Golf in the Dominican Republic
25+ championship courses designed by Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio, and P.B. Dye — the deepest concentration of world-class golf anywhere in the Caribbean.
The Caribbean's Deepest Golf Bench
How the DR Became the Caribbean's Golf Capital
The Dominican Republic's rise as a golf destination is not an accident of climate — it is the result of a single, deliberate decision made more than fifty years ago. In the early 1970s, Gulf+Western commissioned a young American architect named Pete Dye to carve a course out of the coral and sea grape on the country's southeastern coast. The result, Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo, opened in 1971 with seven holes running directly along the Caribbean Sea. It has been ranked the number-one course in the Caribbean for decades and sits among Golf Digest's Top 100 Courses in the World — and it established the template every developer here has followed since.
That template is signature-designer golf built as the centerpiece of a master-planned community. Where other Caribbean islands added a course to an existing resort, the DR built entire gated communities around the golf. Over the following decades Jack Nicklaus (Punta Espada at Cap Cana), Tom Fazio (Corales at Punta Cana Resort), and P.B. Dye (La Cana, La Estancia) all built here — concentrating an extraordinary density of marquee designers within a short drive of one another. Few places on earth, at any price, put this many championship layouts by this many celebrated names so close together.
The pay-off has been a nationwide inventory of more than 25 championship courses, a golf economy that runs twelve months a year in a dry tropical climate, and — crucially for the international buyer — a professional-tournament pedigree that validates the courses on a world stage. For a golfer weighing a second home, that combination is the difference between a vacation and an investment.
The Major Golf Events of the Dominican Republic
Tournament pedigree is what separates a good golf destination from a globally recognized one. Two of the DR's courses carry international championship credentials that buyers read closely.
An Official PGA Tour Event
Since 2018, Tom Fazio's Corales Golf Course at Punta Cana Resort & Club has hosted the Corales Puntacana Championship — a full, official PGA Tour tournament and the only one played in the Dominican Republic. Its closing stretch along the cliffs of the Caribbean, culminating in the peninsula par-4 18th known as "El Diablo," has become one of the more recognizable finishes on Tour.
The 2026 edition — the tournament's ninth — moved to July and, through an integration of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and FedExCup, fielded a record 144 professionals from roughly 20 countries competing for a US$4 million purse, the largest prize fund in the history of Dominican sport. The winner earns a two-year PGA Tour exemption and a place in the following year's PGA Championship — the kind of stakes that put a destination permanently on the professional map.
Amateur Golf's Road to the Masters
Founded by the Masters Tournament, The R&A, and the USGA, the Latin America Amateur Championship sends its winner straight to Augusta National and into Open Championship qualifying. Casa de Campo's Teeth of the Dog has hosted it three times — in 2016, 2019, and 2022 — more than any other venue in the region.
The championship is scheduled to return to Teeth of the Dog again in 2028, and Casa de Campo was chosen as the inaugural home of the LAAC Golf Academy — recognition that the resort is not just a host but a center of gravity for the amateur game across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Why Golfers Are Buying in the Dominican Republic
The DR has quietly become the Caribbean's golf capital — and for an international, golf-motivated buyer, the appeal runs deeper than the courses themselves.
A dry tropical climate means golf is a 12-month proposition. Courses stay in championship condition through the North American and European winter — exactly when second-home demand peaks.
Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio, and P.B. Dye all built here. Few destinations on earth concentrate this many marquee designers within a short drive of one another.
Corales hosts an official PGA Tour event, putting the DR on the professional golf map and validating its courses on a world stage — a signal international buyers read closely.
Qualifying tourist-zone properties — many of them golf-front — can access CONFOTUR benefits under Law 158-01 (amended by Law 195-13): up to 15 years of property-tax exemption and elimination of the transfer tax.
Punta Cana International (PUJ) is the busiest airport in the Caribbean by arrivals, with direct service from dozens of U.S., Canadian, and European cities — the golf estates are a short transfer from the gate.
Purchase prices and carrying costs sit well below comparable golf destinations in Florida, Spain, or the wider Caribbean — while rental demand from visiting golfers supports yield on the same asset.
Championship Golf, By Destination
Seven championship layouts, presented course by course. Click any chapter to explore real estate at that destination.
Golf Across the Six Destinations
Every gated golf community the Agency represents in the DR — what defines the golf at each, and what it means for ownership.
Casa de Campo
La Romana · 63 Holes · Pete DyeThe spiritual home of Caribbean golf. Three Pete Dye courses — Teeth of the Dog, ranked #1 in the Caribbean for decades with seven holes on the sea; Dye Fore, tracing the Chavón River canyon; and The Links, a parkland-style layout. A resale market with a half-century of transaction history underpins golf-front values here like nowhere else in the country.
Explore Casa de Campo →Cap Cana
Punta Cana · Punta Espada · Jack NicklausHome to Punta Espada, a Jack Nicklaus Signature course (2006) routinely ranked among the finest in Latin America and the Caribbean, with holes carved along dramatic oceanfront cliffs. Golf here anchors a 30,000-acre gated master plan with a deep-water marina, making it a magnet for the golf-and-yacht buyer.
Explore Cap Cana →Punta Cana Resort & Club
Punta Cana · 45 Holes · Fazio & P.B. DyeThe original Grupo Puntacana enclave, built around 45 championship holes: Tom Fazio's Corales — host of the PGA Tour's Corales Puntacana Championship — and P.B. Dye's La Cana across three nines. Tournament pedigree plus the airport inside the master plan give this community singular reach with international golf buyers.
Explore Punta Cana Resort →Playa Nueva Romana
San Pedro Coast · PGA Ocean's 4Home to PGA Ocean's 4 — the DR's only PGA of America–affiliated course — a 27-hole layout with four holes playing along the Caribbean. A quieter, gated coastal community between Santo Domingo and La Romana, it offers golf-front ownership at an earlier price point than the marquee resorts.
Explore Playa Nueva Romana →La Estancia
La Romana · P.B. Dye · 18 HolesA hillside golf community above the Chavón River valley, built around a P.B. Dye course (18 holes, 7,382 yards, opened 2008) with its own country-club clubhouse. Ten minutes from La Romana's airport and the beaches of Bayahibe, it pairs a dedicated golf setting with a lower entry point than neighboring Casa de Campo.
Explore La Estancia →Puntacana Village
Punta Cana · Corales & La Cana AccessA residential community minutes from Punta Cana International, whose owners access the 45 championship holes of the adjacent Punta Cana Resort & Club — Corales and La Cana. For buyers who want proximity to tournament-grade golf and the airport without resort-tier pricing, the Village is the pragmatic entry into the eastern golf corridor.
Explore Puntacana Village →Why Golf-Front Property Holds Value
Golf-front lots are a fixed, non-renewable resource within any given community — inventory doesn't expand once a course is built.
Ranked courses like Teeth of the Dog and Corales draw a global golf-motivated buyer pool independent of general resort demand.
Established golf communities like Casa de Campo and Punta Cana Resort have decades of resale transaction history, supporting valuation confidence.
Ready to Find Your Golf-Front Property?
Contact Oscar Lauzardo for a curated tour of the Dominican Republic's championship golf communities.