Pete Dye’s iconic Dominican Republic design has been restored and rebuilt to withstand the harsh coastal climate
Since it opened in 1971, Pete Dye’s famous Teeth of the Dog layout at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic has been regarded by many as the best golf experience in the Caribbean. And while there is now very strong competition for that crown, the resort has completed a major project to protect the course’s status.
Dye oversaw numerous tweaks to Teeth of the Dog until his death in 2020. However, grassing issues, storm damage and ongoing loss of the shape and character of course features meant it was in need of further care. Step in former US Open champion Jerry Pate and his design partner Steve Dana, to develop a plan focused on restoring the glory of Dye’s handiwork.
“The reality was that the course was built in the early seventies in an underdeveloped nation and the foundation was not created to meet modern agronomic expectations,” says Dana. “Also, it had become a laboratory of sorts for experimenting with various turfgrass varieties, leading to mottled fairways and creating an unkept visual and erratic playing conditions. The course features had also become degraded by the fierce coastal environment – the dramatic and awe-inspiring layout had grown tired.”
Pate, Dana, Casa de Campo’s director of golf Robert Birtel and the resort’s director of golf emeritus Gilles Gagnon spent hours studying old photography and historic documentation. They decided that the renovation would focus on preserving the layout as it existed following Dye’s own changes, rather than reinstating its original 1971 design.
“The goal was to improve and polish the course without changing it,” says Pate. “Our aim was one of architectural preservation, to modernise the course, but to keep it familiar. We also wanted to elevate its agronomic conditioning, enhance the overall aesthetics and improve its long-term sustainability.”
One of the first jobs was to map green contours, a task that would be repeated during construction and post-renovation.
Greens, fairways and tees were regrassed to Pure Dynasty paspalum – developed by Pure-Seed Testing and marketed by Atlas Turf International and Pure Seed – to replace the mix of grasses.
Playing surfaces were regrassed with Pure Dynasty paspalum (Photo: Patrick Koenig)
“Pure Dynasty paspalum was selected for several reasons,” says Birtel. “It is an extremely durable turfgrass and highly salt-tolerant, critical factors given our location directly on the Caribbean Sea. We already had experience with this grass on the greens and surrounds at La Romana Country Club, which gave us confidence in both its performance and long-term management. The turf is already performing well and providing firm conditions while maintaining high playability and visual definition.”
Dana adds: “With the competition for water across the resort becoming fiercer, the real possibility of using desalinated seawater for irrigation is an approaching reality. The paspalum turfgrass will allow for this in the future. Developing a desalination system for the golf irrigation is likely not too far away – this will allow for all the river water to be used for the potable uses across the community and greatly enhance the resort’s sustainable initiatives.”
The decision to introduce a new turf variety led to the return of some contour. “Going to paspalum greens, we sought to enhance the percentage of slope slightly since the paspalum would play slower than the previous bermuda greens,” says Dana. “This would preserve the design intent at that point in the course’s evolution. We also used historic photographs to return interesting pin placements lost over the years and expand greens.”
Lost hole locations have been reinstated on the second and holes thirteen to seventeen. The front section of the third, back section of the tenth and front of the eleventh were also expanded after the discovery of old green profiles during construction.
Lost pin positions have been reinstated on several holes, including the second (Photo: Patrick Koenig)
A nursery was built on site before the renovation began and included paspalum for sprigs and sod, Zoysia for bunker faces, signet grass for rough and pajon for native areas. “It was invaluable, particularly given the construction timeline,” says Dana. “In addition to the nursery, we harvested grasses from the course itself before shaping operations took place. The harvested grass was then preserved and replanted in other finished areas. This nursery and harvesting process saved significant dollars and was an extremely resourceful use of the site’s existing assets.”
While Pate and Dana left the overall bunker scheme largely unchanged, fairway bunkers on ten holes were all moved slightly closer to the centreline to enhance strategic interest, while several bunkers that were located well out of play and had become irrelevant were removed.
