Perhaps like other people (or not), my life is characterized by a cycle of hobbies. Road construction when I was three or four, lawn sprinklers when I was five, hurricanes when I was ten. My new hobby for my early teenage years was golf course architecture, an interest that was stimulated by a trip to Barnes & Noble probably sometime early in 1999, where I discovered Tom Doak’s Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. I was immediately hooked and the book became one of my main sources of hobby reading over the next few years.
The Confidential Guide was written in the mid-90s and there’s an intriguing bit at the end of the section on the Pacific Northwest where Doak notes a potential project in sand dunes on the southwestern coast of Oregon and says (paraphrasing) that it would be spectacular…if it ever came to fruition. It had been and in fact was opening right around the time that I was first reading those words. And it was indeed a course unlike any that American golfers had seen, at least in their own country. Set on a plane of clifftop sand dunes, it was something of a cross between Pebble Beach and true links golf. While the course perhaps wasn’t as minimal in its shaping as what became the fashion for its younger siblings and now in the last decade, most new courses, it was also much more naturalistic than almost every course build in the mounding-crazed 80s and 90s.
Still, it wouldn’t be until a few years later, after Pacific Dunes opened and was immediately proclaimed one of the 20 or 30 best courses in the world (a place it still holds in most rankings) that Bandon Dunes really drew my attention. Then they kept adding courses and my desire to go only increased. But finally, about 20 years and a few false starts later, I got to Bandon Dunes in Fall 2022. The success of Bandon led Mike Keiser and associates to develop several similar (and similarly successful) destination resorts, including Sand Valley and Cabot, both of which I saw before I made it to Bandon. But seeing these only increased my desire to see the original.
It’s tough to pick an order in which to write about the Bandon courses. Sensible ideas would be to write about them in the order that I played them or to write about them in the order that I’d rank them, starting with my favorite or least favorite. I’ve decided to write about them in the order that they opened, which also mixes them up nicely as far as my personal rankings. The original course seems—surprisingly to me—to be a bit divisive, with some (including several in my group) thinking that it’s the best course at the resort and easily top 100 in the world and some thinking it’s the weakest and not close to the top 100. For me, it falls in the middle; I preferred Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails, but I’d probably place it ahead of Old MacDonald and definitely place it ahead of the Sheep Ranch.
Why is Bandon Dunes divisive? Like I said, I have a bit of a hard time understanding this because there are so many strengths. My sense is that it’s the golf architecture purists who are most critical of Bandon Dunes because it still has some of the vestiges of 80s/90s architecture. Three things that I’ve heard are (1) the occasional awkwardness of the routing; (2) the shaping has a bit of the 80s/90s look, with mounding and sharp cuts around several of the greens; (3) that many of these people haven’t seen it in a few years, when there was both a lot more gorse and a lot more rough around the greens, which accentuated the 80s/90s feel of the shaping.
Seeing pictures of the course over the years, it looks like one of the biggest changes at Bandon Dunes has been shaving the areas surrounding all of the greens to fairway height. For the first few years, it looked like the greens were surrounded by rough. Although I never played that version, I could see how this would greatly detract from the course. Because while I agree that some of the shaping around the greens looks a bit manufactured, these green surroundings still play well because they’re all short grass and a miss runs away from the green, leaving interesting, but often difficult pitches. Were the greens surrounded by rough, the course would lose much of its short game interest and a good share of its links feel, which are two of its major strengths.
So I agree with some of what I take to be the criticisms of the critics, although I suspect that the course has also improved substantially over the years and that anyone who hasn’t seen it in awhile might need to give it another look. Bandon Dunes has a few weaknesses, a few more than Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails. But it has so many strengths. The famous stretch of 4-6 is excellent. So is the back nine, which is certainly in the running for the best nine at the resort. There are great holes throughout, which I discussed extensively on Golf Club Atlas in a thread on whether Bandon Dunes is overrated (I argued that it isn’t).
