Category: Golf

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Bandon Dunes Golf Golf Travel--Bandon Travel

Bandon Day 2

Bandon Dunes No. 4 green

Sunday morning we woke up with the excitement and anticipation of a 36-hole day. Sheep Ranch followed by Bandon Dunes. The weather was perfect. It was cool in the morning, and there wasn’t too much wind.

We drove to the Sheep Ranch clubhouse, which is a good ways away from Lily Pond. On the way, you pass the main Bandon Lodge, Pacific Dunes, the Practice Center, and Old Macdonald.

There is a lot of commentary online about the order in which Bandon’s courses should be played. I’m not sure we had much of a choice, but Sheep Ranch was a wonderful start to the trip. It is wide open and very playable–you can get away with some loose shots here and there and still not make blowup-type numbers. I loved Sheep Ranch. The drone footage of Sheep Ranch on the Bandon website is incredible. It is the newest course at Bandon, and it has a mythological origin story. Mike Keiser and Phil Friedmann originally built it seemingly almost as a hobby or side project, then Coore and Crenshaw refined it, and it opened in 2020. One of the caddies said that it was called Sheep Ranch because someone told Mike Keiser that if he built a golf course on this property, it would become nothing but a sheep ranch. I haven’t read that anywhere else, but it sounds good.

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Bandon Dunes Golf Golf Travel--Bandon Travel

Bandon Dunes!

Bandon Preserve

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.

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Equipment Golf Rangefinders

Precision Pro Rangefinder Review: NX10 Slope versus R1 Smart Rangefinder

Earlier, I wrote how I went about deciding to purchase Precision Pro’s R1 Smart Rangefinder. I played six rounds with the R1. The laser shots are great–quick, accurate reads, with a vibrating buzz confirmation. The smart features–giving front-of-the-green and back-of-the-green numbers in the viewfinder–are just okay.

Ultimately, I sent the R1 back under Precision Pro’s 90-day return policy because the R1 runs the risk of not complying with the Rules of Golf even when the slope switch is off. This is detailed below.

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Golf Golf TV--Good for Your Game?

Can Watching a Featured Group for 18 Holes on TV Help Your Game?

I’ve spent a lot of time watching golf today. Both Shane Bacon and Scott Van Pelt said that the first round of the Masters is the best day of the year for golf. I agree. I’ve been thinking about the Masters for a few weeks, and I was excited this morning. It’s the best day of the golfing year because it’s the first day of the first major of the year; because the golf course looks perfect; because the holes of Augusta National’s back nine are familiar and comforting; because watching the Masters causes many of us to think about our fathers; because the sounds of those birds in those trees evoke a particular feeling; and because it’s the coolest golf tournament that has ever been imagined and the one nearly every pro wants to win more than any other. Plus there’s the LIV storyline and that lady behind the tee at 16 is back (see below).

I set out to watch the Woods/Hovland/Schauffele grouping. It was an ESPN featured group and also appeared on Masters.com. My goal was to see what I could learn after watching every shot of one group for 18 holes. After a couple of holes, ESPN also followed the Rahm/Thomas/Young group. So I ended up watching essentially every shot that six players hit in the first round of the 2023 Masters. Here’s how it went.

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Books Golf Phil by Alan Shipnuck

Review of Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar

Why read a biography of Phil Mickelson? I have read a lot of golf books over the years, but maybe no golf biographies. I was drawn to this one because Phil is interesting–partly because of his outspokenness, partly his flamboyance and gutsiness, and, of course, partly because he is the highest-profile player to sign with LIV Golf. And after reading this book, I came to the conclusion that Phil’s decision to sign with LIV was primarily about money.

