Shortly after the third Cap Cana Championship—an immediate hit on the Champions Tour—the Punta Espada Golf Course was ranked No. 8 in Golfweek’s recent list of the “Best Tour Courses You Can Play.” It is the third such ranking of the best public-access courses played on the PGA, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA tours in 2009-2010. The list is a celebration of one of golf’s grandest idiosyncrasies: the fact that amateurs can test their games on the same courses and holes where the game’s greatest players have made history.
Punta Espada, a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course that plays along the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic, was named the No. 1 course in Golfweek’s 2009 and 2010 ranking of the Best Caribbean Courses. It led a fivesome of Nicklaus Design courses to make the Best Courses on Tour list, followed at No. 9 by Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C., which represents Jack’s first design effort and has hosted a PGA Tour event each year since it opened in 1969. At No. 17 was the Ritz-Carlton at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., and at No. 24 was the Champion Course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., the host venue for The Honda Classic. Rounding out the Nicklaus Design courses on Golfweek’s list was Four Seasons Hualalai in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
