Spas
The salubrious aspect of spa treatments has become apparent to golfers around the world, creating a booming spa business with a huge spike in male participation. When I began writing these golf guides in 2000, my research indicated that there were barely over 4,000 spas in the US. When the Four Seasons in North Scottsdale asked me to include spa treatments for golfers in the Scottsdale/Arizona guide, I chuckled in complacent derision. For golfers? I had never used one. Then, under client/advertiser pressure ("Look, stupid, it really helps the body."), I tried it and have become an acolyte. In fact, having devised a five-day experimental program of spa treatments and supervised stretching and seeing my inverted body open up (and my drive increase from 220 to 270 yards), I was sold. Now I am a proselytizer. And there are many more believers: the number of spas have grown to nearly 14,000 in 2006. Defined Spa treatments for the golfer are sensational. As the baby boomers gain in age and natural suppleness wanes, flexibility becomes so much more important to the aging, athletic body. Most golfers have enjoyed previous athletic success in other sports where conditioning and strength were paramount: football, baseball, tennis, track, soccer or track. Easy to do when you had extra hours for the gym or the field of play and gamboled around athletically weekend after competitive weekend. But now you spend more time in the office at the desk, on airplanes, in cars or trains, sitting over a computer or playing with the kids. What can you do to get (and keep) the body loose, lithe and lissom? Stretch. Unknot the restricting muscles. Yoga, Pilates and many forms of Oriental disciplines help you achieve that flexibility. But as you head for the resort vacation and a week or more of golf, do yourself a mammoth favor and check into the spa for pre-golf loosening and postgame massaging. The opportunities to indulge your golf-weary body with a soothing après-golf treat are countless. Just think: Repose. Heal. Comfort. Relief. No 40-foot, twisting downhill putts. No 600-yard uphill par-5s. No cell phone cacophony. No blizzard of messages. No diapers, no dog food. Just you, soft music, a massage therapist and nirvana. A spa. Now this is a golf vacation. More significantly, beyond comfort and relaxation, you have the opportunity to enhance your golf game. You will improve performance by quantum leaps if you follow a customized regimen to train your over-taxed body: stretch, loosen and relax. Arrive feeling below par, and leave playing below par. Lower you score. Imagine twisting your cramped body off of the plane on Thursday afternoon and being chauffeured to your hotel. First, an hour spent assessing your body and stretching the tight areas; then a lesson and a trip to the range, back to the Spa for yoga, then a deep tissue massage and sauna, followed by dinner. The next morning, another stretch, another lesson, a round of looser-limbed golf and another massage. Saturday morning you stretch again, perhaps yoga, and more golf. Sunday, it's up to you: stretch, a lesson, golf. Your body, your attitude and your handicap will have been rejuvenated. The spa industry in the Dominican Republic is beginning to gain significant speed and three spas are setting the standard and doing it right. 62 LIHN'S Dominican Republic GOLF GUIDE 2007 LIHN'S Dominican Republic GOLF GUIDE 2007 63 The Spa If you want to get into the mood to relax, then take a walk on the cascading grounds of this expansive, terraced resort and seek out The Spa. Nestled in the back of the luxurious property, above and contiguous to lagoons of swimming pools, The 17,000 square-foot Spa offers a tranquil, reflective ambiance that soothes before the magic fingers even go to work. I arrived with the effusive Derek Elliott, who manages the family resort business on this idyllic north coast and he looked at me and smiled. "Can you beat this setting?" he asked as cold towels were offered for our moist, but happy, faces. The outdoor reception area sang with a chorus of smiles around us as we were cheerfully escorted into the inner sanctum of spa (does anyone frown in this country?). We were offered fruit juice, tropical fruits, tea and succor. We lingered for a moment in robes outside on the patio lounge on the edge of several pools (surrounded by salas for outdoor massage) and reflected on life. "Pretty nice, huh?" Derek grinned. "You bet," I philosophically rejoined. Does a conversation between two guys get any deeper than this? "Well, it's about to get better!" he mused. "I'm ready," I replied with Socratic significance. Inside we floated and it was, indeed, as billed: facials, Vichy showers, volcanic stone massage, Caviar Mani Kur (has you licking your fingers after this one), sea salts, oils, mud, wraps and a salon if the ladies really want to indulge. For the golfer, the fitness center is attached and will allow you to limber up before and/or after your round or your massage. Many golfers wander 15 minutes east to the Robert Trent Jones, Sr. course for hours of outdoor grandeur-and