Cap Cana - Punta Espada Golf Club
I don't have the superlatives.
It is simply a stunning, immaculate,
dexterous and groomed golfing
sanctuary.
Lush? Rich?
If a golf course were a precious
metal, than this would be unadulterated
gold. Twenty-four carat. Platinum.
Pure. Luminous. And bejeweled
with rich emerald greens surrounded
by diamond bunker baguettes, and
sapphire backdrops pervading ones
peripheral vision.
The fecund Mr. Nicklaus (is this his 400th sterling course?) has conjured all of his design alchemy to create a golf course of such grace and luster you begin to feel that each tee box is a Fifth Avenue window peeking into a fairway designed by Cartier, Tiffany, Harry Winston or Bulgari. This course is bedizened by so many design delights you even smile after a double bogey. Few courses in the world of golf can rival the concinnity of these 7,396 yards of seaside craft. T his is an architecture of perfection and exhilaration. With this, Jack Nicklaus has undergone an apotheosis. And that's not all. It's the condition- which is magnificent.
If there is an All-Star grounds crew,
then eight of the starting nine are on
this team. The grass is cut twice a day.
A white-gloved manicurist tends each
green. A divot-leprechaun follows every
golfer and sprinkles freshly-grown
grass. The sand is hand-washed and
blown-dried. The ocean spray is purified
and the birds need diapers to fly
overhead. Even the rainwater is filtered.
It's that nice. One golfer confided
to me that broken tees self-decompose
and golf balls jump out of your bag
eager to take flight on these fairways.
He says he saw it happen-twice.
You know, the grass is always
greener? It stops here. I haven't seen
this much unsullied, big-time green
since the look on my younger brother's
face when I got my first bicycle.
It may be the most wonderfully
conditioned and cosseted course on
the planet, and maybe the universe.
Punta Espada Golf Course opened
in November, 2006 to enormous
fanfare. Jack Nicklaus had agreed to
build three golf courses in the midst
of the enormous 36,000 acres of diverse
topography that sprawls along
the far-eastern edge of the Dominican
Republic and is served by an international
airport a mere 15-minute drive
to the entrance.