Punta Espada. Las Iguanas. Corales. La Cana. Teeth of the Dog. Dye Fore. The Links. Every legendary course within reach — some minutes away, some a 90-minute chauffeured drive.
The Dominican Republic has quietly become the world's most concentrated collection of elite golf courses. Nowhere else can a golfer play Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, P.B. Dye, and Tom Fazio designs — many ranked in the global top 100 — all within a 90-minute radius.
Villa Espada sits at the epicenter of this golf universe. Positioned directly on Fairway 5 of Punta Espada in Cap Cana, your stay grants immediate access to the area's finest courses — and your butler coordinates private chauffeur service for the legendary Pete Dye trio at Casa de Campo, just 90 minutes away.
No other villa in the Dominican Republic gives you this golf range under one roof: member rates on Punta Espada, two 6-person golf carts, and private chauffeur access to Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore.
All tee times arranged by your personal butler. Casa de Campo trips include private luxury chauffeur.
Punta Espada is the crown jewel of Caribbean golf — a Jack Nicklaus Signature design that hugs the Atlantic coastline of Cap Cana's dramatic headlands with the kind of precision and majesty that only the Golden Bear could conceive. Opened in 2006, it was rated in Golf Digest's Top 100 Courses Outside the United States within seven months of opening. GolfWeek has ranked it the #1 course in the Caribbean and Mexico for multiple consecutive years.
The course is defined by nine holes that play directly along or over the ocean, creating a sequence of seaside golf arguably unmatched in the Western Hemisphere. The par-3 fifth and the long par-4 sixth — where Villa Espada sits directly on the fairway — are regularly cited among the most photographed holes in Caribbean golf.
As a Villa Espada guest, you receive the single greatest perk Punta Espada can offer: exclusive member-rate tee times, identical to those enjoyed by Cap Cana property owners. Your butler books everything. Your carts are waiting at sunrise.
Villa Espada sits directly on Fairway 5 — pictured above
The most exciting new golf course in the Caribbean opened its first nine holes in November 2025 — and it sits just five minutes from Villa Espada's door. Las Iguanas is Cap Cana's second Jack Nicklaus Signature course, a design conceived decades ago, abandoned during the 2008 financial crisis, and finally brought to life in stunning fashion by Nicklaus Senior Design Associate Troy Vincent — who also worked on Punta Espada.
Where Punta Espada is dramatic and ocean-first, Las Iguanas offers an eclectic parkland-meets-coastline experience. The course integrates 10 lakes, dramatic limestone bluffs, three oceanside holes (holes 12–14 hug the rocky Caribbean shoreline), and a remarkable nature preserve teeming with iguanas, indigenous vegetation, cave systems, and wetland habitats that give the course its name.
Las Iguanas plays as the public-access complement to the more private Punta Espada — offering a distinctly different challenge on the same extraordinary Cap Cana coastline. Playing both courses back-to-back from Villa Espada is now one of the most compelling two-day golf experiences in the world.
Las Iguanas just opened its first 9 holes in late 2025 — making it one of the freshest, most exciting new layouts in the Caribbean. Your butler arranges tee times as part of the Cap Cana golf experience.
When the PGA Tour chose Corales at Puntacana Resort & Club as the Dominican Republic's first-ever PGA Tour event in 2018, it confirmed what Caribbean golfers had known since 2010: this Tom Fazio masterpiece belongs in the conversation with the world's finest resort courses.
Draped across dramatic clifftops adjacent to Punta Cana International Airport, Corales plays at 7,650 yards through natural coves, coralina quarries, and Caribbean coastline. Six holes border the ocean directly. The finishing trio — the "Devil's Elbow" (El Codo del Diablo) — is one of the most dramatic finishing stretches in world golf, culminating in the par-4 18th hole's forced carry over the Bay of Corales, a moment that has broken hearts and made legends on the PGA Tour.
Corales plays on immaculate Paspalum turf and features Fazio's trademark expansive bunkering. A mandatory caddie adds local expertise to one of the most purely enjoyable 18-hole experiences the Dominican Republic offers. Just 15 minutes by car from Villa Espada — your butler arranges transport.
