Bandon Dunes

I knew I would enjoy this course, but didn't figure I would like it as much as I did. Not only are there some really well-designed holes, but there are some incredible views from the high points on the course as well. The greens are humongous and a game unto themselves. Four putts are common, and three-putts are nothing to be ashamed of, which makes it paramount to find the right parts of the greens on approaches if you want to score. Love the view from above the 15th green. The punchbowl green on 18 is the one that's supposed to funnel everything to the hole, but you still have to hit a quality putt or two there as well.

First off, as a test of golf, Bandon Trails is as good as it gets, and that includes the other three championship courses at Bandon Dunes. It's not on the ocean, but you can hear the ocean. And it's also very linksy, with a lot of up and down holes, some elevated tees, and some difficult elevated greens. Fairways are more than generous, but it's the approach shots to these well protected greens over cavernous bunkers that help make this such a tough test, It's not exactly easy to putt either. With all that said, Trails is plenty scenic, even without the seaside holes, and it's never boring.

It had been more than a decade since I was last out here. My memories of Pacific Dunes were fond, and so were my expectations. Honestly, it was better than I remember. So many views, so many options, such a wildly entertaining golf course where skill is only trumped by imagination. This is bucket list golf in every sense. Golfers make pilgrimages here for this course and the rest of the golf at Bandon Dunes, but the Tom Doak designed Pacific takes the cake.

This was without a doubt one of my biggest mistakes ever. Took 2 of us nearly 5 hrs to walk. Nobody behind us and nobody in front of us. Was the Bataan death march. Some of the holes were so over designed as to be silly. Was looking for the clown and the windmill on some greens. Advertised as a links course. EXCEPT you cannot bounce the ball on the green on most holes. Tricked up in front of almost all greens unnecessarily. A "links" course where you have to hit a high 2nd or 3rd ball in on a WINDY course. Save your $ and play Pacific Dunes (which I have played 5 times, Bandon Dunes 4 times, Bandon Trails 4 times). If it was free, I would decline.

The course itself was not that difficult but wind blowing the ball off greens and nearly knocking you over as you played made playing golf nearly impossible. The course should have been closed with winds gusting to near 50 mph with a constant force of 35 mph.

As Mscheelar said below, Bandon Trails is unique from the other 3 courses. Routed through the giant pines and with much more of a North Carolina feel (at least for this Southerner), this is a great choice on windy days but shouldn't be missed regardless. The 2 driveable par 4's are a blast and the views and contours are special. I found this to be the most difficult of the 4 courses, although my ballstriking that day would've made any course difficult. Many greens have false fronts so short shots roll back off the green. All 4 courses at BD are fantastic, and this one, like the other 3, is a must play while at the resort. This was the most challenging course to walk for our group (elevation changes and tees farther from greens than the others). This course also gives you the least amount of room off the tee, BUT, it's not a narrow course by any means.

This isn't really a "course" so much as a drinking and wagering game. 18 "holes" of varying lengths and difficulty, and all you need is your putter. We had 5 guys wagering and having fun and it was a blast. Great green condition and imaginative slopes and hole positions make for a fun challenge. The drink holders on each "tee" are a nice touch. This is a nice way to wind down and have fun after the challenges of the championship courses. You can make up holes as you go and simply enjoy being out there. Oh, and it's free.

Old Mac may not be everyone's highest rated course at Bandon Dunes, but it is an excellent links experience and should not be missed by anyone visiting the resort. The green complexes alone are a study in golf architecture and the conditioning was the best of all we played this week. The front nine is a fun scoring opportunity, while the back nine (3 strokes more and 700 yds longer) is a hang on for dear life to save your score experience. This is the closest course I have ever seen to the "feel" of playing The Old Course at St Andrews. No, there's no town next to 18, but the roll of the land and the grandness is there. This is also certainly the easiest course to walk at the resort. The giant greens will test your short game and you'll begin to realize that just getting a GIR doesn't mean much here. You really need to dial in and hit exact quadrants of the greens to score. Fun and exciting, this one should not be missed.