Another thing that people point to as a weakness is the opening stretch, which works its way around a ridge at the inland edge of the property. While I don’t think that the mid-length par 4 first is going to be on anyone’s list of great holes here or anywhere else, I found it a perfectly good starting hole. There’s plenty of room off the tee but if you get too aggressive, you can run through the fairway into a bunker. It’s a pretty good climb up to the green but the green is plenty deep and there’s no excuse (save a general lack of golfing ability) for not getting your approach up there and getting away with at least a par.
The Confidential Guide was written in the mid-90s and there’s an intriguing bit at the end of the section on the Pacific Northwest where Doak notes a potential project in sand dunes on the southwestern coast of Oregon and says (paraphrasing) that it would be spectacular…if it ever came to fruition. It had been and in fact was opening right around the time that I was first reading those words. And it was indeed a course unlike any that American golfers had seen, at least in their own country. Set on a plane of clifftop sand dunes, it was something of a cross between Pebble Beach and true links golf. While the course perhaps wasn’t as minimal in its shaping as what became the fashion for its younger siblings and now in the last decade, most new courses, it was also much more naturalistic than almost every course build in the mounding-crazed 80s and 90s.
Still, it wouldn’t be until a few years later, after Pacific Dunes opened and was immediately proclaimed one of the 20 or 30 best courses in the world (a place it still holds in most rankings) that Bandon Dunes really drew my attention. Then they kept adding courses and my desire to go only increased. But finally, about 20 years and a few false starts later, I got to Bandon Dunes in Fall 2022. The success of Bandon led Mike Keiser and associates to develop several similar (and similarly successful) destination resorts, including Sand Valley and Cabot, both of which I saw before I made it to Bandon. But seeing these only increased my desire to see the original.
It’s tough to pick an order in which to write about the Bandon courses. Sensible ideas would be to write about them in the order that I played them or to write about them in the order that I’d rank them, starting with my favorite or least favorite. I’ve decided to write about them in the order that they opened, which also mixes them up nicely as far as my personal rankings. The original course seems—surprisingly to me—to be a bit divisive, with some (including several in my group) thinking that it’s the best course at the resort and easily top 100 in the world and some thinking it’s the weakest and not close to the top 100. For me, it falls in the middle; I preferred Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails, but I’d probably place it ahead of Old MacDonald and definitely place it ahead of the Sheep Ranch.
Why is Bandon Dunes divisive? Like I said, I have a bit of a hard time understanding this because there are so many strengths. My sense is that it’s the golf architecture purists who are most critical of Bandon Dunes because it still has some of the vestiges of 80s/90s architecture. Three things that I’ve heard are (1) the occasional awkwardness of the routing; (2) the shaping has a bit of the 80s/90s look, with mounding and sharp cuts around several of the greens; (3) that many of these people haven’t seen it in a few years, when there was both a lot more gorse and a lot more rough around the greens, which accentuated the 80s/90s feel of the shaping.
Seeing pictures of the course over the years, it looks like one of the biggest changes at Bandon Dunes has been shaving the areas surrounding all of the greens to fairway height. For the first few years, it looked like the greens were surrounded by rough. Although I never played that version, I could see how this would greatly detract from the course. Because while I agree that some of the shaping around the greens looks a bit manufactured, these green surroundings still play well because they’re all short grass and a miss runs away from the green, leaving interesting, but often difficult pitches. Were the greens surrounded by rough, the course would lose much of its short game interest and a good share of its links feel, which are two of its major strengths.
So I agree with some of what I take to be the criticisms of the critics, although I suspect that the course has also improved substantially over the years and that anyone who hasn’t seen it in awhile might need to give it another look. Bandon Dunes has a few weaknesses, a few more than Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails. But it has so many strengths. The famous stretch of 4-6 is excellent. So is the back nine, which is certainly in the running for the best nine at the resort. There are great holes throughout, which I discussed extensively on Golf Club Atlas in a thread on whether Bandon Dunes is overrated (I argued that it isn’t).
