Playa Grande Golf & Ocean Club

The course at Playa Grande was one of the last that Robert Trent Jones designed before he died in 2000 and it’s laid out beside a residential complex on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic with some referring to the layout as “the Pebble Beach of the Caribbean.”

It actually has more oceanfront holes than Pebble Beach – ten in total – and they are strung out along cliff tops to the west of the Playa Grande and Playa Precioso beaches. The front nine measures a massive 3,666 yards in total and the pick of these holes is the 193-yard 7th, played to a green that sits beyond a rocky inlet.

Two par fives stand out on the back nine; the 488-yard 12th offers golfers a thrilling drive across a wide expanse of ocean and the 589-yard 18th is a fine double doglegged home hole.

Rees Jones (son of the original architect) and Bryce Swanson completed an extensive renovation of Playa Grande in 2015. Greens and bunkers were extensively remodelled and part of the back nine was re-routed to provide a thrilling finish alongside the ocean.