By Alexander Britell
You spot David Feherty’s mug the moment you reach the baggage claim in Providenciales, urging you to try the Provo Golf Club.
Feherty, the affable former pro golfer and current Golf Channel personality and commentator, who was named a few years ago as the ambassador for Turks and Caicos’ Provo Golf Club, was an inspired choice for the role — funny, knowledgeable and entirely unique.
David Feherty.
And it’s the latter that’s particularly apt.
Because when you get to the Provo Golf Club, just across from the end of Grace Bay Beach, you realize you’ve reached a unique golf experience in the Caribbean.
While Turks and Caicos is renowned for its beaches, its luxury hotels, its food – the perception of its golf experience ranges anywhere from an afterthought to an unknown.
Nearby destinations like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are far more visible in the space, with golf resorts and signature courses from designers like Pete Dye and the like.
But it’s time for that to change — because the Karl Litten-designed Provo Golf Club is as beautiful, challenging and charming a course as you’ll find in the region.
It begins with the pink colonial-style clubhouse, home to a terrific pro shop and and even better upstairs British-style pub, Fairways.
The golf staff are warm, friendly and attentive, and, happily, there’s almost always a quick pace of play.
While there’s no driving range, there’s a handy, functional practice area with a net that will warm you up just as well.
And then there’s the course.
The 18-hole track, which debuted in 1992, is a colorful, rugged course, with water on six of nine holes on the front and another five in the back.
But perhaps more impressive is the condition of the course — it’s excellently manicured and just brilliantly green, something that’s rather rare on courses in the region these days — and the greens and fairways were just resurfaced, to boot.
The clubhouse at Provo Golf Club.
It all adds up to a layout that moves around from the fair to the challenging to, well, the par-five third hole, which presents a quandary for just about every golfer — and what amounts to the best-kept secret in Caribbean golf.
This Feherty fellow may be on to something.
For more, visit the Provo Golf Club.
— CJ