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ON THE TEE WITH DALE

Dale Leatherman is a freelance travel writer specializing in golf, adventure, and the Caribbean. Her writing career includes four years as a newspaper features editor, 12 years as a magazine features editor, and eight years as a website editor. She has been a full-time freelancer for more than 20 years, with articles appearing in publications such as The Robb Report, Caribbean Travel & Life, Diversion, Meetings & Conventions, LINKS, Executive Traveler, Golf for Women, Continental, and LINKS. Her work also includes special advertising sections for Travel & Leisure Golf, Travel & Leisure, Attache, Sky, and the Los Angeles Times. Dale is editorial director of Caribbean Escapes. E-mail DALeatherman@cs.com for reprints or rewrites for publication.

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Puerto Rico’s Palmas del Mar Resort and Country Club is a planned community that has actually stuck to the plan. Growth in the Caribbean can Flamboyan Hole 3, copyright Donnelle Oxley

Flamboyan Hole 3, copyright Donnelle Oxley

be helter-skelter, but at Palmas it is following a script more than three decades old. In the 1970s, after designing Hilton Head’s Sea Pines Plantation and Florida’s Amelia Island Plantation, developer Charles Fraser applied his innovative “master-planned community” concept to Palmas del Mar.

Only 33 percent of the 2,750-acre property has been developed and natural areas have been preserved--three and a half miles of pristine beach, stretches of craggy coastline, acres of wetlands, and forests of indigenous trees and flowering plants. Recreation and housing areas have been carefully plotted so that there is order and symmetry in the villa and hotel neighborhoods, the sporting complexes, and the miles of cart/walking/bike paths that connect everything.

There are two golf courses--the Palms Course, a 1974 Gary Player design that hosted the 1995 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf; and the Rees Jones- designed Flamboyan Course, which opened in 1999 along with a 38,000-square-foot clubhouse. High ceilings, swirling fans, mahogany woodwork and lots of mirrors and glass create a cool haven throughout the pro shop, locker rooms, gourmet restaurant, bar and meeting rooms. The low-slung stucco building is surrounded by lush gardens and palms.

Rees Jones says Palmas del Mar is a “perfect site for a seaside course. The oceanfront breezes provide constantly changing conditions. There are natural wetlands, meadows, trees, streams and, of course, the Caribbean Sea, along which we built several holes. The naturally sandy soil next to the sea, similar to the areas of Scotland and England where golf evolved, allows for some very traditional elements.”

After circling a 23-acre lake, Jones’ 7,117-yard Flamboyan Course crosses the Candelero River, skirts the seashore, then climbs into the hills overlooking the ocean. The terrain varies widely, but common ingredients are undulating greens and Jones’ signature mounding.

Though water and wetlands abound, one of the most dramatic holes is high and dry. Number sixteen, a 609-yard par 5, funnels through a high valley, then drops to a tiered, tabletop green guarded by vast bunkers, some of which are 14 feet deep. There are many scenic holes, but the twelfth is the course signature—a par 3 playing from 123 to 174 yards across a canal to a green backed by the ocean.

Wind is a constant factor. The crosswind on the eighth hole makes it the toughest par 3. On number nine, the hardest par 4, you’re hitting into a wind so fierce you can plan on a wood second shot.

Jones also engineered the renovation of the 6,600-yard Gary Player-designed Palm Course, which smacks of the sultry, hot-blooded nature of the tropics. There's nothing tame about this path through marshes, jungle and coconut groves, with snarls of sea-grape and head-high reeds serving as boundaries on some holes.

Holes 11 to 14 are a formidable gauntlet. The 12^th is the hardest par 4--narrow, trappy and into the wind, with a two-tiered green breaking toward the approach. Also against the wind is the 13^th, a 250-yard par 3 with a tiered green. The signature 14^th hole, a 418-yard par 4, drops 200 feet against a backdrop of the ocean and Vieques Island.

Jones' fine-tuning did not disturb Player's intent, which was that no shot be taken for granted. Tee shots demand placement and the greens are small and elusive. There's a wild and special beauty to the course which makes for a memorable round.

The resort is pretty special, because it has every amenity you can imagine. Like many others, you may decide to drop roots and send for the family. This community is comprised of 45 secure neighborhoods, with one of the best private schools in Puerto Rico and a 2,700-acre paradise in which kids can ride bikes or horses, play tennis, surf, scuba dive and, of course, play golf.

Visitors have a wide choice of accommodations, ranging from villas and condos to the Four Points Sheraton Hotel. There are 20 restaurants ranging from fine dining to casual, and any cuisine you desire. Other amenities include a casino, a 20-court tennis center, a 65-stall equestrian center, volleyball and basketball courts, a fitness center, nine freshwater pools and a scuba diving center. A 200-slip, 100-acre marina is the departure point for snorkeling and scuba, sailing, kayaking and deep sea fishing excursions.

Located on Puerto Rico’s southeast coast, Palmas is only 45 minutes via a four-lane highway from San Juan, with its international airport and wealth of cultural and historical attractions. The city’s plazas and buildings reflect three centuries of Spanish influence, beginning in the early 1500s. Also nearby is the El Yunque Rainforest , which covers 28,000 acres of Puerto Rico and is one of the most "user-friendly" rainforests in the world. The U.S. national park has miles of trails where you can see birds and animals that are being rescued from extinction.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, which means the currency is the dollar, and the languages spoken are Spanish and English.