Another thing that people point to as a weakness is the opening stretch, which works its way around a ridge at the inland edge of the property. While I don’t think that the mid-length par 4 first is going to be on anyone’s list of great holes here or anywhere else, I found it a perfectly good starting hole. There’s plenty of room off the tee but if you get too aggressive, you can run through the fairway into a bunker. It’s a pretty good climb up to the green but the green is plenty deep and there’s no excuse (save a general lack of golfing ability) for not getting your approach up there and getting away with at least a par.
In what will become a theme for the course, the opening drive isn't difficult as long as you don't get too aggressive.
You'll need at least one extra club for the approach. But there's plenty of room up there.
The par three second has alternate tees; a south tee next to the first green that plays into the deepest aspect of the green and a west tee that requires about a 150 yard walk from the first green and plays into the green’s shallow aspect. Unfortunately we played it both times from the west tee. From here, it might be the weakest hole on the course because of the clunk that it introduces into the routing and because it’s pretty one note—you either get the ball up onto the shallow shelf of the green or it comes back down. I’d have liked to have had the opportunity to play from the south tee, which I strongly suspect makes it a better hole.
While there are tees just behind the first green, we had to walk 100+ yards to the left to play the west tees.
...which leaves this shot. To my surprise looking at the overhead in the previous picture, the green is as deep from this angle as it is from the south tees. Maybe I should like this hole more?
I can understand not liking the first two holes but the par 5 third, coming down off the ridge and playing toward the ocean, is solid by any standard. The bunkers on the right are 250-290 out depending on the tees, but there’s plenty of room left, more than you can see. Of course if you do that, you’re further away from the green, which should be reachable for a decent length hitter who places their drive up the right. It’s a solid hole, if not a world-beater.
If you're playing from the correct tees, the bunkers on the right should be reachable. But there's no harm in playing away from them.
Whether you lay up or go for it, the second is straight-forward.
But each of the next three holes makes a good case as one. The long par fourth has one of the resort’s iconic approach shots as it doglegs right around sand dunes, revealing the ocean for the first time on the approach. I found this to be a bit of an awkward drive because one, the visibility of the fairway from the tee isn’t great and two, while the fairway runs fairly straight in the landing area, the dunes gradually encroach on the right. The latter makes it interesting because the green is well-bunkered at its front-left and you want to approach from the right side of the fairway. It also makes it interesting for anyone who hits a fade because the further you try to drive it, the greater chance that you run out of room on the right.
It's a bit tough to see what's going on from the standard back tees, but the danger is definitely closer on the right.
You can see from above how the dunes creep in on the right side--and starting only at about 230.
Generally, it's better to approach this green from the right side. If you need a place to hedge, short is very good.
One hole that I’d never been sure about in all the pictures that I’d seen of Bandon Dunes was the long par 4 fifth. Running along the coast, it’s obviously one of the most photogenic holes anywhere. But with several dunes in the center of the fairway, and what looked like an unrealistically narrow landing area left of them, I wondered if this hole wasn’t a bit of a beautiful mess.
Perhaps there have been a few changes to soften it over the years but not only is the current hole not a mess, it’s absolutely on the short list of best holes at the whole resort. The centerline dunes actually work very well. The first few are a short carry and there’s plenty of room to play to the right of them. Depending on your tees, it’ll be a decent carry to get over all of them but if you do, you’re rewarded with a massively wide fairway.
But there’s one more catch that I didn’t realize; the fairway narrows at about the 270-300 range (closer on the left, further on the right) and if the hole’s playing downwind, you need to be careful not to run through the fairway. So there’s something for everyone off this tee and regardless of your ability, there are several ways that you can play the drive.
Perhaps there have been a few changes to soften it over the years but not only is the current hole not a mess, it’s absolutely on the short list of best holes at the whole resort. The centerline dunes actually work very well. The first few are a short carry and there’s plenty of room to play to the right of them. Depending on your tees, it’ll be a decent carry to get over all of them but if you do, you’re rewarded with a massively wide fairway.
But there’s one more catch that I didn’t realize; the fairway narrows at about the 270-300 range (closer on the left, further on the right) and if the hole’s playing downwind, you need to be careful not to run through the fairway. So there’s something for everyone off this tee and regardless of your ability, there are several ways that you can play the drive.
