After a 2.5 hour car journey from Rio I arrive at the Buzios Golf Resort and I have to admit as we passed through the white concrete blocks that have seen better days and head up the dirt track my heart is slowly sinking and a sense of foreboding fills me.
I meet with Victor the professional and he explains the course was designed by Pete Dye in 1996, as I gaze out from the clubhouse you don’t really get a look at what you are about to play. Victor is going to drive me around and as we head up to the 1st tee I can see what turns out to be the 9th green and my heart lifts a little, but it’s not until I climb the stone steps to the back tee on the 1st that my heart leaps with joy, my trepidation dissipates as I look down the fairway with its right to left slope which gently dog-legs round to the left.
I haven’t had chance to warm up and duly hook my ball into the left hand rough knock it back onto the fairway and wedge into the green, but it’s when I look up after the ball has landed and see the stunning backdrop of the sea with one of the massive cruise ships that have docked in the harbour.
As I play my tee shot on the 2nd I turn to Victor and say Pete Dye has a stunning piece of land to work with, he informs me Dye had the choice of where he wanted to put the course including being down by the sea and choose the land that the course is laid out on today and as much as I love links courses and being by the sea, I think he certainly made a wise choice here.
The movement of the terrain certainly make for some great golf holes and there really isn’t a weak hole on the course. As I reach the 212-yard par 3 9th which plays over water from the back tee, you certainly know your golf game has been well and truly tested, but I don’t feel as though I have been beaten up and with hardly anyone on the course I feel totally relaxed, just loving the design, but believe me the green complexes are tough, there is certainly plenty of movement in them.
The back nine starts with another great hole 420-yards from a slightly elevated tee to a rolling fairway, but it’s this hole that really starts a great run of holes culminating with the last four holes running alongside a 25-feet wide water channel that is more like a small river – if you are suffering from a hook like I am at this moment in time, you certainly need to be aiming well up the right side of the fairway!
The last 5 holes – the 15th green is also protected by water – give a special course a stunning finish and of course the Pete Dye signature Sawgrass type 17th hole to an island green and at 169-yards from the back tee that I believe is a tougher hole than its counterpart in Florida.
If you get through that run of holes playing to your handicap you will certainly be a happy soul as you relax in the clubhouse, but if you didn’t I am sure like me you will have realised you have just found yourself a stunning Pete Dye gem, add that to the fact its located in the beautiful seaside resort of Buzios and it becomes the perfect get away destination.
W: buziosgolf.com.br
T: +55 22 2629 1240
Top: The 2nd green. Above Water surrounds the Par 3, 9th hole
Looking back down the 8thAerial view of 14th - 16th Aerial view of the 17th green
Top: The 2nd green. Above Water surrounds the Par 3, 9th hole
