Every Hole at Pacific Dunes in Bandon, OR | Golf Digest

Every Hole at Pacific Dunes in Bandon, OR | Golf Digest

every architect dreams of being able to design a golf course alongside the ocean but not even in my wildest dreams did i imagine getting to work on a site like pacific the views of the pacific are incredible but just like at cypress point the dunes further inland hold their own as a setting for golf around at pacific dunes is a journey through high dunes and hollows sandy blowouts golden beach grasses wildflowers blooming gorse and groves of shorepine the holes take you in and out of these different environments before bursting out onto the pacific ocean it can take your breath away and those tempo changes are as much a part of the experience as hitting golf shots it’s a course full of emotion the joy of being out there and the excitement of seeing what comes next were the same things i was feeling when we built the course i was grateful that mr kaiser gave me the opportunity to build it and every golfer in america should be grateful that mike decided to keep the course open to the public so that we could all enjoy it for generations to come this is every hole at pacific dunes the opening hole at pacific dunes is a bit of a mystery because the tee shot plays over a ridge it’s a short par four so just take whatever club will get you into the fairway once you crest the ridge the setting of the green and the sand dunes comes into view you’ll probably find yourself in a deep bunker or two somewhere during the round but avoiding the one to the left of this green is a good start into the wind the second hole has my favorite tee shot on the course if you’re not sure you can get up the slope you might be better off playing short of that big bunker on the left so you can see where you’re going with the next shot but a great drive can skip past the shoe bunker named for shoe gaspar banden’s director of outside happiness who dug it by hand and that will open up the line to the green which sits in a shallow bowl behind a couple of deep bunkers from the third tee you will have to decide on a plan of attack the opening to the green on this par 5 is from the left if you think you can get home in two then you’ll want to drive left of the central bunkers but if you’re not a big hitter it’s best to play right off the tee so you can get back to the left easier with your second shot when you walk up on this green suddenly you’re right at the brink of the pacific you’ll enjoy the view a lot more if you didn’t go over the green with your approach you walk around the corner from the snack bar bunker by the third green and the enormity of the pacific ocean takes over your senses it’s pretty hard to build a bad hole on 468 yards of ocean frontage but this is a good one the more you bail away from the edge of the cliff on the tee shot the more the tilt of the green and that shoulder at the left front make it difficult to stay on the green with your approach [Music] after the enormity of the fourth the par-3 fifth sits in a secluded valley all its own the ground in front of the green is uneven so if the hole is in front you’ll have to play a bit more left than you think to stay out of that right hand bunker with the pin on the back tier the play is to land on the front of the green and chase the ball up the slope [Music] the unassuming short par four sixth hole is the hole that scares the best players there’s a lot of fairway to the left but it ends in the deepest bunker on the course the best angle of approach is hidden on the far right straight in to let the length of the skinny green a good wedge shot is crucial here because if you miss the green the recovery shot from either side is harder than the approach was the tee shot at the seventh has no bunkers but you need to hit a solid drive here because the approach is so difficult a series of small dunes interrupts the fairway short of the green and there’s a nest of bunkers to the left if you have more than a five iron in your hands for the second shot you might be better off laying up and hitting a wedge for your third shot into one of the most undulating greens on the golf course [Music] at the eighth you get a peek at the flag on the right edge of the clearing but don’t take the bait the best tee shot is to the left side of the fairway when the flag is on the left you’ll want to sneak up on the approach like the road hole at st andrews when it’s behind that front bunker though you can use the slopes to the right of the green and behind to contain a long approach shot and steer it back to the hole [Music] the ninth has two alternate greens and the strategy from the t changes depending on which is in use for the low left green a big draw off the tee will catch a slope in the fairway and run down the hill but if you do that with the upper right green in play your approach shot will be completely blind for the upper green it’s better to play a fade off the tee so you can come in from some someplace that’s level with the green to match the alternate greens at the 9th the par 3 10th has two sets of t’s from low and left all you need is a straight 200 yard shot into the prevailing summer wind mike kaiser prefers the dramatic view from the upper tee but from that angle the wind will sweep away a pulled iron shot this is a tricky green to read too a lot of it runs away to the back right i had always tried to avoid building back to back par three holes but when god gives you two perfect lemons you make lemonade at the 11th the dune behind the green would have made a blind tee shot for a longer hole so instead we carved a green out of the slope the bunker to the left is narrow and deep and the one at back right brings the ocean into play so if you’re going to miss here miss short wind is always the primary consideration when building seaside holes abandon it blows seasonally from either the north or the south which is why most of the halls run generally in the same direction following the flow of the long dune ridges created by the winds controlling shot trajectory is critical to playing in the elements and we worked hard on shaping the areas just off the fronts of the greens you’ll need to land it short when the wind is behind you the par 5 that connects the 11th and 13th could never have competed with them but in the summer wind this is by far the longest hole on the golf course the kia shot is the second where you’re trying to get past a central bunker about 400 yards from the t and a bit farther than it looks for your second shot if you can’t you’ll probably play your third shot to the right of the green and from there the chip shot or putt tilts away a bit more than you expect from the moment i set foot on the 13th tee there was a golf hole here just waiting to be sand capped and grassed even the green site was cleared off for us there’s a small hill on the left side of the fairway so a bold drive down the left gets a big kick forward everything else bounces away to the right leaving a scary second shot over all the bunkers on the approach the dune hazard to the right of the green is one of a kind by contrast to the 13th the 14th hole was not there when we started the green is carved from the top of a dune ridge with all the extra fill thrown off the left side to make recovery shots more playable if you miss the green to the right though i can’t help you down there this hole provides your last good look at the pacific so please take an extra moment to enjoy the view [Music] one of my favorite holes in golf is the 14th at royal dornick called foxy a long par 4 with a plateau green that you have to bounce the ball up onto the approach to the 15th of pacific dunes is much the same if you’re long enough to reach the green in two at the curtis cup in 2006 i got to see the shot executed perfectly in the singles matches by mel reed who’s since graduated to the lpga tour the 16th is a short par-4 but it might be the most difficult hole on the course in the summer when the green is very difficult to hold i usually play an iron out to the left of the fairway and if i don’t feel confident over the second shot i’ll hedge toward that little hollow at the left front of the green the one place to avoid it all costs is the deep hollow at the right front if you take a driver and try to get past it don’t say i didn’t warn you the 17th is our version of a redan hole and it’s a treat to play in the winter when you can land the ball way short of the green and let it feed down to the hole from right to left in the summer with the wind quartering into you from the left it’s a much tougher three there’s enough slope in the green that if you bail out to the right off the tee getting up and down is very touchy i don’t often finish a course with a long par 5 hole but the key feature of the 18th at pacific dunes is a giant natural sand pit to the left of the fairway we named durkheiser and it seemed like the best way to bring it into play was on a long second shot the green sits in a pocket behind a small dune and a deep bunker so it’s hard to get close to the hole unless the flag is at the far left of the green [Music] pacific dunes was one of the most serendipitous projects we’ve ever worked on from good weather to construction obstacles to the fellowship of the crew the planets all seemed to align for us and i think you can sense that freedom and joy when you play it no golf course is perfect the pacific dunes is probably as close as i’ll ever get

Course architect, Tom Doak, narrates this spectacular flyover tour of Pacific Dunes in Bandon, OR.

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Every Hole at Pacific Dunes in Bandon, OR