Bandon Dunes Golf Resort | NW Golf Adventures

Bandon Dunes - The Resort

Since it's opening, Bandon Dunes has been a focal point in the golf world. Both courses have been ranked in the top 10 of Golf Magazine's Top 100 You Can Playand golfers flock there from around the world.

Bandon Dunes, the original course opened in 1998, was designed by Scotsman David McLay Kidd. It's counter-part, the Tom Doak-designed Pacific Dunes, opened for play in 2000. Bandon Trails, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, is an inland course opened for play in 2005 to rave reviews. The newest course, Tom Doak's Old Macdonald, opened for play in 2010. All four tracks present different views and require different shots from players; the sometimes unpredictable weather can make a round at Bandon even tougher.

Because of its location, Bandon offers everything its guest could use or want. The Pro Shop, staffed by professionals who offer lessons through the Bandon Golf Academy, has everything you could need or want for a day on the links. The Lodge, and it's adjoining rooms, offer luxurious rooms that will make any golfer feel right at home.

After the golf, guests at Bandon Dunes can visit any of the surrounding leisure areas, all within twenty miles of the resort. Walking and hiking trails, salmon fishing, quaint coastal shops, ancient rock formations, wind surfing, whale and wildlife watching, sea kayaking, horseback riding and the Mill Casino are just some of the activities in the Bandon area.

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Bandon Dunes

It began in 1999 with the opening of Bandon Dunes. Designed by Scotsman David McLay Kidd, the course is perched on a bluff high above the Pacific Ocean. The course unfolds along pristine native dunes where expansive ocean views are revealed on nearly every hole. The course is completely natural and routed through an environment of indigenous vegetation. Beyond breathtaking scenery lies the game of golf in its truest form. This is a thinker's course. Winds are ever-present, and the varying elements create a new experience each time you play.

From the moment I stepped out on these wild, wind-shaped sand dunes, I knew this would be the opportunity of a lifetime. The owner, Mike Keiser, wanted something authentic and true to the Scottish tradition. My reply was, "No real estate, no golf carts, no clubhouse on the beach."

I imagined the routing having the structure of a symphony -- a strong start, a sense of anticipation, small crescendos, and an incredible finishing sequence along the Pacific. The course had to provide not only a challenge to every skill level, but also a sense of adventure and an exploration of this great landscape. As on true links courses, each hole offers several strategies to reach the green. Although the fairways and greens are large, the best line of attack requires accuracy, which can always be tricky. Players must consider the sea breeze and the firm sand-based turf. Newcomers to links golf must master playing the ball along the ground, shots that have all but disappeared from today's game.

It thrills me now to watch the public playing the game as it was originally meant to be played, on the finest linksland I've seen outside the British Isles. --David McLay Kidd, Course Architect

Pacific Dunes

Pacific Dunes, designed by Tom Doak. opened in 2001. It is remarkably different in character and shot making requirements. Pacific Dunes doesn't feel like it was built as much as it was discovered. Rippling fairways remain just as they were found and natural bunkers line the landscape as they have for centuries. The course emerges from shore pines to spectacular 60-foot sand dunes. When the wind blows, precise approach shots are a necessity. Pacific Dunes is short enough to give you hope, but rugged enough to test every facet of your game.

Every architect dreams of building among the sand dunes, in the same terrain where golf was conceived in the British Isles. For me and my associates, Pacific Dunes is that dream come true.

I suspect that any golfer would have found some of the same holes, like the par-4 13th along the ocean, but it was an enormous responsibility to find the best possible routing on a site of such potential. The rippling fairways are mostly as we found them; so are the natural bunkers at the 2nd, 7th, 11th, 13th, 16th, and 18th holes, which guided our routing. Our layout is short enough to give every golfer hope, but its rugged nature will test every facet of your game.

Together with its big sister, Bandon Dunes, this must be the finest 36 holes of golf at any resort in the world. It was the highlight of our careers to participate in its creation, and we had only one chance to get it right. We hope you have many more opportunities to play over this beautiful ground, and to come to appreciate it as we have. -- Tom Doak, Course Architect

Bandon Trails

When Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw began working in the sand to uncover our third course, they faced the challenge of following Bandon and Pacific Dunes. Opened in 2005, Bandon Trails begins atop a massive sand dune, quickly opens in to a sprawling meadow, works higher into the coastal forest, and finally returns to finish in the dunes. The course is enjoyable to walk and is a constant reminder of how the game was originally created among inland rolling dunes with dramatic ocean vistas.

In the profession of golf architecture all one can ask for is to be given an extraordinary site and the freedom to work with it. Mike Keiser has afforded both at Bandon Trails. We have tried to tread softly on this spectacular landscape, laying out a golf course that required little alteration to the site while providing golf as diverse as the land itself.

As its name implies, Bandon Trails will take you on a journey, a nature walk if you will, through windswept dunes, meadows of vegetation framed by indigenous shrubbery, and through woodlands of towering fir and spruce trees. Sometimes the journey and the golf will be wild and tumultuous, sometimes serene.

Whichever, we hope it will always be interesting and enjoyable. -- Bill Coore, Course Architect

Old Macdonald

Old Macdonald Golf Links, the fourth course at Bandon Dunes, pays homage to golf course architect C.B. Macdonald by asking one simple question:

What would Macdonald have created had the Oregon Coast been his canvas?

Inspired by Macdonald's iconic work, course architects Tom Doak and Jim Urbina have crafted a course that seeks the answer upon vast greens, among myriad angles of play, and from the depths of fierce bunkers. By celebrating these classic concepts of design, we honor the traditions of this game we love.