The Devil's Elbow — Corales' legendary 3-hole finishing stretch
Designed by P.B. Dye — the son of the legendary Pete Dye — La Cana was the course that first put Punta Cana on the international golf map when it opened in 2001. Golf Magazine compared it to Pebble Beach and named it the #1 course in the Caribbean at the time of its opening. Three decades after Pete Dye's classic Teeth of the Dog opened at Casa de Campo, the Dye golfing legacy arrived in Punta Cana with a 27-hole masterpiece.
La Cana's three nines — Tortuga, Arrecife, and the newer Hacienda — offer 14 holes with Caribbean ocean views, with four holes played directly along the shoreline. The Arrecife ninth hole, stretching 574 yards along the Dominican coastline, is regularly cited as one of the most memorable finishing holes in Caribbean golf. The par-3 third on Arrecife — P.B. Dye's island green tribute to his father's iconic 17th at TPC Sawgrass — is a hole of breathtaking beauty and challenge.
La Cana was also the first golf course in the Caribbean to use salt-tolerant Paspalum grass — a pioneering environmental choice that has since become the Caribbean standard. At just 15 minutes from Villa Espada, it's the perfect companion round to Corales or Punta Espada.
A 90-minute luxury drive southwest of Cap Cana, Casa de Campo is home to three Pete Dye masterpieces — including Teeth of the Dog, arguably the most celebrated golf course in the Caribbean's history. Your butler arranges private chauffeur service for a round-trip day trip. Many guests dedicate a full day (or two) to this legendary resort.
Few golf courses carry the mythological weight of Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo. Pete Dye built this landmark in 1971 on the rocky coral coastline of La Romana — hacking the course from the Dominican Republic's jagged shoreline with sledgehammers, pickaxes, and chisels when heavy machinery couldn't crack the coral. Local workers called the sharp coral formations diente del perro — "teeth of the dog" — and the legend was born.
The routing is a clockwise front nine, counterclockwise back nine, with seven holes pressed tight against the Caribbean Sea — no more than 20 feet above the surf. The sea runs down the left on holes five through eight, then returns on the right on holes 15 through 17 for a closing oceanside sequence of extraordinary drama. As Dye famously quipped: "I created 11 holes and God created seven."
Teeth of the Dog recently completed a comprehensive restoration — every green sharpened, every contour trued, every ocean hole more breathtaking than before. Ranked in the top 40 golf courses in the world, and historically the #1 course in the Caribbean, it is the defining round of any Dominican Republic golf trip. Your Villa Espada butler arranges private chauffeur service for the 90-minute drive and books your tee time.
"I created 11 holes and God created seven."
— Pete Dye, on designing Teeth of the Dog, 1971
Seven holes hug the Caribbean — "God's holes," as Pete Dye called them
A short iron over the Caribbean to a tiny green — perhaps the most photographed par 3 in the region. Deceptively simple, unforgettably tense.
Long par 3 entirely over the Caribbean Sea. Wind is the great variable. Dye described this as one of the purest expressions of risk he ever designed.
The signature hole. Tee shot over a seaside inlet — if the wind kicks up, this 181-yard par 3 can be the most terrifying shot you'll face in the Caribbean.
Monster par 4 with the ocean hugging the left side. The temptation to cut across the water for a shorter approach is real — and Dye designed it that way.
If Teeth of the Dog is Pete Dye's ocean masterpiece, Dye Fore is his mountain-and-gorge counterpart — and for many serious golfers, it is the more surprising of the two. Carved from the cliffs above the dramatic Chavón River gorge and the Caribbean Sea beyond, Dye Fore plays unlike any course in the Dominican Republic: at elevation, with sweeping panoramas in multiple directions, and with the dramatic visual theater of the gorge and river hundreds of feet below.
The course plays 27 holes across three nine-hole circuits — the Lakes, the Chavón, and the Marina — each offering a distinct terrain experience. Holes that hang over the cliff edge with 300-foot drops into the Chavón River gorge are among the most visually arresting in all of Caribbean golf. The ocean, the river, the mountains, and the course itself create a cinematic backdrop that is genuinely unlike anything else in the region.
Dye Fore rewards strategic thinking over brute power. The elevation changes affect club selection dramatically, and the gorge-adjacent holes demand cool nerves and precise execution. Caddies are essential — and Casa de Campo's caddie corps is widely regarded as the best in the Caribbean. Your butler books a private chauffeur and arranges your Dye Fore tee time as part of a full Casa de Campo day.
