A day at Guavaberry. Long post warning

Hillbilly · #1 02-23-2003, 11:21 AM

Yesterday, my golfer son and I joined Cleef for a round of golf at Guavaberry CC in Juan Dolio. We were received by Chris Hale the Director of Golf.

It is a beautiful installation and well worth playing, and if you have the moola, it would be a great place to have a house for retirement or for long, cold winters....

The course itself was designed by Gary Player's design team, and shows a lot of professional touches. While the prime motivation was to take this piece of "worthless" real estate and sell home sites and build houses for the "chosen Few", the promoters were very astute in that they spent the money to get a fine golf course built for those few. Different from Metro, this is a golf course!

First off, there was lots of consideration taken for the ecology and it was clearly not a slash-and-rebuild-it-the-way-I-want-it-to-be project. Rather, it was cut out of the native flora, with many Guasima, small palms and other tropical dry forest vegitation left untouched, and enhanced with class-act horticulture....this is a beautiful, visually pleasing course.

Second, the use of the coralline (coraldine?) stones that made up most of the property has turned some of the holes into what can only be described as "Don't go there!!" Sort of places....Real scary for golfers...some huge waste bunkers, but they are playable, and the sand traps are excellently well done....No kidding.

The signature 13th hole is very pretty and the recirculating waterfall is a welcome visual and audio relief.. I also really liked the 6th hole, a fairly short dog-leg to the left, daunting visual from the Blacks, but user-friendly from the Blues or Whites.
This seems to be the trend all around the course. If you are foolishly proud of your golf game, the Blacks (so-called Championship tees), will soon humble you.
Any mis-hit on the course will cost you money, but a good caddie can re-coup. (What this means is that if you don't hit it right, your ball goes into a very difficult rough, but your caddie will probably find another one for you!!)

Another thing, the rough is vicious!! The palm trees have spines and so do their leaves. Soon the Bougainvilla will be thicker, and as the course matures, I am sure that they will post signs:
" Leave your ball in the rough!"

The greens, while young and fairly hard, do roll true and putting can be fun. Like most good courses in the States or Canada, or England or Spain, you should always try and stay under the hole...

Finally, course knowledge is essential, since the visuals can be very deceiving. You think something is there, play away from it , only to find that you could have gone straight, and made par!...

The scorecards are not a help, since they don't show you anything about the course beyond yardages.

This course is the site of the next National Ranking Tournament in three weeks. Over the Corpus Christi weekend in June 19-22, the National Tournament will be played there.

All told, a fun golf day, as Cleef is a good guy to play golf with, and although neither he nor I had any "game" , we did have fun.
My son played from the black, Cleef from the blue and ol' me from the white. (82, 105, 104) In a very heavy wind that was brutal on some holes...

A golf funny. Cleef was battling a big cut or slice all day, so he decided on the 18th, that he would play from the Blacks, what the heck. He aligned himself up on the left side of the tee, allowing for his cut or slice, took a nice swing and hit the most beautiful draw of 260+ years.......O.B.!!

I could only laugh.....we all did....No one ever said golf was fair....After all, it is called 'golf' only because all the other four letter words were taken!!

Good day was finished off by a visit to MommC and Tony's place, after we dropped Cleef off at the hotel.. MommC and Tony and their friends are truly gracious people. We had a beer and coke, shared some finger food (really good) and conversed. My son commented later that these people "knew how to talk...." ie.: Good conversation. We missed out on a beautiful pork leg and some awesome pasta...Sorry folks...

Unfortunately, we did have to haul a$$ back to Santiago, after picking up my son's wife in SDQ. MommC and her friend said that they could find a sleeping gown for me to spend the night, but I told them that the problem was not a sleeping gown, but rather "who" was in it!!!.. HB did not have permission to stay out....We made excellent time in moderate traffic and were home by 7:20....

HB

CMS · #2 02-23-2003, 11:35 AM

Thanks for the info HB. I am scheduled for a golf tournament there in March. It sounds like I'll need to bring extra balls.

Hillbilly · #3 02-23-2003, 12:25 PM

Depending on your handicap I would suggest as many as three sleeves...(Or bring some of your practice balls until you get the hang of the course.)