Most golf fans already know a lot about Phil Mickelson. Many, many victories, six of which are majors; risk-taking player; never won the U.S. Open; values his wife Amy and family. Alan Shipnuck’s biography Phil is fun to read, mainly through reliving Phil’s extraordinary golf accomplishments. His win at the U.S. Amateur; his first PGA Tour victory while a junior at ASU; his first Masters win in 2004, where he went five under on the last seven and canned the putt on 18, jumping up with fists and putter raised; his duel with Henrik Stenson in 2016 at Troon; his many second place U.S. Open finishes; his incredible history with the Ryder Cup (including the 2014 press conference in which he blasted captain Tom Watson and which probably led to many positive changes for the U.S. Ryder Cup team); and his amazing 2021 PGA Championship victory at 50. (I highly recommend looking up some of the older telecasts online, particularly the Pinehurst U.S. Open (Payne Stewart putt) and the Winged Foot U.S. Open (“I’m such an idiot.”).) There are also some junior, high school, and college golf stories that most probably don’t know, including his concession of a 40-foot putt at the U.S. Amateur.

Beyond the golf facts, though, this book gives you some insight into the inner workings of Phil’s mind. As Shipnuck describes Phil, he always has to be the smartest person in the room; he is never shy about expressing an opinion; he can be very calculating in choosing when and to which reporters he speaks; and he loves to gamble, at golf, on sports games, seemingly anything.

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Equipment Golf Rangefinders

Here’s How I Went About Finding a New Rangefinder

This is old.

My current rangefinder is from the Obama years. It is the Bushnell Tour V2 and has served me well until recently when it started not finding pins and giving me readings from around the green of hundreds of yards out. I would get numbers from the SkyCaddie app on my phone when this happened, but there are many times on the range and on the course where a rangefinder and an exact number are crucial. It is time for a new one.

Thoughts I had going in were these: my old rangefinder had a strange CR2 3V battery. It would be nice to have a AA or AAA situation or rechargeable finder.

I play in a handful of stroke-play events or qualifiers each year, plus I play by the Rules of Golf even when not in a tournament. I wanted to double-check the rules on rangefinders that measure slope so that I didn’t accidentally buy an illegal rangefinder.

I usually walk when I play. I want a rangefinder that has a good case that hangs on the bag and that is secure so that the rangefinder won’t fall out.

Finally, I want to spend around $300. I’ll spend more, but that’s the goal. Spending $300ish seems appropriate for some reason, but $600 and you’re thinking, I could have a new driver for this. And the new driver will be a lot more fun.

Here’s what I learned:

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Golf Golfer's Journal Review

Review of The Golfer’s Journal

I first saw The Golfer’s Journal behind a glass case in Golf Galaxy; there was a stack of about six issues with an intriguing cover photograph showing at the top. I had never heard of it. It seemed confidential; my interest was piqued.

I didn’t buy it then, but months later, I thought of it, went online, and found a video they produced around the time of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. The video is about Mission Bay Golf Course, a par-58 short course in San Diego. The video contains a lot of the elements of golf courses that I love. These are features we all know, and features that still draw me in–the low-slung wooden clubhouse, the well-kept municipal course that draws quality players, and one of my favorites–the unassuming guy who doesn’t look the part, but who is really good.

I also saw that Tom Coyne was involved with TGJ, as the magazine refers to itself. I read one of Coyne’s books, Paper Tiger, about his attempt to drop everything and become a professional golfer. I enjoyed it. On the merits of the video and the memory of the glass case and Coyne’s involvement, I became a subscriber of the magazine. I have received two issues so far (I just received issue No. 18 in the mail the other day).

There is a certain mystique to TGJ. The issues aren’t sent out bare or in a simple plastic sleeve as some magazines are–they arrive in their own protective paperboard envelope. To call it a magazine is underselling it, it has more of the feel of an academic journal or trade publication. I get excited when I see it in the mail. The issues have an elegant feel with thick paper and quality binding. When I first get an issue, I flip through and am interested in reading nearly every article.

A subscription is fairly expensive–$75 for four issues a year. The high price is likely due to the limited number of ads that are in the magazine. But the photography alone is worth the price; it is stunning. Each issue has many full-page and double-page spreads of golf scenes from around the world. And as with the Mission Bay video, they incorporate a lot of panoramic drone photographs that are incredible.

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