This drive is simpler, and much more interesting than I had expected. It's best to carry the mounds in the middle of the image, but there's plenty of room out to the right. If it's downwind, you might want to club down.
The approach, through a narrow gap in the dunes to a skinny but deep green, is also one of the course’s best. But for me it’s the drive—which I came in questioning whether it would be any good and left thinking that it was one of the resort’s best—that makes this a great hole.
The gap coming into the green isn't super wide, but there's an opportunity to run the ball onto the green if you're coming in from long distance.
Another hole that I came in questioning that turned out great is the par 3 sixth. This hole has always featured in the resort’s promotional material but these pictures made it seem less appealing than it should to me; they showed a green surrounded by artificial-looking shaping and rough.
I don’t know if the shaping has been softened but the rough is certainly gone and the current version of the hole is excellent. The hole seems to follow a classic principle—there’s more room at the front than the back and there’s a little more safety if you hedge short. There’s plenty of safety (although not necessarily easy shots) short of the green but serious trouble long and long-right.
I don’t know if the shaping has been softened but the rough is certainly gone and the current version of the hole is excellent. The hole seems to follow a classic principle—there’s more room at the front than the back and there’s a little more safety if you hedge short. There’s plenty of safety (although not necessarily easy shots) short of the green but serious trouble long and long-right.
Sixth hole, late 2022.
The old sixth hole, with rough around the green. Comparing other new to old images of the green, it looks like the swale right of the green has been softened. Image from https://www.magicmurals.com/bandon-dunes-6th-hole.html
Perhaps the most criticized aspect of Bandon Dunes is the walk from the sixth to the seventh tee. Basically, you have to walk all the way back to the fifth green for the seventh tee. Apparently this is due to the late addition of the piece of land on which the sixth sits to the resort.
But really, you have to be a pretty big routing curmudgeon to be bothered by this. If you play the great links courses in the UK, you have walks like this all the time because they keep building new back tees and unless you’re playing the course at the original 6,000 yards, almost every hole has a 120 yard walkback to the newer tees. The front nine at Bandon does have a few more of these walks than there should be (1-2, 3-4, 6-7). But none is more than about 150 yards. If you’re chatting with others in your group, you won’t even notice that the walk was longer than usual.
But really, you have to be a pretty big routing curmudgeon to be bothered by this. If you play the great links courses in the UK, you have walks like this all the time because they keep building new back tees and unless you’re playing the course at the original 6,000 yards, almost every hole has a 120 yard walkback to the newer tees. The front nine at Bandon does have a few more of these walks than there should be (1-2, 3-4, 6-7). But none is more than about 150 yards. If you’re chatting with others in your group, you won’t even notice that the walk was longer than usual.
The fifth green is in the bottom-left and the seventh tee is just a few yards behind it. You play the sixth hole to the left then have to walk almost all the way back to the fifth green.
And actually, I have more of an issue with the seventh hole itself than the walk to the seventh tee. It’s not a bad hole at all but (1) there’s nothing going on with the drive and (2) the green complex is the height of the course’s 80s/90s-style shaping. It’s heart-shaped with a mound right behind the center of the green, making it difficult to putt from one side of the green to the other. I felt that this green was Bandon Dunes at its most Jerry Matthews.
The stuff in front of the tee might be a bit intimidating, but this is one of the widest fairways on the course.
I wasn't a huge fan of the shaping around this green but really, it isn't that bad.
Unfortunately my picture from the eighth tee does a better job showing my playing partners than the eighth drive (not that they’re its inferiors…). It’s not too difficult a drive; all you have to do is keep your drive under 250, which keeps you short of the main centerline bunker. You can go further if you drive it left of the bunker but the angle to most pins should be better from the right side.
Actually the perfect line here is between Andy (left) and Mike (right), staying short of the bunkers ~240-250 out.
This right pin would be the only one where you might want to be further left than I mentioned above. But most of the green is most easily accessed from the right side of the fairway.
