WWe kicked off our week at Pacific Dunes, Tom Doak’s links masterpiece, which features some of the most photographed holes in America. The front nine at Pacific is a good primer for what to expect from a week at Bandon Dunes — big fairways littered with bunkers; acres of gorse waiting to suck in wayward shots; and large, undulating greens.
If you play the day you arrive, as we did, you’ll also most likely be introduced to Bandon Dunes’ most significant challenge to par — the wind. Whether coming in straight in off the sea, or blowing down the coast from the north, the wind — which typically kicks up around 10 a.m. on a clear day, and lasts until late evening — is a formidable obstacle, affecting everything from club selection, to putting speed, to your ability to focus. Just holding a green can be tough; the wind blows so hard that it dries out the greens — a downwind approach shot, even with a wedge or short iron, will roll an extra 20 yards at least. When it’s blowing its hardest — which, for us, was at a sustained speed of about 30 miles per hour — it can represent up to a four-club difference in your shots, and will intensify any sidespin whatsoever by powers of 10. The wind even forces down the tiny blades of grass on the greens, meaning your uphill, downwind putt may actually play faster than your downhill, upwind putt. Assuming you can get your ball to stop oscillating long enough to make a clean strike, that is.
It’s a significant mental challenge; one of our group, who will remain nameless, decided he couldn’t take it one day and quit after 18 holes. If you go prepared, you’ll be better for it — low, piercing drives, punch shots, bump-and-run approaches and lots of practice chipping from tight lies and putting from off the green will do wonders for your score.
The first few holes at Pacific Dunes play directly into the north wind, turning a 476-yard par-5 into about a 600-yard par-5 when the wind is at its peak. As you crest the fairway at No. 4, though, you get your first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean (behind an infinity green), and it’s as if all those early struggles with the wind melt away. There’s just something about the ocean that’s humbling — its vastness, its depth, its beauty, its eternity. As you stand on the green and look up and down the coast, it’s nothing but golf practically as far as you can see — Bandon Dunes stretching out to the south, and Pacific Dunes and Old MacDonald to the north, with Bandon Dunes’ founder Mike Keiser’s famous “Sheep Ranch” course jutting out on a peninsula at the northern edge of the landscape. It’s that moment when you realize you’re in heaven.
After perhaps the resort’s most difficult front nine, the back nine at Pacific is a blast — four par-3s (including both Nos. 10 and 11, right along the ocean) and three par-5s, plus quite possibly the most picturesque par-4 in America, the 13th. With the ocean to the left and a towering dune to the right, there’s no place to go but straight ahead to the elevated green. Hit it in the early evening, when the sun is going down and the wind is dying out, and watch the dune turn golden, then purple. If someone ever wants to spread my ashes, this might well be the spot.
Our second day saw us start out at Bandon Dunes, before an afternoon and evening spent joking around on the Preserve and Punchbowl courses. David McLay Kidd was just 32 years old when Keiser enlisted him to build the first course at what would become Bandon Dunes Resort, and Kidd delivered a track that’s rivaled, in this writer’s opinion, only by the courses around it. While its slope is higher than that at Pacific, that’s largely due to the acres and acres of gorse that was part of Kidd’s original design, and has since been largely removed, leaving behind more open fairways and player-friendly approaches.
While Pacific Dunes’ 13th may be America’s most-photographed par-4, the honor of “best” might fall to either the fifth or 16th at Bandon Dunes. The former is a 374-yarder with a green tucked into a chute, reminiscent in some ways of the 10th at Chambers Bay. Routed along the coast, and played directly into the wind, it’s both beautiful and brutal — a short, scenic par-4 that you’ll be lucky to hit in two. The opposite is true at No. 16 — listed as 301 from the gold tees on the scorecard, a helping wind and the firmness of the turf means it plays closer to 260-270. Since the layup shot, over a yawning canyon with the ocean roaring underneath, is no piece of cake, most players just pull driver. Every great course should have at least one hold-your-breath moment — Bandon Dunes’ 16th makes you hold your breath, then takes your breath away.
The Preserve is Bandon’s par-3 course, and an excellent alternative for golfers who want to keep playing, but don’t have the time, or physical or mental fortitude, for another full 18. Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, it’s short (the longest hole is 150 yards), stunningly scenic — in fact, our host for the weekend, Bandon Dunes’ Michael Chupka, called the Preserve’s No. 9 his favorite hole on the entire resort property — and just pure fun. After about two hours of beers, birdies (OK, more of the former than the latter) and the trading of more than a few barbs, we finished on the downhill, 109-yard 13th, where Chupka told us it’s a tradition to use only a putter. As we walked off the course, a group of about 20 golfers, beers in hand, were teeing off in one massive group at No. 1. It’s that kind of track.
We capped our first full day with a Skins game on the Punchbowl at Pacific Dunes, a 100,000-square foot putting green on which the resort routes two 18-hole courses each day. It’s free to resort guests, and with bar service right on the green, it’s about as much fun as you can have with a putter in your hand. We planned to spend an hour or so and wound up spending two, ordering drinks and teasing each other mercilessly, finally capping our night when one of our party drained an eight-footer for a whopping 17 skins. For large groups, families, or simply golfers looking to take it easy one afternoon or evening, the Preserve, Punchbowl or some combination thereof are a must-do.