I just got back from five days on the Oregon coast at Bandon Dunes, aside from St. Andrews...It’s probably my favorite place on the planet. There’s a reason it’s the number one ranked golf resort in America.

It’s all about golf, golf only, and the golf courses are spectacular with the 4 golf courses ranked #2, 7, 12 and 14 in America’s top 100 rankings by Golf Digest. We played seven rounds of golf, stayed in the Chrome Lake Cabins and ate at McKee’s pub. Also if you ever are able to make the trip, I recommend using a caddie. There’s something special about walking these golf courses, not having to carry a bag and playing as the game was meant to be played. Also we walked about 35 miles in four days, so it’s nice to not carry a bag.

It was my group’s 2nd trip to Bandon, the first one five years ago, but this trip exceeded our original. The weather was absolutely phenomenal, sunny, very little wind and almost 60° for most of our trip.

Since there is a lot to review, I will start with my favorite course at the resort: Bandon dunes, the # 7 ranked public golf course in America. Having played several of the top 20 public golf courses in America, I have no problem saying Bandon dunes is my favorite golf course in the United States.



It’s hard to imagine a golf course that is more fun to play, there are substantial elevation changes, blind shots sweepingly wide fairways, Several ocean holes, many short par 4’s and what I consider to be one of the best back-nines in the world.


Hole 1: After a good drive, This is the view from the fairway to the first green.


The walk from the tee box to the green on the par three second hole


Holes number 4 and number 16 are two of the best five golf holes I’ve played. From the tee box, hole 4 looks like a standard golf hole surrounded by sand dunes, The fairway is wide but not long, longer players take less than driver. It is difficult to see from the tee is that this is a dog leg right, and a ball placed on the right side of the fairway will have a much shorter shot to the green. The approach the green is one of the more dramatic in Golf, a slightly downhill second shot leads to an infinity green seemingly hanging in the air over the Pacific ocean. This is your first glimpse of the ocean at Bandon Dunes, it could not be a more dramatic introduction.


Approach on 4


View from the 4th green, with the 5th hole in the distance.


The par 3 sixth


My favorite par 3 at Bandon dunes, the 15th hole.

Having played on the cliffs of Hawaii, Scotland, California and in some pretty incredible settings, there is still no hole that takes my breath away like the 16th at Bandon dunes. The lower fairway is separated from the upper fairway by massive 20 ft tall bunkering. Exposed rock and the Pacific Ocean flank the hole on its right side with sand dunes left. You have so many options on this hole, you can lay up well short which would leave you a blind shot into the green, you can take fairway wood or hybrid out to the left side providing you with the safest play, or you can go for this drivable green with the ocean to the right and deep bunkers to the left catching errant drives. The diversity of available strategies is a common theme at Bandon dunes, and why these golf courses are so highly ranked and so much fun to play.



View down the cliff between the Tee box and the fairway

Anyways, I could go on forever about Bandon dunes, Perhaps my favorite compliment is that I used every single golf club in my bag during my two rounds there. When I have the time in the next couple days I’ll post part two, my review of Pacific Dunes. Hopefully then I will follow up with reviews of Old Mcdonald and Bandon trails.