Along with two and seven, I think that the par 5 ninth is a weakness. There’s a cluster of bunkers right in the middle of the hole in the driving zone. Now these are pretty difficult to avoid if you’re trying to play the hole correctly down the middle of the fairway. But the hole doglegs right around mounds that aren’t covered in anything other than short rough and I think the best way to play it is to just play up the rough on the right side.
So it doesn’t work great from a playing perspective. It works even less well from an aesthetic one as both sides of the hole are lined with mounds, which also surround the sides and back of the green. While the seventh green looked like a Bandon Dunes hole with a Jerry Matthews green, the last 200 yards of this hole look like a metro Detroit public course.
So it doesn’t work great from a playing perspective. It works even less well from an aesthetic one as both sides of the hole are lined with mounds, which also surround the sides and back of the green. While the seventh green looked like a Bandon Dunes hole with a Jerry Matthews green, the last 200 yards of this hole look like a metro Detroit public course.
There's plenty of room over the mound down the right side and you can avoid all the trouble in the middle of the hole by going this way.
The last part of this hole looks like any random upscale public course.
Despite the terrible weather in which we played it, I thought that the short par 4 tenth was outstanding. The bunkers in front of the tee are only about a 190 yard carry and there’s endless room right of them. But you really don’t want to drive it over there because more than almost any hole that I’ve seen, the angle into the green is critical here. The green is deep but skinny, with the deepest aspect angling toward the far left side of the fairway. There’s also a dune ridge running along the right side of the green that obscures it completely from the right side of the fairway.
My pictures show how not to play the hole because I pushed my drive way right and had to come into the green at its shallowest angle over the ridge. Still, good shots go a long way in making up for bad shots and/or bad strategy and after a good 9-iron, my worst drive of the day led to my first birdie.
My pictures show how not to play the hole because I pushed my drive way right and had to come into the green at its shallowest angle over the ridge. Still, good shots go a long way in making up for bad shots and/or bad strategy and after a good 9-iron, my worst drive of the day led to my first birdie.
While there's plenty of room over the bunkers to the right, the best angle in is from the far left side of the fairway.
Which means hitting straight out at the tree behind the most distant bunker.
If you aim over there and hit your drive 50 yards right of your intended line, your approach will look something like this.
Which means that you're coming into the green from this angle.
And if you miss the green long from that angle, you'll end up down here.
Eleven follows a theme that we first saw on ten and will see a few more times on the back nine: if you play a sensible, conservative shot from the tee, it isn’t that hard. This hole is only about 385 yards from the standard back tee and there are three bunkers up the left side of the fairway, the main one at 240. Now you could challenge this and potentially have a very short shot into the green. But you should just play out to the right and hit a short iron on. The angle may be a bit worse, but the shot is short enough that for a decent player, this shouldn’t matter.
You can flirt with bunkers just left of the image here to get a better angle, but this is a safer drive and it's just a short iron in.
The greens contouring is generally not a strength at Bandon Dunes, but I thought that the eleventh was a pretty good one.
There’s no way to get around the difficulty of the long par 3 twelfth. The green curves around a bunker at its front-left and there’s no pin where there’s much comfort in a miss wide. The back-right of the green has the most space, but trying to hit there brings the danger of running down the hill into the junk behind the green. The safe thing to do here is hedge to the front-middle of the green.
The only exception to this might be if the pin is in the back-left. I wonder if missing aiming at the open area left of the green (where the guy in the grey sweater is) might be best for these pins? Hopefully I can give that a try on some future trip.
The only exception to this might be if the pin is in the back-left. I wonder if missing aiming at the open area left of the green (where the guy in the grey sweater is) might be best for these pins? Hopefully I can give that a try on some future trip.
Given the length (~200 yards from the regular back tees), I'd say that most of the time, it's best to hedge toward the front of this green.
There’ nothing too strategically interesting or difficult about the par 5 thirteenth, but it has the wildest fairway on the course (maybe at the resort) and I like it for that. There’s more room left off the tee than you think and if I had one comment about strategy, it’d be to hedge left on either a layup or a shot that goes for the green. That’ll remove some concern about having to play over the dip at the front-right of the green, which can cause trouble if you’re playing to front pins from the right side of the fairway.
