Playa Grande Golf Closed to Public for Good

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Left on Red

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Mar 10, 2012
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Well, what many long suspected has apparently come to be; the Playa Grande Golf and the Aman resort (www.aman.com/resorts/amanera ) are set to open in another week. Unfortunately, they have determined, unsurprisingly, that they do not need us local riff-raff on their brand new greens. There will be no public golf for anyone.
Now, unless you are a PG golf villa owner, guest at a PG villa, guest at the Aman resort, or Playa Grande Beach Club guest, you are not welcome to play. I assume this means the restaurants at the Aman will not be open to the public, either....which I did not really expect anyway.

But, it all would have been quite nice. Looks really very pretty!

Maybe 30 of us can chip in for a room for one night (about 2k US) and then make a tee time for our 30 friends?!

Alas...life in Cabrera will not be the same for this golf junkie. Time to build a petanque court, or something, I guess.
 
S

SKY

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Apr 11, 2004
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My friend Julio Santos is the Golf Pro there. He has competed on the Latin Tour.
 
P

pauleast

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Give it a little time. There is no private golf venue here that cannot be breached with a little grease. ie pesos
 
K

Kipling333

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Julio is a very good friend of mine also ..He had formerly been the professional at Playa Grande. I think it is a good idea to make this course semi private..it really is a gem and maybe now will get the up keep it deserves. I am sure ,just like Corales in Punta Cana, other golfers will be able to play but at a much higher price. In the last years of being a public course , the golf carts were always breaking down and the course was in very poor condition. I look at this very positively.
 
hammerdown

hammerdown

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SKY said:
My friend Julio Santos is the Golf Pro there. He has competed on the Latin Tour.
Click to expand...

Julio is not the pro at Playa Grande, and hasn't been for quite a while....He is in Playa Dorado for the last 3-4yrs.....
 
L

Left on Red

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Kipling333 said:
Julio is a very good friend of mine also ..He had formerly been the professional at Playa Grande. I think it is a good idea to make this course semi private..it really is a gem and maybe now will get the up keep it deserves. I am sure ,just like Corales in Punta Cana, other golfers will be able to play but at a much higher price. In the last years of being a public course , the golf carts were always breaking down and the course was in very poor condition. I look at this very positively.
Click to expand...

Kipling, I agree with you about the carts...ours even caught fire on the 8th once!
From what I understand, though, it is not to be semi-private, but rather totally private. Unless you own there or are staying there, you will not be welcome to play....no matter the price.
I haven't golfed at Corales, but it looks like anyone can go online and book a tee time. (It looks beautiful, by the way). Maybe we should have bought in Punta Cana.
No golf here now. No La Catalina. Next thing, someone will tell me Chori Pan is closing. :(
 
J

ju10prd

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Aman resorts pride themselves on being exclusive I'm afraid. You pay your money you get your privacy.

This is their first golf resort so I guess more of the same.

Restaurant at Amanyara, Providenciales is by invitation only through GM. Small carefully prepared portions by top chef team at Aman prices....yikes.

Best become an 'aman junkie'

My Aman........

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http://www.amanyaravillas.com/
 
K

Kipling333

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Jan 12, 2010
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Left on Red .. I hope that you are not telling me that la Catelina Hotel is closed I was thinking that when I used to go to Playa Grande two or three times a year , the options for good golf courses were only at Casa de Campo and Playa Grande . But now there are so many good courses in the Punta Cana /Bavaro area as well as the courses in Casa de Campo ,that Playa Grande is not nearly so important . I know no other course with so many natural great holes along or across the cliffs as Playa Grande but except for La Catalina Hotel it is a rather dull and rainy place and quite frankly I wonder if the course will receive the players that the new owners may be expecting .
 
