{"id":1812,"date":"2011-09-29T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tombedell.com\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2016-12-29T19:34:03","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T01:34:03","slug":"tap-beer-of-the-week-presidente","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/1812\/tap-beer-of-the-week-presidente","title":{"rendered":"TAP Beer of the Week: Presidente"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been to the Dominican Republic several times to see its unfolding development as a major golf destination. But there aren\u2019t going to be a lot of beer tourists heading this way any time soon, unless they\u2019re extremely undemanding.<\/p>\n

My last visit, chronicled here<\/a>, turned into a quest to find Ambar Cerveza Oscura, the darker-hued sibling to the ubiquitous Presidente, the flagship beer of the sole brewery in the DR, the Cervecer\u00eda Nacional Dominicana. With no more nights to spare on that trip, I was finally successful.<\/p>\n

So this time I thought I\u2019d get my order in early, so to speak, shortly after arriving at the Casa de Campo<\/a> resort. At a cocktail party for our arriving group of golf writers, I already had a Presidente in hand when I met the resort\u2019s general manager, Daniel Hern\u00e1ndez Qui\u00f1ones, and expressed the hope that he might be able to track down an Ambar for me.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, he was not able, but he didn\u2019t let me down, either.<\/p>\n

Nor did anything else about the resort. I\u2019ve been writing about Pete Dye\u2019s Teeth of the Dog course for years–without ever seeing it–because one can\u2019t write about golf in the Caribbean without mentioning it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Dye Fore Chav\u00f3n nine <\/p><\/div>\n

Ever since it opened in 1971, preceding the opening of Casa de Campo in 1975, Dye\u2019s course has routinely been considered one of the best in the world. (Number 47 in GOLF Magazine’s current Top 100 Courses in the World list.) Its seven holes right on the water (four on the front side, three incoming) have become something of a Caribbean template.<\/p>\n

The first seaside hole, number five, is an iconic eye-opening par-3 that starts putting the teeth into the course, which is showing no signs of wear. Dye has returned twice to polish the Teeth, which he still calls one of his favorites.<\/p>\n

Others enjoy the Links course (undergoing work during our visit), and some have gone so far as to call the Dye Fore course their favorite. It was mainly to see nine new Dye holes that our group was invited, a nine that will become part of a 27-hole Dye Fore layout.<\/p>\n

With the former front nine of Dye Fore (the Marina nine) also undergoing work, we began on the former back nine, now called the Chav\u00f3n nine since it plays high above the Chav\u00f3n River in spectacular fashion. In hopes of doing something completely different for the new nine, Dye went to small and sometimes tabletop greens in a links-style nine.<\/p>\n

Eric Lillibridge, director of instruction at the resort\u2019s Jim McLean Golf School gives a brief intro here:<\/p>\n