The undulating thirteenth fairway.
With a front pin, it might be best to approach from just up the hill to the left to avoid having to come in over a pretty good false front.
Like ten, fourteen is a short par 4 where many will be tempted to go for the green up the right. After all, they were flying it up on the green in the US Amateur.
Well, you’re not playing in the US Amateur. A drive up the right here is one of the biggest sucker plays that I’ve seen on a golf course. Because there are bunkers absolutely everywhere. Now you can avoid all of that if you can carry it 270. But far fewer people can do that than think they can do it.
What you should do here is hit a driver or three-wood over the first bunker on the left (about a 210 carry). It’s wide-open out there and you’ll have a clear look straight into the deepest aspect of the green. This hole should be pretty easy but I’m sure that egos cause quite a few big numbers.
Well, you’re not playing in the US Amateur. A drive up the right here is one of the biggest sucker plays that I’ve seen on a golf course. Because there are bunkers absolutely everywhere. Now you can avoid all of that if you can carry it 270. But far fewer people can do that than think they can do it.
What you should do here is hit a driver or three-wood over the first bunker on the left (about a 210 carry). It’s wide-open out there and you’ll have a clear look straight into the deepest aspect of the green. This hole should be pretty easy but I’m sure that egos cause quite a few big numbers.
Probably one of the best sucker drives that I've seen, if you hit it more than 220 at the green and can't carry it at least 270, you can end up in all kinds of trouble. Meanwhile, the left is wide open.
Carrying the first bunker to the left (~210) leaves all kinds of room...
and this simple approach into the green.
Whereas if you go up the right, you're driving into this mess.
The par 3 fifteenth caused the players all kinds of trouble in the 2020 US Amateur as they got aggressive and went over the back of the green. Of all the places around all of the greens at Bandon Dunes, long, long-left, and long-right here are among the worst. It’s entirely possible to go back and forth and make an X if you hit your first shot into one of these places.
But the solution seemed so simple to me: hedge to the front-left of the green. While the front-right bunker is obviously not great, there’s plenty of room at the front-left. While the hole was playing downwind for us, my understanding is that it plays into the wind in the summer, which should also help hold the ball here.
Now I understand that planning in golf is often in vain because most of us aren’t consistent enough to follow a plan with much certainty. We often end up hitting it exactly where we aren’t trying to. But it’s not hard to pick one club less. And it’s not hard to aim left of the pin. This is one hole where I think with the right plans, you can lessen your chance of a disaster. And to me, that makes it an excellent one.
But the solution seemed so simple to me: hedge to the front-left of the green. While the front-right bunker is obviously not great, there’s plenty of room at the front-left. While the hole was playing downwind for us, my understanding is that it plays into the wind in the summer, which should also help hold the ball here.
Now I understand that planning in golf is often in vain because most of us aren’t consistent enough to follow a plan with much certainty. We often end up hitting it exactly where we aren’t trying to. But it’s not hard to pick one club less. And it’s not hard to aim left of the pin. This is one hole where I think with the right plans, you can lessen your chance of a disaster. And to me, that makes it an excellent one.
A good play here is one club less that what you'd hit to reach the center of the green, aimed at the guy on the left.
The short par 4 sixteenth was another baffling hole in the US Amateur. It was downwind and drivable for almost all of the players, yet there really isn’t enough room to land and hold the ball near the green. But the layup out to the left also left a tricky shot into the shallower aspect of the green and NBC commentator Justin Leonard argued for driving it long and left near the seventeenth tee. It’s probably not how the hole was meant to be played and leaves an awkward pitch, but there’s plenty of room over there and I can see the sense of it.
