I feel like I have returned from a religious pilgrimage for serious U.S. golfers. Bandon Dunes. Remote Southwest Oregon. Only golfers seem to know about it–I’ve mentioned the name to friends and family and get somewhat blank stares in return. Mentioning Bandon around other golfers, however, evokes hushed, slightly jealous responses like, “Ohhh, okay” [head nodding] and “Hmmm, cool.” If they have been, they know, and they are calculating several things all at once, like how does he get to do this, who is he going with. And if they haven’t been, they’re probably thinking, just what is Bandon, again? Well, Bandon is fantastic and fun and overwhelming all at once. Return trips are definitely a necessity.
Going into the trip, I feel like I did more than your average amount of research. I heard and read a lot about the difficulty in getting there, the size of the property, the purity of golf (no carts!), and, of course, the golf course architecture. After returning home, I feel like I just barely scratched the surface. This will be the first of a few posts on Bandon. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject now.
Here’s how it went: I arrived on a Saturday afternoon. I didn’t arrive at the North Bend airport and shuttle in as most golfers probably do. I was with my family on a vacation to Seattle and Portland prior to Bandon. They headed home from the Portland airport on Saturday around noon, and I headed south to Bandon in a rented, black and white Jeep Cherokee that vibrated loudly when in reverse. The drive from Portland was about 4.5 hours, and my fingers were crossed, hoping the Jeep wouldn’t give me trouble. Much of the drive was along the coast on Highway 101 and was really beautiful.
I passed several backpackers and bikepackers on the road to Bandon. The stippled sunlight coming in from the ocean through the tall trees made them sometimes difficult to see. Focus, man! You’ve got to get to the course without incident first. My excitement was building and at last, the entrance appeared. I took a right into the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. It took a little stopping and starting and at least one turnaround before figuring out where the main building was to check in. I checked in and dropped my bags in one of the Grove Cottages tucked into the trees. I totally lucked out on the first night’s accommodation. We were a group of eight and supposed to stay for four nights at Lily Pond. Four of us got an upgrade on night one to stay in Grove Cottages. Grove Cottages are close to an ideal place for four adult golfers to stay (though more than double the price of Lily Pond). Each person has their own room with their own king bed, and each room has its own bathroom and shower. Amazing!
Next, I headed out to the Practice Center where the rest of my group was finishing up a lesson on how to play links golf (keep it low). The Practice Center was nice, but not unbelievably so. There was plenty of room to hit range balls, and the practice putting green was enormous. But the greens for chipping and hitting pitches and sand shots were just average. They were smallish, balls were everywhere, and overall, the Practice Center just didn’t have the feel of America’s golf resort. Yet.
Or maybe I was partially not in a great mood. Golf trips usually involve a fair amount of hustle just to get where you are going. Destination courses aren’t usually right near major airports, so it’s always kind of a slog to finally be on the course. I typically don’t start hitting the ball well until about day 3. So I was clanking them on the range, and maybe that’s why I wasn’t too impressed. But I wasn’t too worried about the rest of the trip either.
We had a 6:30 p.m. tee time on Bandon Preserve (the sun sets in July at about 9 p.m.). Bandon Preserve is the 13-hole par-3 course designed by Coore and Crenshaw. It was a great introduction. You get some nice coastal views, and you get to get some swings in. There’s a place to get drinks after holes 3 and 7. I feel like the Preserve was more penal than all of the 18-hole courses on the property. The Preserve has some close-in deep fescue. I lost at least one ball and was concerned that the whole trip would be this penal (fortunately it was not). The last hole was puttable, a downhill 60-some yarder. I hit a 60-degree wedge, but there was a guy in the pro shop who had aced it with a putter and received a framed picture of the hole. After all these years of playing, I still don’t have an ace, and I didn’t want to have my first be on a putt, so I hit the 60-degree wedge way long.
After our 13 holes, we went back to the main clubhouse and ate at the Tufted Puffin. The food all week was really good. Not over-the-top great, but really solid, tasty, and dependable. I had chicken with risotto and a house salad. It was probably sitting in the oven waiting for awhile, but I loved how crispy the skin was on the chicken. Our group had some drinks and generally enjoyed seeing each other again and catching up.
Back at Grove Cottages, we found the Therabody Recovery Air leg sleeves. None of us knew what they were, but we all tried them. I still don’t know exactly what these are supposed to do, but they are similar to blood pressure cuffs for your entire leg. They inflate and deflate on a cycle. I tried them and it felt good on the legs while wearing them, but I’m not sure they had much impact on my legs or my game the following days. We turned in relatively early–the rest of my group had early flights to get to Bandon and were still acclimating to Pacific time. I would have loved to have stayed at Grove Cottages longer; it was really comfortable, and it would be great to have beers there after some of the rounds. Nonetheless, everyone was very excited about the next day–Sheep Ranch and Bandon Dunes.
