Teeth of the Dog – Syndication Server

Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo in Dominican Republic to be restored by Jerry Pate Design

Jerry Pate Design will upgrade the playing surfaces and bunkers at a massive Dominican Republic resort.

Casa de Campo, the sprawling destination in the Dominican Republic with three resort golf courses, has announced plans to restore its Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog layout starting in January of 2025.

Teeth of the Dog – named for the small, sharp rocks along the shore – is widely considered one of the best courses in the Caribbean. Opened in 1971, the layout features seven dramatic holes that play tight enough to the ocean to get a player’s socks wet. The course not only was built by the legendary Dye, he lived there with his wife, Alice, for years, and some of his ashes were spread on No. 8 of Teeth of the Dog after he died in 2020.

The restoration will be done by Jerry Pate Design, the company owned by the winner of the 1976 U.S. Open and the 1982 Players Championship. After that latter victory, Pate threw Dye into the water on the new Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass that Dye had recently designed.

The Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog course at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic (Courtesy of Casa de Campo/Matthew Majka)

Much of the work to be done at Teeth of the Dog is cosmetic. All tees, fairways and greens will be re-grassed with Dynasty Paspalum, which is ideal for seaside courses, especially one like Teeth of the Dog where ocean spray easily can blow onto the golf holes. The fairways will be sand-capped three inches deep, which promotes firm and bouncy turf ideal for golf.

Pate’s team also will expand the current greens back to their original sizes, with some slight recontouring. All greenside bunkers will be reshaped and expanded to flat bottoms with enhanced faces for a sharper, more dramatic look. Other work includes renovating the cart paths.

Work is expected to be completed by November 2025.

“I have long admired Pete Dye, as he was a creative genius who transformed the modern game of golf with his immense talent and imagination, and no course typifies that more than Teeth of the Dog,” Pate said in a media release announcing the restoration. “The layout is truly one of the best in the world, and our job is to preserve Pete’s lifeworks and put a bit more bite back into Teeth of the Dog.”

Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

The resort’s other two Dye-designed courses will remain open to guests. The 27-hole Dye Fore course features many holes along incredible jungle cliffs above a river with long views down toward the ocean, while the 18-hole Links course plays through the center of the 7,000-acre property with wider fairways and tricky greens.

The resort as a whole is massive with a world-class marina, a smorgasbord of dining options, a wide assortment of activities ranging from shooting sports to the beach and one of the best beach bars in the world. The property includes an assortment of accommodations ranging from hotel rooms to luxury villas frequently rented by top celebrities.

The updates to Teeth of the Dog will be the first large-scale work to the course since it opened.

“We will miss Teeth of the Dog for most of 2025, but we are excited and honored to take Pete’s masterpiece to a new level and completely restore the integrity of his legendary course to new heights,“ Gilles Gagon, longtime friend of Dye and the golf director emeritus and senior director of golf sales at the resort, said in the media release. “With all the many years Pete and I worked together, I know he would be beyond pleased with the upcoming work to be done on the course that ignited his stellar career and legacy as one of the world’s premier golf architects.”

After COVID cancellation, Latin America Amateur Championship returns; Masters slot to the winner

The LAAC has been dominated by Chile, as three players from there have won half of the events.

The Latin America Amateur Championship will return on January 20, 2022 after being canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19.

The 72-hole event, formed in 2015 by Augusta National, the USGA, and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, was conceived in order to encourage the growth of amateur golf in Latin America. The opportunities for the winner are the stuff of dreams: an invite to the Masters, The Open Championship, and both the U.S. and British Amateur Championships.

The LAAC has been dominated by Chile, as three players from the South American country have won half of the events (Matias Domínguez, 2015; Toto Gana, 2017; Joaquín Niemann, 2018). Mexico’s Alvaro Ortiz, Costa Rica’s Paul Chaplet, and Argentina’s Abel Gallegos are the other three winners.

Heading into this year, Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, who hails from Argentina and plays his college golf at Arkansas, is the highest-ranked amateur player; he is currently 43rd in the world.

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The 25 countries that have yet to claim a winner have some potential challengers this year. Panamanian Omar Tejeira Jaen (62nd), Brazilian Andrey Borges Xavier (80th) and Peruvian Julián Pericó (100th) are clear contenders to earn a victory.

The range of age in the field is 39 years. The youngest player is Ezequiel Cabrera a 14-year-old Paraguayan while the oldest is 53-year-old Costa Rican veteran Álvaro Ortiz.

Whoever wins the 2022 edition will do it on a Pete Dye course that he believed to be his favorite among his world-class designs.

Teeth of the Dog, located on the Casa de Campos resort in the Dominican Republic, has seven holes that run along the edge of the ocean. Dye credits “the man upstairs” for the construction of those scenic holes; the other eleven holes, which sit farther from the cliffs, required some of Pete and Alice Dye’s magic touch.

In true Dye fashion, the bold landscape was made bolder through extremely laborious work. Built in the 1960s, the land needed serious massaging, but bringing the proper equipment over to the Dominican Republic was far too expensive. The majority of the land was infertile, spotted with coral and limestone. The course earned its name when the workers compared the limestone to the “diente de perro” or Teeth of the Dog.

Casa de Campo: The definition of oceanside golf in the Dominican Republic

Hundreds of laborers used hammers to pound away the hard material in order to replace it with soil. But where would the soil come from? Dye and his team used oxen-pulled wagons to transport soil to the site from a mile down the road. These were not large wagons, one square yard of soil fit in each wagon; they were typically used to move sugarcane. Continuing the trend of resourcefulness, Dye mixed a sugarcane byproduct – cachaza – with sand and soil to construct his topsoil.