Of course that’s all irrelevant for 99% of the rest of us…especially when the hole is playing into the wind as it was for us. The ~220 yard carry over the right side of the bunker wasn’t even possible from the regular back tees so it was a matter of picking the correct line out to the left. And I think that the best play here is well out to the left, just short of the rough-covered mound in the distance. That mound is about 260 yards out, so you should be able to manage to carry the first bunker (~210) and stay short of it. It’s true that the angle into the green from here is worse than from closer to the centerline bunkers on the more direct route to the green but to me, there isn’t enough room up the right side to justify going for the better angle. The green is still plenty big enough even from the poor angle out to the left. This is a hole where the reward for the heroic shot doesn’t justify the risk.
Of course that’s all irrelevant for 99% of the rest of us…especially when the hole is playing into the wind as it was for us. The ~220 yard carry over the right side of the bunker wasn’t even possible from the regular back tees so it was a matter of picking the correct line out to the left. And I think that the best play here is well out to the left, just short of the rough-covered mound in the distance. That mound is about 260 yards out, so you should be able to manage to carry the first bunker (~210) and stay short of it. It’s true that the angle into the green from here is worse than from closer to the centerline bunkers on the more direct route to the green but to me, there isn’t enough room up the right side to justify going for the better angle. The green is still plenty big enough even from the poor angle out to the left. This is a hole where the reward for the heroic shot doesn’t justify the risk.
The direct line to the green is about as intimidating as you could want. Even the safe play out to the left doesn't look like a bargain.
It doesn't look much easier from above. And it looks like they've made this hole more difficult since this 2015 Google Earth image, turning what was a grassy ledge into deep bunkers.
It's a tough angle from over here on the left side, but there's plenty of room at the front-right of the green.
Sure this angle is better but everyone who played from here was playing their third shots.
The last two holes turn down the temperature a bit. The drive on seventeen should be pretty simple: try to hit it about 250 yards and absolutely do not hit it more than 270. That’s because there’s a canyon on the right and a cluster of bunkers up the left pinching the fairway at this distance. The approach is to the deepest and (I’m pretty sure) largest green on the course. Depending on the pin, you could have anywhere between a wedge and a hybrid. Whatever you have, make sure that you’re reasonably precise with the distance because the green is also the course’s most undulating.
Different from the rest of the course, it’s the green that makes this hole. But if anything, the variety is a point in its favor.
Different from the rest of the course, it’s the green that makes this hole. But if anything, the variety is a point in its favor.
Another hole where fortune favors the conservative--although a lot of people probably couldn't drive it through the fairway if they tried.
I wish I had gotten a closer view of the green but you even see the heavy undulations from the drive landing area.
No one will mistake the eighteenth hole for a great finish and the mounding around the layup zone on the left gets a bit reminiscent of the ninth hole, but it’s not a bad finish. Not worthy of the rest of the back nine, but I liked it more than the weakest holes on the front.
A drive that leaks right can definitely get into bunker trouble, but there's plenty of room out to the left.
If you're laying up, it's best to go toward the mound on the left, which opens up the angle into the green.
As I said at the outset, Bandon Dunes probably falls in the middle of the pack for me at the resort. There are a few things that I don’t like, but also several undeniably great holes. One thing that stands out to me about this course is that it exploits the golfer’s ego better than almost any other that I’ve seen. On several holes, there’s a conservative drive that leaves you a very playable approach. But there’s also a hero drive that most won’t pull off, but will still try. That’s especially true because Bandon is a special trip for most, one that they’ve either been waiting to do for a long time or don’t get to do very often. They didn’t come all this way to lay up. And I think that this course exploits that more than the others at the resort.
For me, a tougher issue than comparing Bandon Dunes to the other courses at the resort is how it stacks up compared to some of the other recent Keiser offerings that I've played: the Sand Valley and Cabot courses. Of those four, it’s probably most similar to Cabot Links. They’re both relatively flat and play more like traditional links courses than the Sand Valley courses or Cabot Cliffs. And between those two, I think I slightly prefer Cabot Links. As I noted in my review, Cabot Links has some of the best subtle shaping around its greens that I’ve seen on any course. There’s a bit more variety in the terrain and scenery, the two nines are of more equal strength, and the finish is certainly stronger. Maybe the highs aren’t quite as high, but Cabot Links is more consistent.