what a way to finish up: foot massage, deep tissue therapy, some facial restoration and a sip of fruit tonic on the lounge as you reflect on those birdies. How could anything so good for you be so enjoyable? Nice place, this Sun Village Resort. Most excellent spa. Sun Village Resorts The Boutique Casa Colonial resort property in Playa Dorado is, perhaps, the most elegant and well-situated spa in the DR. Located on Puerto Plata's serene north coast, Playa Dorada is the world's largest all-inclusive resort property. Fifteen hotels with 4,300 rooms surround the magical, superb layout of a Robert Trent Jones, Sr., resort golf course (which, under new ownership, has designs on spiffing-up this 30-year old course). The Bagua Spa is tucked into the heart of the boutique hotel-a short walk to the course-and offers the golfer a divine and elegant opportunity to enhance his or her health and golf game. The passionate guru of this holistic haven is Ted Kuminski who spent seven years at the PGA Spa in Palm Beach and then went to Canyon Ranch in Las Vegas. He takes his profession seriously and is a hands-on manager (he is an active masseur). "We have, probably, the classiest boutique resort in the DR," Ted says, "and the Spa has to cater to the high-end and demanding clientele. With the golf course so accessible, we are gearing up for more specialty treatments to make the game more enjoyable for them." Well, how about this. An outrageously expensive hydrotherapy tub sits majestically in one of the eight treatment rooms and is offered free as part of an introductory session with a full massage. So, sit in that whirling eddy of tactile excess while underwater jets (and a hand-held one) is applied to your jet-lagged joints. Then have Ted work those spiritual hands on your constricted, planecramped, computer-inverted body and feel the release. Add stretching rituals in the fitness center (part of the Spa) and in a weekend the swing elongates and the ball propels. "The hydrotherapy program is steam, sauna and massage all in one for an hour and really gets the body relaxed. We then analyze you from limb-to-limb and begin a stretching regimen. We like to take five days to unwind you and can guarantee that your game-and body- will improve. Guarantee, Ted? "Tell you what, if a golfer follows the Golf Five-Day Scorecard Reduction Plan, and doesn't improve his game, I will offer his wife a free full-day spa treatment on their next visit. His range of motion will improve his backswing, torque and strength. His, or her, drive will increase. Guaranteed." Health, golf happiness and the Caribbean. And couples rooms, and great cuisine, and a private beach, and body scrubs, Thai massage (great for golfers-Ted studied in Thailand), facials, Vichy showers and glowing contentment. He has the hands of Houdini. Come and let him unlock your knots. Guaranteed. Casa Colonial Beach & Spa Bagua Spa 64 LIHN'S Dominican Republic GOLF GUIDE 2007 LIHN'S Dominican Republic GOLF GUIDE 2007 65 This Spa was a delight for me. It was like catching up with an old buddy. The Six Senses Spas proliferate in Southeast Asia (over a dozen in Thailand, Vietnam, the Maldives and Oman) and have set a standard for cosseting, intelligent, holistic spa treatments. One of my favorite spas is in Thailand, south of Bangkok several hours, in the vacation city of Hua Hin (where the King hangs his crown). The Evason Hideaway Six Senses Spa is as ecological and essential as it gets, with a stunning exterior (mud huts) design. So leave it to Frank Rainieri to find them and be the first to import the elegant Six Senses experience to the Caribbean. Six Senses stands for a pyramid of six spheres fundamental to the human experience: the foundation spheres represent the three primary senses of sight, sound and touch; the second level adds the more acute senses of taste and smell; the apex sphere symbolizes a sense of elation discovered only by balancing the first five. And if you balance them while you are being tended to by a masseuse, you do achieve the karmic high of divine elation. I've been there. Imagine completing a round of golf at La Cana-bestride the mesmerizing blue of the Caribbean Sea-and shuffling your beleaguered, aging body into that lush spa in the clubhouse and being greeted by the lemongrass scent of Thailand. An excellent, attentive team of spa operatives-perfectly trained, gracious and proficient-made me feel right at home. The Spa has the similar wide range of wellness, rejuvenation and beauty treatments administered with that special DR smile in eight treatment rooms and four outdoor salas peeking out at the sea. The signature treatment is the "Sensory Spa Journey," which begins with a divine four-hands massage, a foot bath, skin renewing (in case you didn't lotion-up on the course) and a scalp massage (never a hairy experience here). If you haven't tried a Thai massage, sign up. It stretches and comforts. Excellent for the golfer. I opted for the deep tissue and foot and hand massage and floated out hours later. They have done a wonderful job. It's all class. First class.