Dye Fore's cliff-edge holes above the Chavón River gorge are unlike anything else in Caribbean golf
The third of Pete Dye's three courses at Casa de Campo, The Links offers a distinctly different character from both Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore. Designed in a Scottish links tradition — inspired by Dye's legendary journey to Scotland before his career-defining work at Teeth of the Dog — The Links plays inland through the resort's grounds with wide, wind-swept fairways, pot bunkers, and the strategic demands of true links-style thinking.
Without the ocean drama of Teeth of the Dog or the gorge spectacle of Dye Fore, The Links rewards shotmaking creativity and course management over heroics. It is a thinking golfer's course — and for lower-handicappers seeking a pure test of ball-striking, many consider it the most purely "golfing" experience of the three.
Playing all three Casa de Campo courses in a single two-day visit from Villa Espada — Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore on Day One, The Links on Day Two — is an extraordinary bucket-list experience. Your butler can arrange accommodation at Casa de Campo for overnight guests if desired, returning to Villa Espada in style.
Your butler arranges everything. Here's the perfect Casa de Campo day from Villa Espada.
Your chef prepares an energy-packed breakfast before the drive
Private luxury vehicle — 90-minute scenic drive to Casa de Campo
Teeth of the Dog or Dye Fore — your choice. Caddie assigned.
Post-round lunch at the Casa de Campo clubhouse or Marina village
Chauffeur returns you to Villa Espada — chef dinner waiting at sunset
Optional: Stay overnight at Casa de Campo and play a second course — your butler arranges rooms. Return next day.
| Course | Designer | Par / Yds | Ocean Holes | Distance | Accolades |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Punta Espada ON PROPERTY · MEMBER RATES |
Jack Nicklaus | Par 72 · 7,152 | 9 holes | On Site | #1 GolfWeek Caribbean · Golf Digest Top 100 |
| Las Iguanas NEW 2025 |
Jack Nicklaus | 18 holes | 3 (holes 12–14) | 5 min | Brand new · Cap Cana's 2nd Nicklaus course |
| Corales | Tom Fazio | Par 72 · 7,650 | 6 oceanside | 15 min | PGA Tour Host · Top 10 Caribbean |
| La Cana | P.B. Dye | 27 holes | 14 w/ocean views | 15 min | First Caribbean paspalum course |
| Teeth of the Dog ★ Casa de Campo |
Pete Dye | Par 72 · 6,888 | 7 ("God's Holes") | 90 min chauffeur | Top 40 World · #1 Caribbean (historical) |
| Dye Fore ★ Casa de Campo |
Pete Dye | 27 holes | Gorge + Ocean | 90 min chauffeur | Most dramatic terrain in DR golf |
| The Links Casa de Campo |
Pete Dye | 18 holes | Links-style inland | 90 min chauffeur | Scottish links tradition · Casa de Campo |
Your personal butler arranges every tee time, cart, caddie, and chauffeur. Punta Espada member rates are included in your villa stay. Casa de Campo is one phone call away. This is how a golf trip is meant to be experienced.
No other country in the Caribbean concentrates world-class golf design in such a compact geographic area as the Dominican Republic. Within a 90-minute drive of Villa Espada Cap Cana, golfers can access seven courses designed by the sport's four greatest architects: Jack Nicklaus (Punta Espada, Las Iguanas), Tom Fazio (Corales), P.B. Dye (La Cana), and Pete Dye (Teeth of the Dog, Dye Fore, The Links).
Punta Espada at Cap Cana — Villa Espada's home course — is widely regarded as the Caribbean's finest currently operating golf course, ranked #1 by GolfWeek magazine and featured in Golf Digest's global top 100. Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo holds the distinction of having put Caribbean golf on the world map when Pete Dye built it in 1971 from coral, coral picks, and sheer willpower — and its recent comprehensive restoration has returned it to peak condition.
For a golf trip group staying at Villa Espada, a typical week might include: three rounds at Punta Espada (member rates), one round at Las Iguanas, one round at Corales, and a full-day Casa de Campo excursion combining Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore. That's six rounds at six of the world's greatest golf courses — all coordinated by your personal butler, with private chauffeur service for the Casa de Campo trip.