As an overall course, Cabot Cliffs reminds me a bit of Bandon Dunes because it also has many great holes and a few weaknesses in both the routing and the individual holes. But Cabot Cliffs also has more dramatic terrain and spectacular scenery than Bandon Dunes. And its great holes, like 16 and 17, are more unique than anything at Bandon Dunes because the wild terrain and the jagged cliff edges afforded opportunities that weren’t available here.
I think that the Sand Valley courses also have a terrain advantage over Bandon Dunes. They remind me more of Bandon Trails, being hilly treks through the woods (but with a lot more open sand). Neither Sand Valley nor Mammoth Dunes have the routing or shaping issues that Bandon occasionally has. But both—and especially Mammoth Dunes—suffer from a lack of editing. Each has at least a few holes where there’s too much going on; excessive width, too many bunkers, over-contoured green complexes, etc.. For its faults, Bandon never feels over done. It’s very tightly designed. That might give the nod to Bandon for me because I give a design points for parsimony. But it’s a tough call, especially with Sand Valley, because the terrain there is better and it also has a handful of world class holes.
This all just goes to show how difficult it is to compare excellent golf courses to each other. There are a lot of different aspects of a course to compare (routing, terrain, greens, design parsimony, etc.), everyone likes different things within each category, and they differ in the weight that they place on each category. But it’s clear to me at least that Bandon Dunes, if not superior to some of the other recent Keiser courses, at least compares favorably to them. And because they all tend to fall in a similar places in the rankings (except Sand Valley, which I think is becoming underrated), near the bottom of the world top 100, I’d continue to defend the position that Bandon Dunes isn’t overrated.
For me, a tougher issue than comparing Bandon Dunes to the other courses at the resort is how it stacks up compared to some of the other recent Keiser offerings that I've played: the Sand Valley and Cabot courses. Of those four, it’s probably most similar to Cabot Links. They’re both relatively flat and play more like traditional links courses than the Sand Valley courses or Cabot Cliffs. And between those two, I think I slightly prefer Cabot Links. As I noted in my review, Cabot Links has some of the best subtle shaping around its greens that I’ve seen on any course. There’s a bit more variety in the terrain and scenery, the two nines are of more equal strength, and the finish is certainly stronger. Maybe the highs aren’t quite as high, but Cabot Links is more consistent.
As an overall course, Cabot Cliffs reminds me a bit of Bandon Dunes because it also has many great holes and a few weaknesses in both the routing and the individual holes. But Cabot Cliffs also has more dramatic terrain and spectacular scenery than Bandon Dunes. And its great holes, like 16 and 17, are more unique than anything at Bandon Dunes because the wild terrain and the jagged cliff edges afforded opportunities that weren’t available here.
I think that the Sand Valley courses also have a terrain advantage over Bandon Dunes. They remind me more of Bandon Trails, being hilly treks through the woods (but with a lot more open sand). Neither Sand Valley nor Mammoth Dunes have the routing or shaping issues that Bandon occasionally has. But both—and especially Mammoth Dunes—suffer from a lack of editing. Each has at least a few holes where there’s too much going on; excessive width, too many bunkers, over-contoured green complexes, etc.. For its faults, Bandon never feels over done. It’s very tightly designed. That might give the nod to Bandon for me because I give a design points for parsimony. But it’s a tough call, especially with Sand Valley, because the terrain there is better and it also has a handful of world class holes.
This all just goes to show how difficult it is to compare excellent golf courses to each other. There are a lot of different aspects of a course to compare (routing, terrain, greens, design parsimony, etc.), everyone likes different things within each category, and they differ in the weight that they place on each category. But it’s clear to me at least that Bandon Dunes, if not superior to some of the other recent Keiser courses, at least compares favorably to them. And because they all tend to fall in a similar places in the rankings (except Sand Valley, which I think is becoming underrated), near the bottom of the world top 100, I’d continue to defend the position that Bandon Dunes isn’t overrated.
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