Bandon Trails
Bandon Trails is my fourth ranked of the Bandon courses but that sells it a bit short. You have four world class top 100 courses at one resort so being the fourth best course at Bandon is like being the fourth best $100 bill in your wallet. Also there were mixed rankings of the courses from our group and others I have spoken to. Almost universally Pacific Dunes is number one. Bandon Dunes is usually #2 (like for me) but I know at least my brother put Trails as two. Others have this above Old MacDonald as three. That is really close for me. OM has the ocean but Trails has such a great variety of holes and backdrops. OM by a nose for me. Don’t know anyone who’s played the Ranch yet.
So what sets Trails apart from the other courses is the setting. It starts out as a dunesy links course. It then moves through an almost a meadow-type setting, then into a wooded, parkland-like setting, before coming back out to the dunes. There is more elevation change here than at the other courses and the wooded holes are definitely reminiscent of Pine Valley. If I just added the photos here without saying where they are from, you wouldn’t guess it.
We played Trails in 2017 as part of a three-day, four-course weekend. This was our second 18 of the 36 we played on the second day. I’m not the 36-hole warrior. I know buddies who go to Scotland, Ireland or other trips and play 36 a day for seven straight days. That’s a heluva lot of golf for me and the courses kind of blur together. I’d rather 18 a day, relax for a cocktail in the clubhouse and get a feel for the whole club and just enjoy the day without constantly feeling rushed. I don’t even mind (if it’s a longer trip) taking a day off to do something non-golf related.
To the course, one and two both stand out but the entire course really sticks out as a whole. It’s a Coore/Crenshaw design and they’ve proven to be really solid designers and this is one of their best. There’s a great variety and you really get the best of all worlds in course types. Trails gets golf critical love for doing this. It’s funny because courses like Noordwijkse in the Netherlands and Tenby in Wales get points taken away for the very same reason.
Finally, if you do the Bandon thing from the East Coast can I suggest not flying into Portland then driving then playing four courses in three days. You’ll be wiped by the final rounds. Our buddy connected and flew into and out of North Bend/Coos Bay (Southwest Oregon airport). It’s a half hour ride to the resort so while we were dragging from the five hour ride from Portland, Donnie was fresh as a daisy.
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