Pacific Dunes is my idea of a "bucket list" course. As many have said, all 4 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort are excellent, but for me, Pacific is the clear favorite. We played it 3 times and each time I played it I liked it more. The views are attracitve the first time, but with each play you begin to appreciate the subtleties that Mr. Doak put in that will challenge and delight golfers of all levels. The par 3's get all the photo opportunities but the par 5's are perfect match play holes and the long par 4's are among the toughest I have played. The shorter par 4's, like 1 and 8, are a blast. I remember every hole clearly and will have great memories of this course for a long time. Highly recommended.

After all the hype, we finally made it to Bandon Dunes, and were not disappointed. The flagship course is a blast to play and offers some really spectacular views. We played it (twice) in light wind so it didn't have the teeth I'm sure it has when the wind blows. The first time you get a peek at the Pacific is memorable, as you meet the bend in the fairway at 4. From there, you will have a lot of picture worthy moments. Back 9 is a lot of fun and more of a chance to score than the front. The potentially drivable 16th is a special golf hole. Obviously, all the courses at Bandon are must plays in my book, but this and Pacific stand above.

While I cringed at $100 to play a 13 hole course, much less a par 3 course, this was an excellent surprise. They let our entire group out as a sevensome but we played fast and had a lot of fun wagering on holes and playing skins. This is a serious design, with some beautiful views and real challenge, as approaches must be accurate or you'll never get up and down. Preserve is a great option for your arrival round to warm up or as a second round after a long 18 at one of the championship layouts. Despite the price, it would be a shame to take a trip to Bandon and not play this little gem.

Sunday I had the great pleasure of finally playing the original course at Bandon Dunes Resort. After a short 4 hour drive from Portland we played in the afternoon. It was a stunning and borderline ridiculous day at Bandon. There was a little bit of wind, but overall the day was perfect.

The course itself was a ton of fun. Starting on 1 near the clubhouse felt drastically different than some of the ocean courses. There are so many unique inland holes, and then a handful of stunning ocean holes. The entire round felt fluid and fun, and very tricky at times with wind gusts near the ocean.

I felt like there was something so ancient about this course, it felt like it really had been there for a million years. At this point, I put Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes right up there as my two favorites on property.

I love this place and cannot wait to go back!

I was able to finally play Bandon Trails this week, not only was it a stark difference from the rest of the courses on property, it was a ton of fun and very difficult.

For the majority of your time on Trails, you forget you are at the ocean. There is plenty of solitude, but the course itself still has that links feel to it. It can be a wild ride at times, but very fun.

There were some very quirky and unique holes, plenty of monstrous bunkers and tough shots, I would say Trails is the toughest of the 4 courses.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather, 70 degrees and perfection, that also led to a bit of a slow round, nearly 5 hours.

Overall Trails is a must play, although I did miss the ocean at times, and I would probably rank Trails as my 3rd or 4th favorite course at Bandon.

In the great battle of Pebble Beach vs Pacific Dunes, I will take Pacific Dunes. At a resort with 4 great courses, Pacific is the best. I have gone to Bandon four times and played Pacific Dunes more than a dozen times. It is hard to tell where nature ended and Doak began. It is as natural of a golf course as you will find in the USA. It is real links...multiple options from off the green (Putt, Chip, Flop), Play the contours of the greens and land near it, hit the correct side of the fairway or you will have a blind second or second with a hazard in the way, bump and run, knockdowns in the wind, etc. I have played in Scotland and Pacific Dunes is up there with the best links in the world.

My advice is to get a caddie. Bandon's caddies are the best and I have never heard anyone complain. If you are really fortunate, your caddie will teach you how to read greens, where is the best place to take advantage of contours (you don't always need to flagstick hunt# and more.

The course does have some amazing holes along the cliffs #the par 4 4th and 13th immediately come to mind along with the par 3 11th); however, the inland holes also are great.

Pacific Dunes is as pleasant of a walk as you can have. If you want to get around in 4 hours or less, don't play here in the summer. If you want to get the best weather, you can come in the summer and take advantage of the daylight and play 36 or more per day.

Bandon is the best one stop golf destination in the world. You would need to set up camp somewhere in Ireland or Scotland and drive 45 minutes to an hour each day to be in the same league- it is that good. Don't miss out on Pacific Dunes; hopefully you get a two club wind- it is as great as links golf gets. The type of course you could play for the rest of your life.

