The president of the Dominican Golf Federation (Fedogolf), Juan Cohen says it is good business for the government to come up with the prize money to attract major golf competitions. In an interview with Diario Libre, he said that around 500,000 rounds of golf are already available in the 24 installed golf courses that need to be booked. He said around US$200 million has been invested in the golf courses nationwide. Cohen estimated that US$150,000-US$300,000 is a small price to pay for the government to collect around US$17 million in ITBIS and the country to receive US$90 million in tournament-generated revenues.
In the same interview, vice president of Fedogolf Rafael Canario commented that Puerto Rico with half of the number of Dominican golf courses and 30% of the quality of the Dominican courses invests US$5 million to attract the PGA Tour and the PGA Latin America. He estimated that the PGA Tour generates around US$22 million for Puerto Rico.
He says the DR has to be more aggressive to attract the 30 million golfers in the United States. He estimated that in the US golf is a US$75 billion industry, and there are 16,000 golf courses, including 1,200 in Florida alone.
The Dominican Republic will be hosting the 3rd Dominican Republic Professional Golf Open at Teeth of the Dog in La Romana starting 12 May. Cash prize money of US$150,000 has been set aside. The tournament, operated under the PGA Tour Latin America (Nec Series Tour), is being held to help Latin American golf players prepare for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
www.diariolibre.com/destacada/2014/05/06/i596291_necesita-una-decisin-estado-turismo-golf-para-convertir-pas-hawai-del-caribe.html
www.diariolibre.com/dialogolibre/2014/05/06/i596281_repblica-dominicana-recibe-mejor-golf.html
http://www.fedogolf.org.do/eventos/2014/05/dr-open-2014%E2%80%8F.aspx
For more on upcoming events, see www.dr1.com/calendar