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Casa de Campo® · History

A History of Casa de Campo®

From a dry stretch of coral coast to the Caribbean’s most established luxury resort — six decades of Casa de Campo®, told through the people and milestones that built it.

The Story

Six decades on a stretch of coral coast.

Casa de Campo® begins with sugar. In 1960, the Cuban-born executive Alvaro Carta left Havana for Miami, and by the late 1960s he had arrived in the Dominican Republic to run the financially troubled South Puerto Rico Sugar Company. With the backing of the American conglomerate Gulf + Western — led by Charles Bluhdorn — Carta formed a new division, Gulf + Western Americas, and turned the sugar mill at La Romana into the single largest-producing mill in the world.

Carta wanted to reinvest that wealth in the country that produced it. He set his sights on tourism, and on a lavish resort built around a golf course — an industry that barely existed in the Dominican Republic at the time.

1969 – 1971

Teeth of the Dog, carved by hand.

To find the site, Carta brought in a then-little-known American golf architect named Pete Dye. Dye had drawn up plans for an area outside Santo Domingo, but asked whether there was an alternative. Carta reluctantly pointed to a stretch of coast near the La Romana mill — too dry for sugarcane, too sparse for cattle. The two went to look, and Dye realised something extraordinary could be built there.

He began with an executive course for the mill’s employees, then scouted the coastline and changed course entirely. Over the next year, more than 300 Dominican laborers shaped a seaside course by hand: machetes cleared the underbrush, sledgehammers and chisels cracked the coral rock, and oxen-drawn sugarcane carts hauled topsoil from a mile inland, enriched with cachaza, a by-product of the sugar mill.

The course was first named Cajuiles, for the cashew trees in the hills. It took its lasting name when Dye heard locals describe the jagged coral as diente del perro — the teeth of the dog. In the autumn of 1971, the 18-hole Teeth of the Dog, with seven holes running directly along the Caribbean Sea, opened for play. It remains one of the most celebrated courses in the world.

1974 – 1983

From executive retreat to resort.

In 1974, Casa de Campo® opened as an executive retreat for Gulf + Western, and Teeth of the Dog hosted the World Amateur Team Championships. A private airstrip was built to receive the corporate jets arriving from around the world.

The amenities grew quickly. The late Maharajah Jabar Singh — one of the world’s finest polo players and a six-time winner of Spain’s King’s Cup — was invited to introduce polo, breeding and training ponies on the property. Tennis followed. In 1976, the interior Links course opened, and work began on a village atop a hill: Altos de Chavón, conceived as a cultural showcase for Dominican art.

The heart of Altos de Chavón was completed in 1979. The Genesis discotheque opened on New Year’s Eve 1980, and on 20 August 1982, Frank Sinatra inaugurated the village’s 5,000-seat Grecian-style amphitheater in an HBO television special. In 1983, the Altos de Chavón School of Design opened in affiliation with New York’s renowned Parsons School of Design.

Mid-1980s

A new era, and a global stage.

As the global economy shifted in the mid-1980s, Casa de Campo®, the sugar mill, and the surrounding land passed to a group of private investors who would become the Central Romana Corporation. Carta’s tourism dream took on a new, global dimension — and Casa de Campo® became a driving force behind tourism in the Dominican Republic.

Dominican designer Oscar de la Renta, who built a home at the resort, shaped its original ambiance. American Eagle began daily service from San Juan, and casita hotel rooms were added alongside the private villas. In 1986, the British marksman Michael Rose created a world-class sporting-clays facility to sit alongside the golf, tennis, polo, fishing, and horseback riding already in play. That same year, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue was photographed at Casa de Campo® — and when it reached newsstands in early 1987, the resort was firmly on the map.

1990 – 2003

Growth through a new century.

The private La Romana Country Club and golf course was added in 1990. In July 1992, the resort welcomed its first cruise call with the inaugural arrival of Costa Cruise Lines’ Classica. American Airlines began jet service from Miami on 15 June 1995, and in 1998 Microsoft’s Golf ’98 featured the Teeth of the Dog and Links courses while the World Amateur Golf Championships returned, covered nightly on The Golf Channel.

On 19 December 2000, the first American Airlines jet landed at the new Casa de Campo® / La Romana International Airport, just minutes from the resort. A year later, in December 2001, the Casa de Campo® Preparatory Institute (with Johnson & Wales University) and the Casa de Campo® Marina & Yacht Club opened on the same day. And in April 2003, Pete Dye returned to cut the ribbon on his newest creation — the dramatic cliffside Dye Fore course near Altos de Chavón.

2007 – Today

The resort today.

In the winter of 2007, after decades of family holidays at the resort, the legendary restaurateur Sirio Maccioni joined with Casa de Campo®, sending a chef straight from Le Cirque in New York to open the Beach Club by Le Cirque at the resort’s private Minitas Beach.

Across more than half a century, Casa de Campo® has earned countless accolades for the quality of its facilities, staff, and service. Today it continues to evolve — three Pete Dye courses, a deepwater marina, a cultural village, and a residential community of villa owners — while holding to the standard set on that first stretch of coral coast.

Your Place in the Story

Own a home at Casa de Campo®.

Six decades on, the story of Casa de Campo® is still being written. If you are considering a villa or homesite here, our team has been at the resort since 2003 — and we will help you find your place in it.

Talk to a Casa de Campo® Expert