For a couple of years we watched this course take shape from the neighbouring Pacific Dunes. It looked flat and on an inferior piece of land and we wondered how it could match up with the other Bandon courses. But when it opened; what a wonderful surprise! Old Mac from beginning to end makes you think and experiment with all kinds of interesting shots.

The first tee sits in the middle of what feels like a wide open field and you look across the flat expanse at a wide open(albeit a bit elevated) green not too far away. You can literally hit almost any club off the tee in almost any direction . BUT....how far you hit it and where you hit it will determine how you must hit your approach to what you now see is a HUGE and very undulating green with infinite pin placements.

Every hole is a bit like that. But it really isn't that flat and boring. There are some gorgeous holes which rise up into the dunes. There are a few blind holes which I know many people hate but which our group always enjoys.

This course may have some of the toughest par 4s on the Bandon property but you get a lot of roll and it doesn't play that long overall.

I've played all of the Bandon courses many times now and currently this might be my favourite; though that keeps changing. They are ALL great.

A magnificent course with one memorable hole after another. It doesn't play long because of firm fairways but it can be very challenging if you aren't controlling your ball. Like Irish/Scottish courses there is perhaps a bit more luck involved than on a standard US course. A bad or good bounce here and there can make a difference between a par and a double in the blink of an eye. I have scored in the upper 70s and in the mid 90s without a huge difference in my ball striking. Much depends on the weather conditions too of course.

The greens are usually the slowest and bumpiest on the property and might need to be redone sometime soon. They are small and relatively flat and don't really represent the major challenge of the course.

I have played a lot in Ireland and Scotland and I would certainly compare this course favourably in scenic appeal, overall quality of holes and "fun factor" with any course I have played there. It isn't as punishingly difficult as County Down (which I might rate a bit higher) but that is a good thing for most people.

This will be most golfer's favourite course at Bandon and if your game is on you might have a very memorable round.

This course has really grown on me over the years. When it opened I thought it a cut below Dunes and Pacific. This was possibly because I'd come to expect the spectacular ocean views and classic links play. Trails in many ways reminded me of some of our classic Canadian mountain courses with the forests, ponds and elevation change.

But when you start to realize that there are NO weak or boring holes and that there are a bunch of unique and really fun holes one concludes that this is a great golf course in its own right. It includes ( for a medium hitter) a drivable par 4 followed soon after by a par 3 where you might hit driver depending on the wind. Then there is the notorious 14th; a par 4 with a table top green just about impossible to hit. With our group there is always a bet of some kind for anyone who can hit the green or make a par....and we are all single digit players.

The conditioning is always great. The greens are usually a little faster than the others at Bandon and quite sloped. The walk is a bit tougher than the other 3 courses and the pace a bit slower . We always prefer to play it in the morning when the legs are fresher when playing 36.

Out of the four courses, Pacific is the layout that I enjoyed the least; however, it is still an AMAZING course. Pacific also has the best views and scenery of the 4.

I've made the trip out to Bandon twice. This was my second trip. This time around, I thought Bandon was the best of four courses. Although, all four are tremendous. The best thing about the whole Bandon experience is they are all about golf and golfers. There isn't anything you don't need or anything that is overdone like you would see at Pebble Beach. In fact, I'd strongly suggest a trip to Bandon over Pebble. Bandon is cheaper and better!

I played Pacific Dunes for the first time in June of this year. Somehow I had gone this 13 years without ever visiting Bandon Dunes Resort, but I finally had to make it happen.

Pacific was the 2nd 18 of our day in June, and the weather was spectacular. Barely any wind and perfect 70 degree weather.

The course itself is well thought out from tee to green, but at the same time feels so natural. The views from 4, 10, 11, 12 and 13 are simply stunning. Nothing else takes you to the edge of the West coast quite like this.

The course was fair but challenging, I can see it getting nasty in the wind, but I loved every minute of it even though we ran into a terribly slow bunch on 10 and ended up playing the round in 5 hours.

Do whatever it takes. Get to Bandon Dunes Resort, it may be relatively new by golf standards but it could be the best destination for golf in the country.