The U.S. Women’s Amateur this week is shining a spotlight on many of the best young players in golf, and it’s also highlighting the natural beauty of host Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. This week’s competition is on the original Bandon Dunes course, designed by David McLay Kidd and opened in 1999, but the resort is home to four other courses, with each of the five layouts ranked among the top 15 public-access golf courses in the United States.
My personal texts have lit up this week with friends and Golfweek’s Best course raters commenting on the Women’s Am and Bandon Dunes. For people who have made the trip – some of them repeatedly – to the Oregon Coast to experience the resort, watching the Women’s Am is like a relaxed showing of family home movies. For players who haven’t been, well, it’s time to set your sights on a trip west. And trust me, Bandon Dunes looks incredible on TV, but the whole place is even better in person.
Last night’s viewing had me reminiscing about several trips to the resort. It’s impossible to pick a consensus best-of list at Bandon, but the debate between players is part of the fun. You’ll hear such discussions at the on-property McKee’s Pub and the adjacent fireplace every night: This course is better, that hole is my favorite, that view is the best. I’m not immune to such thoughts, and I thought I’d share five of them:
My favorite par 3 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort
No. 11 of Pacific Dunes. Stretched just 131 yards off the tees I normally play, it’s nestled perfectly into the cliff’s edge above the Pacific Ocean. The difference in a north wind and a south wind is amazing on this hole, and I have hit everything from a punched 3-iron to a gap wedge into this green.
Favorite par 4 at Bandon Dunes
No. 16 of Bandon Dunes. There are so many ways to tackle this hole depending on skill and wind direction. It’s listed at 345 yards off my tees, but I have driven the green with a hybrid, more than 100 yards beyond my normal driver distance. I also have hit the beach below. It doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the most beautiful spots in the world of golf.
Favorite par 5
No. 3 at Pacific Dunes. This short par 5 is sometimes reachable in two shots for me, sometimes not, largely dependent on wind. The fairway is wide, but centerline bunkers complicate matters. More than anything, this hole lifts players from the inland dunes of Nos. 1 and 2 and serves as the first big reveal of the course as a whole. Any first-timer’s face will light up here as the ocean, the cliffs, the sand, the wind and the entirety of the scene make their impact.
Favorite inland hole
No.14 of Bandon Trails. I admit it, I have a thing for short par 4s. Playing just 306 yards downhill from my tees, this is a love-it-or-hate-it hole. Golfweek columnist Eamon Lynch despises it, but this is my byline, not his, and this is a rare example in which the well-traveled Northern Irishman is just flat wrong. The green is a precarious target for anybody who tumbles into the lower right side of the fairway off the tee, but keep the ball left and things are much more manageable. I thoroughly enjoyed Eamon’s typically biting response the last time I played it and texted him one photo of the hole and another of a circle on my scorecard.
Favorite course
I always respond to this frequent question by answering “The next one,” and that is very true. The Golfweek’s Best course rating system has Pacific Dunes at the top of the list – fair enough. I have played some of my best rounds on Pacific Dunes, and I struggle to score on Bandon Dunes – my score means nothing in how they line up, as I really do enjoy the differences in architecture, routing and landscape. I have 3-putted more times than I can recall on Old Macdonald’s giant greens, and Sheep Ranch is just one of the prettiest coastal spots on earth. I have a soft spot for the more inland Bandon Trails, one of golf’s best walks through trees with holes that ask a lot of great questions. Which is my favorite? If I’m lucky enough to make it back to Bandon, I’ll answer again: the next one.