“The fairway bunker on the third hole’s landing area was relocated slightly left to open up an alternate fairway and a direct angle into the very small and elevated green,” says Dana. “The corner fairway bunker on four was relocated right to widen the very narrow fairway and make the hole more playable for resort guests. Also, the waste bunkers on holes three and nine were extended to prevent the longer players from carrying the entire length of them, making good golfers think more about their tee shot.”
Another key aspect was reinstating the character of bunkers following years of erosion caused by the harsh coastal conditions. All bunkers were reshaped with steep, grassed faces with mounding characteristic of Dye’s style.
“We rebuilt faces to reintroduce strategic intent, levelled bunker floors and installed proper drainage to significantly improve playability,” says Birtel. “Pete Dye’s legacy was central to every decision we made. At each stage, the guiding question was simple: does this look and feel like Pete Dye, and like Teeth of the Dog?”
Bunkers have been rebuilt with steep grass faces (Photo: Patrick Koenig)
“There were several instances during bunker shaping when we stepped back and felt the work didn’t reflect Pete’s style,” says Birtel. “In those cases, we reshaped and refined until it aligned with what we believed Pete would have done himself. Teeth of the Dog has always had a strong Pete Dye identity, and our goal was not to add character, but to clarify and strengthen it. We feel the renovation successfully enhanced that original DNA.”
Birtel says the 526-yard par-five third typifies this strategy. “It plays into the trade winds and finishes at an elevated, tabletop green guarded by classic Pete Dye pot bunkers,” he says. “We relocated the forward and middle tees to the left, improving sight lines so players now look directly down the hole rather than over adjacent tees. We pinched in the left fairway bunker and extended the right one to increase its coverage for tee shots drifting right. Two additional right-side fairway bunkers were tightened to influence lay-up decisions, and we added a new central pot bunker approximately 60 yards short of the green to further complicate second-shot strategy.”
Teeth of the Dog is located right on the coast of the Dominican Republic (Photo: Patrick Koenig)
“Around the green, bunker faces were rebuilt to restore their visual and strategic impact,” says Birtel. “The green itself, which sits about 15 feet above the fairway, was expanded back-left and at the front, reintroducing additional pin positions. It remains a relatively small target that demands precision and will penalise any approach that fails to find the putting surface.”
All tees were levelled and expanded, with new forward and back tees added. The twelfth’s tee complex was redesigned so that it faces to the right and offers a better angle of play for resort golfers playing this dogleg left hole – similar work was performed on the eighteenth.
“On the iconic par-three sixteenth, the large main tee was angled slightly left to open up views of the cliffs and beaches,” said Birtel. “Previously, the front of the tee shielded the view of the dramatic coastline. A minor but impactful improvement to polish one of the great par threes in the world.”
Other work on Teeth of the Dog includes irrigation upgrades and a tree management programme, both of which form part of the club’s ongoing sustainability and operations plan. This plan also covers how the course is set up to manage storm events and climate change.
“Many of the holes are located directly on the Caribbean Sea with many features only a couple of feet above the tide,” says Dana. “Periodically, these greens and tees are damaged by storm surges or even just rough seas. Additionally, several features have had aquatic caves eroded underneath them, making their stability tenuous at best. The project enlisted a coastal engineer to review the coastline, the exposed golf features, tides, currents and storm potential. As a result, tons of rock were installed along the coastline to dissipate the wave energy and reinforce the eroded shoreline.”
The course’s eroded shoreline has been reinforced as part of the project (Photo: Patrick Koenig)
“Overall, the course is more challenging for all players,” says Birtel. “Errant shots are penalised more consistently, yet Teeth of the Dog still offers tremendous variety in shotmaking. Golfers can choose to run the ball onto greens or play higher, more traditional approaches. With fairway-height surrounds instead of heavy rough, players have a wide range of recovery shots available. That creativity, combined with the setting on the Caribbean Sea, remains one of the defining features of the course.”