Eclipse at Half Moon is one of the newest additions to an extensively remodelled resort that numbers among the most luxurious in the Caribbean. (Image: Half Moon Jamaica)
David Leadbetter leads a cast of acclaimed golf instructors recruited for a series of week-long clinics at Half Moon Jamaica, one of the Caribbean’s most luxurious resorts.
(Last updated February 2024.)
What golfer wouldn’t love to combine a vacation at one of the Caribbean’s most luxurious resorts with lessons from David Leadbetter or another elite instructor?
Half Moon Jamaica, home to a classic Robert Trent Jones Sr. course, is continuing its popular series of week-long guest clinics by acclaimed golf instructors. Up this winter are Leadbetter (Feb. 4-11), Gary Gilchrist (March 18-24), and James Ridyard (April dates to be announced). All three are repeat guest instructors in a program first begun in 2021. Other past instructors include Michael Manavian and Nick Starchuk. Each instructor brings his specialized teaching skills to clinics geared for everyone from beginners to talented veterans. Private lessons are also offered.
David Leadbetter headlines a cast of top instructors recruited by Half Moon Jamaica. (Image: @davidleadbetter)
“They all have slightly differing approaches to instruction,” Half Moon’s director of golf, Kevyn Cunningham, says of the lineup. “This really is a dream team of instructors.”
Both Leadbetter and Gilchrist have coached multiple major championship winners. And Ridyard ranks among the game’s top short-game experts.
Located near Montego Bay on Jamaica’s dramatic north coast, Half Moon takes its name from the property’s famous crescent-shaped beach of pure white sand, which in 1954 inspired investors to turn an abandoned sugar plantation into one of the world’s elite resorts. Famous guests have included Queen Elizabeth II, and Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy, who enjoyed a month-long visit here just prior to his inauguration as U.S. president in 1961.
The 400-acre resort sprawls across some of the most beautiful terrain in the Caribbean. Accommodations at Half Moon include rooms and suites, as well as elegantly accessorized four- to seven-bedroom private villas, each with a pool and full-time staff.
Half Moon Golf Club is a lushly tropical Robert Trent Jones Sr. design opened in 1961 and later restored by Roger Rulewich. (Image: Half Moon Jamaica)
Lavishly renovated over the past decade, Half Moon’s newest expansion is Eclipse at Half Moon, featuring 57 luxury accommodations, two restaurants, three bars, a market café, a Salamander spa, and an infinity-edge swimming pool overlooking a private cove.
But the focus of golfers is naturally on Half Moon Golf Club, a lushly tropical Robert Trent Jones Sr. design opened in 1961 that flows seamlessly through gentle foothills just beyond the craggy coastline. Jones’s former design associate, Roger Rulewich, completed a masterful restoration of the course in 2005.
Half Moon is also ideally situated for golfers who want to linger a while and test their new and improved swings on other local courses. A quick shuttle ride away is Cinnamon Hill Golf Course, a Robert von Hagge-Rick Baril design that weaves through the 19th-century ruins of Rose Hall plantation. And just beyond that is White Witch Golf Course, a challenging Hagge-Baril design offering views of the turquoise Caribbean Sea from no fewer than 16 holes.
