The #1 Course in the Caribbean — For Good Reason
There are courses that are beautiful. There are courses that are challenging. And then there is Teeth of the Dog — a course that is both, simultaneously, at all times, in a way that has made it the benchmark for Caribbean golf since the day Pete Dye walked its coastline in 1970 and decided the Caribbean Sea was the best hazard he had ever found.
Dye built the course by hand. Workers carved the coral along the water's edge with machetes, creating the jagged formations that give the course its name — "dientes de perro," the teeth of the dog. Every oceanfront hole at Teeth of the Dog plays along naturally formed coral and Caribbean water. There is no manufactured drama here. The environment is the course. The course is the environment.
Seven holes border the sea. Not seven holes with ocean views — seven holes where the ocean is an active element of play. Where the wind off the water dictates shot selection. Where the sound of waves replaces the noise of the world for four and a half hours. If you have played Pebble Beach, imagine the same relationship with the ocean — but warmer, more tropical, and with a rum waiting at the 19th hole instead of a fog bank.
It has ranked #1 in the Caribbean for over fifty years. It is not nostalgia. The course earns its ranking every year.
The Oceanfront Stretch — Holes 5, 7–9, 16–18
Teeth of the Dog is at Casa de Campo in La Romana, approximately 1 hour 20 minutes from Punta Cana. Many golfers miss this course simply because they don't want to organize the journey. We do it for you: private SUV from your hotel, gate registration at Casa de Campo, caddie coordination, and the return trip — all arranged before you land.
What's Included When You Book Through Us
- Confirmed tee time at Teeth of the Dog (one of the most sought-after tee times in the Caribbean)
- Private round-trip transfer from Punta Cana / Bávaro (1h20 — included, airconditioned SUV)
- Golf cart included in green fee
- Caddie coordination (mandatory at Teeth of the Dog — we pre-select yours)
- Photography session at the signature oceanfront holes
- Gate registration at Casa de Campo pre-arranged
- 24/7 concierge support throughout your trip
- Post-round welcome drink and cigar option (on request)
Casa de Campo — The Resort Context
Teeth of the Dog does not exist in isolation. It sits within Casa de Campo Resort & Villas in La Romana — one of the most complete luxury resort destinations in the Caribbean. Three golf courses on property (Teeth of the Dog, Dye Fore, The Links), a private beach club, the historic Altos de Chavón artists' village overlooking the Río Chavón gorge, a marina, polo grounds, and one of the finest cigar factories in the Dominican Republic.
If you are playing Teeth of the Dog as a day trip from Punta Cana, budget the full day: 7am departure, 8:30am tee time, lunch at the clubhouse, a walk through Altos de Chavón, back in Punta Cana by 6pm. That is a Dominican day worth having. Our concierge builds the itinerary.
If you want to make Casa de Campo the base of your trip instead of Punta Cana, we arrange that too. The resort has accommodations ranging from hotel rooms to private villas, and the golf access from within the resort is seamless.
The Legend of Pete Dye at Casa de Campo
Pete Dye was 46 years old when Gulf+Western invited him to design a course at their Dominican Republic resort in 1970. What he found was a natural coastline of coral rock that had never been touched by development — jagged, irregular, dramatically beautiful. He did not fight the terrain. He built around it, into it, using the coral as framing, the ocean as the ultimate hazard, and the Caribbean wind as the invisible course element no architect can replicate.
The course took 300 local workers two years to build. Many of them had never played golf and did not know what they were building — they simply carved what Dye asked them to carve, machete by machete, along the coast of La Romana. The result was a course so good that Dye later called it his greatest achievement. His wife Alice, who co-designed many of his courses, agreed. When the man who built TPC Sawgrass and Whistling Straits calls a course his finest work, you listen.
