Jack Nicklaus has held a press conference to share details about plans for the second signature golf course he is building at the luxury residential and golf development Cap Cana, on the Dominican Republic?s Punta Cana coast.
The first course, Punta Espada, will have an important date with leading world golfers, when the first PGA tournament is played there on 31 March to 6 April 2008. The PGA Tour’s Champions Tour will take place at Punta Espada, with the 54-hole stroke-play tournament featuring a 78-player field and official prize money of US$2 million, with the winner collecting US$300,000. The Golf Channel will broadcast all three rounds in the US and coverage of the event will be distributed internationally. Punta Espada opened in November 2006. The Champions Tour is a tax-exempt membership organization for professional golfers age 50 and older.
During the press conference, Nicklaus commented that he has begun to design the Iguana golf course and country club, a US$26 million project. He mentioned that the golf course field is 996,795m2 in size and the golf club will measure 6,050m2. He visited the DR to begin to develop the personality of the new course that will have three holes looking out to sea and will be different from the course at Punta Cana. ?We will have views to bunkers, and different views of the greens. We are seeking to create variety, a new vision and new ambience so that new experiences can be enjoyed?, he explained. The new course will be built by PGA tournament standards, but he stressed that the course will also be suitable for amateur players.