Royal Isabela Golf Club & Resort

Royal Isabela possesses one of the most dramatic golf sites in the Caribbean along with Cabot Saint Lucia and Playa Grande in Dominican Republic. Portions of the property are set on rocky cliffs 200 feet above the Atlantic on Puerto Rico’s dry northwest coast, and five green sites on the second nine sit on or close to the edge of land. The golf holes themselves are a strange brew, a kind of funhouse collection of golf shots that include a Pete Dye-like island green par 3 (architect David Pfaff worked for Dye in the 1960s), a Y-shaped hole that can veer left and play as a par 5 or to the right as a par 4, and a par 3 with a green 55 yards deep and 11 yards wide. Most holes have stirring up-close or long-range views of the sea, and every effort was made by the owners to conserve trees and the natural elements of the land. Perhaps that explains the tortured routing that includes some of the longest cart rides between holes that exist anywhere.