The East Course at Dorado Beach is where golf tourism in Puerto Rico started. Laurance Rockefeller hired Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1955 to build golf on a coconut plantation west of San Juan, and the East Course opened in 1958. It staged the 1961 Canada Cup, the event now called the World Cup, and has since been brought up to date by Jones’s son. Today it is part of the TPC network and sits beside Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, but you do not need to stay there: the public can book tee times online.
TPC Dorado Beach (East Course) green fees and tee times.
TPC Dorado Beach takes public bookings through its TeeItUp engine, linked from the Book a Tee Time button on the TPC site, and by phone on +1 787 626 1010. Dorado Beach’s own golf page says resort guests can book up to six months ahead, while residents can book three days ahead, so winter mornings fill with hotel guests first. GolfNow says the cart is included in the green fee. TPC does not publish a rate card, so the price shows in the booking engine for your date and time. GOLF.com notes that golfers can pay regular green fees, take a package or join as members.
The round, in perspective.
Jones Sr. opened the East as nine holes in 1958, and it grew to 18 by 1966. In 1964 it staged a Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match in which Chi Chi Rodríguez beat Doug Sanders. In 2011 Robert Trent Jones Jr. added about 700 yards, regrassed the greens with ultra-dwarf Champion Bermuda and filled the bunkers with local beach sand. The card now reads par 72 and 7,217 yards from the black tees, with a slope of 135, with an orange set at 5,640 yards and the red at 5,462. Palms line much of the routing, and several holes run along the sea. The 4th is the hole Jack Nicklaus praised: a par five that GOLF.com calls the famous double-dogleg Z hole.
Know before you go.
Access
Public; book online or by phone
Cart
Included in the green fee
Rental clubs
US$60, as listed by GolfNow
Spikes
Soft spikes only
Dress
Proper golf attire
Make the trip work.
Puerto Rico is a US territory, so American visitors need no passport and the currency is the US dollar. Rental clubs are available; GolfNow lists them at US$60. Metal spikes are not allowed, and proper golf attire is expected. Dorado Beach lists hours of 6:30am to 6pm every day and rents golf boards as well as carts. If you have a spare day, the Sugarcane Course, TPC Dorado Beach’s second layout, was built in 1972 and has a back nine around rivers and lakes; it plays from the same clubhouse.
Luis Muñoz Marín International (SJU) in San Juan is the arrival airport and has frequent nonstop flights from the US mainland. Dorado is roughly 40 kilometres west of the airport, most of it on the PR-22 expressway, which is a toll road. Allow extra time on weekday afternoons, when traffic out of San Juan is heavy.
Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, sits on the old Rockefeller estate beside the course, and its guests get the longest booking window for tee times. For a lower budget, the wider Dorado area has condo rentals and smaller hotels a short drive from the clubhouse. Old San Juan, with its 16th-century forts and colonial streets, is the alternative base if you want city evenings, at the cost of a daily drive.
Make a trip of it.
Royal Isabela, the Pasarell family’s clifftop course on the north-west coast, is the natural second stop if you are touring the island, though it is a long drive west. Closer to San Juan, the Río Grande resorts east of the city have several more courses. For a day off, El Yunque National Forest has rainforest trails and waterfalls, and Old San Juan’s El Morro fort is around 40 minutes from Dorado.
Find your season.
December to April is the best window: drier, breezy and outside hurricane season, which runs from June to November. That is also the busiest and most expensive time at the resort. Summer is hot and humid, with afternoon showers, so book the earliest tee times you can.
Yes. Tee times on the East and Sugarcane courses can be booked by anyone through TPC’s TeeItUp engine or by phone. Resort guests can book six months out and residents three days out, so book winter mornings a few weeks ahead.
How much are green fees at TPC Dorado Beach East?
TPC does not print a rate card; the price appears when you choose a date and time online, and it includes a cart. In 2019 GOLF.com reported a regular 18-hole fee of US$292 on the East; treat that only as a dated guide and expect winter prices to be the highest.
Who designed the East Course at Dorado Beach?
Robert Trent Jones Sr., hired by Laurance Rockefeller in 1955. It opened in 1958. His son, Robert Trent Jones Jr., renovated and lengthened it in 2011, adding around 700 yards and new greens.
Which is better at Dorado Beach, East or Sugarcane?
The East is the historic course with the sea holes and tournament history, so make it your first round. Sugarcane, from 1972, cost about half the East’s price in 2019 (US$150 against US$292, per GOLF.com), and TPC says its back nine is surrounded by rivers and lakes.
Last checked 11 November 2026. This is an independent planning guide, not a first-hand review or a booking service. Check live availability, access, fees and travel details with the operator before booking. Airport suggestions are starting points for route planning.