As they began routing the course, large rocks and boulders impeded the playing corridors. With painstaking effort, the laborers moved the heavy rocks to the edges of the fairway. Once all the rocks were moved, they created a stone wall that actually covered two miles of terrain.

It’s no wonder that Tom Doak said Teeth of the Dog was built “with a degree of craftsmanship seldom seen today.” The Dye’s stayed on the property while Teeth of the Dog was built, visiting the site almost daily. The laborers, who spent hours building calluses as they pounded limestone and coral, demonstrated their craftsmanship as they delicately built greens and bunkers using hand rakes and shovels.

Casa de Campo No. 5 Teeth of the Dog — The No. 5 hole at Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (Courtesy of Casa de Campo)

The breakdown of inland and water holes at Teeth of the Dog is the same as Pebble Beach. Both have 11 inland holes and seven holes on the water. For Tom Doak, there is no comparison between Pebble’s inland holes and those at Teeth of the Dog. In The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses” Doak wrote, “The starting holes of Teeth of the Dog are especially good, letting golfers stretch their muscles before they reach the par-5 3rd.”

The holes along the water are what separate Teeth of the Dog and earn its reputation as the best Caribbean course and a top-tier course in the world. Holes 5-8 and then 14-17 both run along the Caletón de la Majagua.

Photographer Brain Morgan famously said that Teeth of the Dog has seven holes in the water. Anyone who has seen the fifth hole knows what Morgan is talking about; the tee box and green both jut out into the ocean. According to Doak, both sets of water holes would be the “best stretch of holes on 99 percent of golf courses.”

Whoever wins the 2022 LAAC will require the skill to hit all the necessary shots and avoid the manmade distractions that Pete and Alice Dye created along with Mother Nature’s distractions just off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

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Casa de Campo: The definition of oceanside golf in the Dominican Republic

Pete Dye’s Teeth of the Dog splashes salt spray into your face as you tackle seven holes laid out tight to the Caribbean Sea.

You can see the water early. It’s the Caribbean Sea, blue and perfect, and of course there’s no missing it. Visitors likely saw plenty of it on the flight to this island nation.

Before a player ever sets off the first tee of Teeth of the Dog, the sea is seemingly right there in view from the main Casa de Campo clubhouse, down and across the ninth and 18th holes. There are glimpses of blue on the early holes. It’s oh-so-close on the third and fourth holes, just a skosh more than a hundred yards away, providing a taste of salt on the air to make you think you know what it means to play golf alongside the ocean.

But it’s not until you step onto the fifth tee box that you experience the sensory overload of playing golf directly alongside the sea. Salt spray. Trade winds. Palm trees. A tiny green perched above the waves – take one too many steps backward while reading a putt, and you might make a splash. It’s almost too much for the golf-travel obsessed.

No. 5 at Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (Gabe Gudgel/Golfweek)

Right there on that tee box is where many golfers learn what it means to play tight to the ocean. Not playing near the water with a restricted view through some condo towers or mansions, not on a cliff high above the waves, not on the inland side of a beach dune with the wet stuff a full wedge away. Instead, this fifth tee shot is an incredible introduction to swinging so close to the sea that you might get your socks wet – a real possibility if your approach shot falls short and you go for a bold recovery from the rock-strewn beach.

“I remember the first time I played Teeth of the Dog and I pulled up to No. 5,” said Robert Birtel, director of golf operations at the sprawling Dominican resort, “and I was like ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?’ ”

What’s going on is up to 176 yards of bravado, beauty and visual intimidation. It’s the late Pete Dye at his finest – an unforgettable golf shot set in a postcard.

And it’s just the beginning. No. 5 is only the first of seven holes on Dye’s Teeth of the Dog – so named because the sharp rocks along the shore called to mind a canine’s canines – where it’s not only possible you blast a ball into the sea, it’s frequently surprising if you don’t.

Golfweek’s Best courses 2022: Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic islands and Central America

These courses top Golfweek’s Best rankings in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic Islands and Central America.

Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of top golf courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic islands and Central America.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.

This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.

Other Golfweek’s Best lists include:

Masters invitation will be on the line as the 2022 Latin America Amateur Championship returns to Casa de Campo in Dominican Republic

After being canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19, the Latin America Amateur returns to Dominican.

After being canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Casa de Campo will host the seventh edition of the Latin American Amateur Championship from January 20-23, 2022. This will be the third time the world-renowned Teeth of the Dog course in La Romana will be the venue. This Pete Dye design annually ranks as one of the best courses in Latin America.

With a goal of furthering the game of golf in South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, the Masters Tournament, the R&A, and USGA founded the event. Past winners include Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, and Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz.

The winner will receive an invitational to the 2022 Masters Tournament, and an exemption into the Open at St. Andrews. On top of that, he will be fully exempted into the Amateur Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship, and all other USGA amateur events he is eligible for.

The runner-up, on the other hand, will be exempt into final qualifying stages for the Open and U.S. Open.

“We are incredibly excited to welcome the region’s top amateurs back to Casa de Campo, as the Latin America Amateur Championship returns to form,” said Andres Pichardo Rosenberg, president of Casa de Campo. “Teeth of the Dog is both a beautiful and challenging championship venue, and our team relishes the opportunity to continue our wonderful partnership with the Masters Tournament, The R&A and the USGA and showcase the ever-expanding talent in our region.”