Nick Faldo's New Caribbean Golf Course

by Paul Rogers (RSS feed)
Jan 15th 2009 at 10:01AM

The reinvention of British golfer Nick Faldo comes in many forms. Not only is the once tight-lipped major champion flashing a sense of humor these days as an analyst for CBS Sports and the Golf Channel (where you can hear him announce the Sony Open this weekend), he's also designing some spectacular golf courses. His latest is the Faldo Legacy Course at Roco Ki in the Dominican Republic.

The holes unfurl across a 2,500-acre site on the island's northeast coast, the terrain shifting from ocean highlands to mangrove forest to upland sawgrass plain. But the course's calling card is its clifftop closing holes. The par-three seventeenth has drawn comparisons to Pebble Beach, and the par-five eighteenth is called Dos Rezos (two prayers) because it demands two heroic shots over inlets of the sea. The course is the centerpiece of a real estate community that's to include luxury homes and villas plus the Westin Roco Ki Beach and Golf Resort, scheduled open later this year.

Given the beating he took in the British press for his unsuccessful captaincy of the European Ryder Cup team last fall, Faldo has to be enjoying the positive ink for Roco Ki.

Tags: Dominican Republic, Golf, Nick Faldo, Roco Ki, Westin Roco Ki