Casa de Campo The Links Golf Course Review
Introduction
Pete Dye is well known for devious course designs that challenge golfers visually and demand their finest shots. “Resort golf” is a phrase used to describe courses that are gentle and pleasant; straightforward opportunities for recreational players to shoot good scores. Thus, asking Pete Dye to design a resort golf course may seem like asking Magnus Carlsen to play tic-tac-toe, but the result, The Links Golf Course at Casa de Campo, is a fun, “best of both worlds” blend that should be part of any golf trip to the Dominican Republic.
Practice Facilities
Casa de Campo is home to three golf courses – The Links Golf Course, the renowned Teeth of the Dog, and Dye Fore . The first two are located near the main hotel and share a massive practice facility. A short cart ride from the first tee, you’ll find an enormous, manicured range with a multitude of targets. There’s also a sizable putting green and a beautiful short game area. If the resort didn’t offer so many other alluring amenities, I’d say that you could spend all day here. The true grinders might anyway.
Customer Service & Amenities
The customer service throughout Casa de Campo is A+, 10/10. From the range to the course to the pro shop, the staff is plentiful and eager to help. When I was warming up, there was someone picking up each club that I put down to clean it. On the course, the caddies are experts who will find your wayward drives and set every putt on the right line.
With regard to amenities, The Links Golf Course has everything you would expect. The pro shop is packed to the gills with a huge variety of soft goods bearing the Casa de Campo logo. There are also enough shoes and clubs to fill in if you left something at home. If you have the ability, make sure that you bring enough golf balls – Titleist ProV1s retail here for $100/dozen.
On the course, there’s a nice beverage stand where you can get a quick snack and some aiming fluid. The GPS units on the cart are excellent, featuring touchscreens and distances directly to the pin.
Casa de Campo is home to so much more than golf, and all of that is detailed HERE.
Beauty & Scenery
The opening nine at Casa de Campo’s The Links Golf Course offers endless lush green views. The course is flanked by houses, but they are so varied that they’re almost part of the appeal. On the back nine, the views change dramatically as water is featured on most of the holes. Though the course doesn’t have much in the way of elevation changes, Pete Dye’s clever shaping and bunkering gives your eye plenty to take in.
Tee Shots
Much like the visuals, the tee shots at The Links Golf Course change dramatically from the front nine to the back. On the front, almost every fairway is above average in width. Moving to the back, they shrink to average width. On the front nine, there’s less visual trickery and more room to miss on either side of the fairway. After the turn, there are numerous sides of the fairway that are effectively dead, and several tee shots demand careful planning.
Caddies are not required at The Links Golf Course, but it never hurts to have a guide. Especially on the back nine, there were times when I was walking after a drive thinking, “I wish I knew ____ before I hit that ball.”
While Pete Dye does mix in some of his signature tricks at The Links, he does not beat you up with length. The course tips out at 6,739 yards at par 71, and the forward tees play to 4,486 yards. Strong, accurate drivers will have a fairly easy time here. If you tend to spray it, choose a set of tees where you won’t be forced to hit driver on every hole.
Approach Shots
The Links Golf Course shares several traits with Dye Fore, among them the lack of penalty for driving it in the rough. While the fairway is certainly preferable, the rough is kept short enough that you won’t have any difficulty playing from it. It is possible to draw a thick, tangled lie, but your drive can find a divot in the fairway, too. Luck can never be removed from golf.
One way that The Links separates itself from Dye Fore is that the lies are much more tame. The fairways have significantly less movement, so you don’t have to deal with impaired views or the ball being above or below your feet. This is helpful because the approach shots at The Links are the biggest part of the challenge.
If I could give you one piece of advice for playing The Links Golf Course, it’s this: don’t be short with your approach. Most of the greens are elevated, and almost all of the trouble is short. I can imagine Pete Dye laughing as he put this design together, thinking, “All these ego-driven golfers…They don’t take enough club as it is, and they’ll never account for the elevation change, hahaha.” Even when you can’t see the area behind the green, trust that it’s safer than the bunkers and hollows short.
Greens & Surrounds
By elevating the greens, Pete Dye gave himself the ability to create loads of humps and hollows to challenge golfers’ short games. In the surrounds, the rough is short and may be a comfort to those that fear tight lies. It’s long enough to make putting a poor choice, but you can play any other type of shot. The biggest difficulty is properly evaluating how the elevation will affect your pitch.
If you know Pete Dye, you know that The Links Golf Course is not short on bunkers, either. The bunkers here range from tiny to mid-sized, sometimes coming in groups, sometimes isolated. But somehow, even on a hole that doesn’t feel like it has much sand, Dye manages to find the perfect spot to place a bunker where it will challenge your eye and potentially gobble up your ball.
The putting surfaces at The Links Golf Course are smooth, consistent, and a little speedier than average. Like Dye Fore, the greens here rely on tilt more than wild undulations to give each putt some movement. These greens are a bit flatter than at Dye Fore, allowing you to putt more aggressively for your vacation birdies, but you still need to respect their speed.
Favorite Holes
#4 – Par 4 – 327 Yards
This borderline driveable par 4 gives players lots of options off the tee. There’s no club you can choose to fully take the sand out of play, so pick the club you’re most confident in and swing away. This is one of many approach shots where being short is no good, so take enough club on your second swing.
#13 – Par 3 – 167 Yards
A short, beautiful par 3 is a respite before some of the toughest holes on the course. Water short and right encourage you to take enough club. This is a rare case of Pete Dye being charitable as being long or left won’t leave you with a tough chip. Put a good number on the card…it might be your last.
#15 – Par 4 – 393 Yards
This is the most Pete Dye hole on the course. The tee shot combines a medium-length forced carry with a cape design, the fairway running away to the golfer’s left. Big hitters can take the water almost completely out of play…if they can hit their intended line. The approach shot to a dramatically elevated green pushes the overall difficulty up another notch.
Conclusion
The Links Golf Course at Casa de Campo shows that opposites can coexist. Across eighteen holes, golfers experience a blend of “resort golf” and Pete Dye’s signature difficulty. It’s a fun round that offers chances to score and opportunities to match your skills against one of golf’s most legendary course designers.
Visit Casa de Campo HERE
Editor In Chief at Plugged In Golf
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