HB, grinning

Cleef · #4 02-23-2003, 05:52 PM

"Humbling" is the word - although I used some others to describe my swing that day.

The 105 I put up is the worst I've hit the ball in my life. It was extremely windy, but it wouldn't have mattered as I couldn't couldn't even spit straight.

I had the best round of my life there 2 days earlier and had some very fortunate "recovery" shots go my way and I never saw the playa.

The golf gods giveth and they taketh away.

Great report HB, it was a pleasure (as always) to spend some time with you and also very nice to meet your son - who's got crazy game.

To any and all: get to Guavaberry soon! It's a very nice place to play and once the flora matures a bit more the scores are going to increase exponentially.

In addition, there are some very nice people working there and the food is very good and far less expensive than you'd ever expect. Bring your swimming gear, the pool is a great place to chill after a round and say hello to Raeisa (sp? RAYEESA)who will be serving you food and bevy's.

Cleef · #5 02-23-2003, 11:14 PM

I think Guavaberry is going to become one of the best courses in the Caribbean. I think it's one of the finest on this island for sure.

The logistics of getting there are quite simple from Santo Domingo (less than an hour) and they offer shuttle service to/from area hotel/resorts. The facilities are done with high class as the abundance of marble indicates.

From this viewpoint you can pan 360 degrees and see the property that encompasses the 7,156 yd, par-72 Gary Player signature course. The area may look flat, but the coraldine rock formations and huge waste bunkers make this lush topography bite back over and over. Strong and straight shots are highly rewarded as there are a plethora of scoring holes, but there is always a consistent and deceiving wind to contend with. In addition, recovery shots are difficult if you don't keep your ball on the fairway.

I think the 15th (par-3 island hole) sorrounded by it's 12 million gallon ball swallower is really something to behold, especially from this view:

From the black tees it's apparent that the course was designed for the top level golfer. However, the additional 4 tee boxes on every hole allows all levels to enjoy this beautiful layout.

Get a load of what faces someone hitting from the blacks (scratch) as compared to the blues (1-10 handicap).

Hole 2, 445yd/421 par 4:

Hole 9, 413yd/399 par 4:

Hole 13 152yd/130 par 3:

Finally, on 18 you end with a great view of the clubhouse and 19th hole.

Try it for yourself.

Hillbilly · #6 02-24-2003, 09:09 AM

OUTSTANDING INFORMATION POST AWARD!

That is exactly what I had hoped to convey Cleef....

Beautiful pictures...

Oh yes. Marco shot 70 yesterday to take Gross and Net trophies. Said that the wind was just about as bad. Next highest score was a 75.... On one of the long par 4s, he hit a low zinger that the wind picked up, slowed down and dropped it in the rough next to the LADIE'S TEE BOX!!. Dbl bogie.....

HB

JanH · #7 02-27-2003, 06:17 PM

Great shots of the course but where are your pics from the RED tees?????? ha ha

I've not played that course down there. I've played Teeth of the Dog and the Links about 10 times. I beat my husband several times because ---- my tee shots may not be a mile long but they are ALWAYS straight as hell; doesn't matter about the wind - i never left the fairway. Teeth has several holes along the ocean with some gruesome 70 yd par 3s. I never got in the ocean once - can't say the same about hubby. I shot in low 90s, which is better than some of my scores in the states!

When things settle down on one of our trips to DR, I plan on playing the fairly new course in Punta Cana. It is suppose to be even better than the Teeth.

Hillbilly - we'll have to get a tee time with you when we bring our clubs!

NewtoDR · #8 06-08-2003, 03:10 PM

I don't know why this thread keeps getting moved up but, this is the third time I looked at the pictures of the course and I'm salivating. And I already played 18 this AM.

Hlywud · #9 12-20-2003, 09:02 AM

Golf course looks great from an old golfers prospective, a former 6 handicapper, now retired from the game.

Marco shoots a 70, but remember HB that is his putter or is it yours? I recall the argument.

I see that these pictures reside in the directory
but I cannot find a link to them in the parent directory www.dr1.com.

where is it Robert?

Robert · #10 12-20-2003, 09:49 AM

A link does not exist. You need to go to http://guavaberrygolf.com for more photos.