TravelHippo

TravelHippo

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Mar 24, 2008
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Left on Red said:
Well, what many long suspected has apparently come to be; the Playa Grande Golf and the Aman resort (www.aman.com/resorts/amanera ) are set to open in another week. Unfortunately, they have determined, unsurprisingly, that they do not need us local riff-raff on their brand new greens. There will be no public golf for anyone.
Now, unless you are a PG golf villa owner, guest at a PG villa, guest at the Aman resort, or Playa Grande Beach Club guest, you are not welcome to play. I assume this means the restaurants at the Aman will not be open to the public, either....which I did not really expect anyway.

But, it all would have been quite nice. Looks really very pretty!

Maybe 30 of us can chip in for a room for one night (about 2k US) and then make a tee time for our 30 friends?!

Alas...life in Cabrera will not be the same for this golf junkie. Time to build a petanque court, or something, I guess.
Click to expand...

I do believe the main restaurant in the lodge at Aman is to be open to the public.... albeit very expensive I am sure!!

And don't worry, I don't think Chori Pan will be closing anytime soon! ;)
 
4

4*4*4

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May 4, 2015
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Left on Red said:
Maybe 30 of us can chip in for a room for one night (about 2k US) and then make a tee time for our 30 friends?!.
Click to expand...

"Yes, once again, Room 312 would like 30 eggs sunny side up, 30 coffees, 29 Diario Libres and one copy of Pravda."
 
C

chic

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Nov 20, 2013
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pauleast said:
Give it a little time. There is no private golf venue here that cannot be breached with a little grease. ie pesos
Click to expand...

i played almost everyday for free one year... the caddy/cart master... he was a uncle to a friend of mine in high school....wouldnt take a dime free cart and start....
 
L

Left on Red

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Mar 10, 2012
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Kipling333 said:
Left on Red .. I hope that you are not telling me that la Catelina Hotel is closed I was thinking that when I used to go to Playa Grande two or three times a year , the options for good golf courses were only at Casa de Campo and Playa Grande . But now there are so many good courses in the Punta Cana /Bavaro area as well as the courses in Casa de Campo ,that Playa Grande is not nearly so important . I know no other course with so many natural great holes along or across the cliffs as Playa Grande but except for La Catalina Hotel it is a rather dull and rainy place and quite frankly I wonder if the course will receive the players that the new owners may be expecting .
Click to expand...

Kippling, yes, sadly, La Catalina recently closed. It may have been dull and rainy on occasion, but for many of us in Cabrera it was a sort of second living room, a second family over the years. It was the best restaurant in town, too, or as a friend classified it, the only "tablecloth" restaurant in town.
I agree with you about Playa Grande being exceptional in its natural beauty....we golfed it on our first trip to the DR in 2001, staying at La Catalina, actually. It was one of the main reasons we stayed, bought and built. There are so many gorgeous looking courses around the country that everyone has named. We've played only a few of of them, but truth is, we don't really fancy driving an hour or two each way for golf 3-4 times a week.
I guess we were just lucky to enjoy the place as much as we did over the years...spoiled, really, often having the course to ourselves. Even with flaming golf carts, lagoons for sand traps, minefields of deadly red ant mounds, and occasional food poisoning at the clubhouse, for a hundred bucks a year and $28 bucks a round, it is hard to imagine anything better!!
It is hard, Kippling, I agree, to imagine the course gets any real sort of play....maybe when they build out the 40 (or more?) villas, it will. For now, they would rather keep it empty, but exclusive....which is what they are selling.
 
drstock

drstock

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Oct 29, 2010
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Why is it that there is now only one working golf course that I know of (Playa Dorada) on the North Coast? People who visit me in Cabarete often ask me about playing. The Costa Azul so called "Golf and Beach Resort" doesn't actually have a golf course (or a beach for that matter!). Where I come from in England it seems that golf courses are springing up on every spare piece of agricultural land. I would have thought another public course here would be successful, but I suppose I am missing something.
 
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Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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The main reason there are not more golf courses on the north coast and that more golf courses are not being built in the DR is that the adequate maintenance of golf courses is VERY expensive.
 
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D

Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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It is yet to be seen if the Playa Grande golf course not be available for play for a fee. It has been promoted by the Ministry of Tourism in the understanding that it would be open to tourists, even when being expensive to play.
 
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