above the Atlantic. On the 18th tee block, you are greeted by the sound of waves steadily crashing against the rocky cliffs and a rolling carpet of lush landscape that stretches from tee to green. For the golf connoisseur it does not get much better than this. After your round, recount every moment over a frosty beverage or two on the verandah of the club’s main restaurant, which overlooks the bay and golf course, relax in the world-class spa nearby or retreat to one of the 75 tastefully furnished Bahamian cottages. | |||||
| BARBADOS – SANDY LANE | |||||
| The exclusive Sandy Lane resort is home to two championship golf courses (and a nine-holer), and the place where Tiger Woods reserved all 112 rooms and famously tied the knot in a lavish ceremony at a reported cost of almost US$3million (A$4.1million). Like everything at Sandy Lane, the golf courses have been landscaped to a high standard. The Country Club is a parkland course, featuring several man-made lakes and some challenging approach shots to greens well protected by water and sand. Holes six and seven are particularly sweet, and it has nothing to do with the fact that plumes of smoke can be seen rising from a nearby distillery busily converting cane juice into rum. Sandy Lane's other course ‘the Green Monkey’ has so far remained hidden from the golfing public. It’s like the Mona Lisa of golf – enigmatic, untouchable and only available for Sandy Lane guests to play. Some people will pay any price to play, and stories abound of people ‘tossing their room keys to their caddie after a round’. “The vision of the owners,” says course architect Tom Fazio, “was to create a place as dramatic as any there is in the world.” Created and sculpted from what was once a working limestone quarry, Fazio slowly builds drama through the first eight parkland-style holes, then startles golfers with a rapid descent into an abandoned quarry, where 27-metre high coral walls dwarf the fairways. From the remarkable 578-metre ninth, where you drive from a high tee to a fairway 45 metres below, to the flags that feature a green monkey with an extended curled tail that flutters in the breeze – everything at the Green Monkey is about grandeur and detail. The signature hole, the 206-metre par-3 16th, is destined to become one of the world’s most photographed. Players hit down into the old quarry to a green, edged by a massive bunker featuring a grass island carved in the shape of a Bajan green monkey, a species introduced to the island, and the inspiration for the course name. | |||||
| NEVIS – FOUR SEASONS | |||||
| This speck of an island south-east of Puerto Rico was thrust into the forefront of world travel in 1991, when Four Seasons Nevis opened as the Caribbean’s first AAA Five Diamond Resort. Over the years it has compiled a list of awards and accolades as lengthy as the dining room wine list including: Caribbean Travel & Life (Reader’s Poll “Best of Awards 2005” Resort Hotel, Resort Golf Course, Hotel Spa), and Golf Channel (World’s Most Stylish Golf Destinations). Adding to the appeal of the property is the 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones II. The 6,080- metre layout is a roller-coaster ride along the flanks of a cloudcapped volcano, with dramatic views at every turn. The course winds gently up the slope of Nevis Peak to the signature hole, the par-5 15th, which is set some 150 metres above sea level, with magnificent views of nearby St Kitts and neighbouring islands. The hole measures a whopping 603 metres from the back tees and requires a 218-plus carry over a dramatic gorge. The 18th, a straightforward par 4 played towards the ocean, may well be the best hole on the course. If you time it just right (teeing off around 2pm), you can finish holing out on the green with a beautiful sunset cresting the crystal-blue water of the Caribbean Sea. This is tropical island golf at its very best. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| Casa De Campo, +1 809 523 3333, www.casadecampo.com.do | |||||
| Sandy Lane, +1 246 444 2000, www.sandylane.com | |||||
| Ritz-Carlton +1 876 953 2800, www.ritzcarlton.com | |||||
| The Abaco Club, +1 242 367 0077, www.theabacoclub.com | |||||
| Four Seasons Resort, +1 869 469 1111, www.fourseasons.com | |||||
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