My group has a bucket list trip coming in early March 2020 @ Bandon Dunes. I wanted to put this out to all the Golf Talk members in the hope that others have been to Bandon and are willing to offer tips or recommendations. We are all so excited to have this booked. The anticipation of going may kill us before we get the opportunity to walk this great collection of courses.
Retired Insurance Broker
I have been to Bandon 2 times, the last in 2017. Its a great place that is all about golf. The last time I was there we stayed in the hotel like rooms across from the 18th hole at Bandon Dunes. Rooms are basic hotel rooms nothing special but they did have a bar in the building. There are 4 restaurants on site which range from upscale (Pacific Dunes) to basic Mckellers (Pub?). I would recommend dinner reservations. We were their for 5 days and did not leave the resort as not much in closest towns of Bandon or Coos Bay. They have shuttle that will get you anywhere on the resort.
We played all 4 courses with my favorite being Pacific Dunes. Three of courses have lots of ocean side holes with Bandon Trails being through the woods. Some of the group had pull carts everyday with a group caddy. Group caddy reads putts, gives hole advice but does not carry clubs. They come in handy first time to play the course. I think I had caddy that carried my bag 3 of the 6 rounds we played. The courses are very walkable with a couple of hills to climb. The days I did not have a caddy I carried and I am 70+ so no problem.
This place is all about golf and all the staff do a great job in trying to make sure you have a good time. We never had any problems. Anybody who is running a resort should check out this place as they have top notch service.
We flew into Eugene which is about a 2.5 hr drive away. There are two routes to Bandon, we went down the coast on the way in but was mostly 2 lane road and on the way back took the quickest route to I5. Both have good scenery.
You will have a good time. Don't worry about score particulary if you have bad weather. The wind blows most of the time but add rain and you have difficult playing conditions.
Best Regards
Roosking
Thanks for sharing your Bandon experiences. We are all excited to have this scheduled. We will be there 5 days & nights, 5 rounds scheduled plus a round on Bandon Preserve, the 13 hole par 3 course. The age range is 43 - 70, six guys, we are all walkers at our home course in Vermont, usually cart riders while on vacation (especially MB), handicap range is 4 - 12, there's one PGA pro in the group. We will not be playing the back tees as we like to keep it sensible around 6100-6300 yds. I'll post a trip review in March.
Retired Insurance Broker
Have fun playing golf. Bandon Dunes is a must for every golf lover.
''It's just golf, let's have fun''
Looking forward to this report. Upload some pictures if you can as well.
Do we have the right to be (just a bit) jealous? ?
Denis Gilbert
Quebec City, Canada
It's been awhile since my trip to Bandon--there were only two courses in place when I was there--but I loved it. Two pieces of advice. First, learn to hit knockdown shots. Bandon approaches the conditions of links courses in Scotland and Ireland more closely than all of the other courses in North America that claim to be "links." The turf is firm, and the ball will run on the fairways, which is needed when you're knocking shots down below the wind.
Second, I wouldn't even think of leaving the property for food/drink. Bandon had everything my little group needed on that trip some years ago, and from my reading, it appears there are more options now. If wine is interesting to you, there may be a winery tour nearby that would give you a break from golf, but if you're not looking for that, I don't think there's any reason to leave the property. We did 36 for more than half the days we were there--the golf is just that good!--and I think that Bandon has attempted to make sure the food and beverage operation is of the same high quality.
It looks like a very long drive from MB - I have thought about a BD trip for many years - maybe one day
Golf is just an excuse to drink whiskey and smoke cigars
UGP - they have these things called planes now, they shorten trips like that.......
UGP - they have these things called planes now, they shorten trips like that.......
Who knew!
Golf is just an excuse to drink whiskey and smoke cigars
Hate flying - try not to do it too often 10 hours or less I'm driving!
Golf is just an excuse to drink whiskey and smoke cigars
Got it. Know some others that feel like that. Bandon seems to be worth getting in the plane for.
There are some great golf destinations, but it's a lot more work to set up a new
place, especially for a group with a lot of different ideas.
And at the top places, flying and 4-5 days cost about the same as driving to
Myrtle Beach for a 2 week trip.
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I agree with your post, but I'm living proof of the old saying that variety is the spice of life. I didn't discover MB until I was in my mid-30s, but I've tried to make up for that lost time by visiting down there at least 50 times in the last 30 years. Nevertheless, I take yearly trips to Ireland, Scotland, and Orlando and go to northern California every couple of years.
It helps that I never married and don't have kids while at the same time, my siblings all remain within fifteen minutes of my current residence--so no need to take special trips to visit them. It also helps that I'm willing to travel by myself so I don't wait for a group--of my two trips to MB last year, one was with a group of 16, the other by myself. I'm accompanied for my trips to Ireland in April and Scotland in September, but I'm taking an additional solo trip to Scotland in July. And once I'm in those places, I'll visit favorites (I'm an overseas member at the North Berwick Glen Golf Club in Scotland) but am also willing to go find remote great courses (Royal Dornoch, Machrihanish) as well as curiosities (the Corballis links is as good a place to get your feet wet with links courses, is a rare municipal links course in Ireland, and costs about 25% of the most expensive layouts, and when I was in Scotland last summer, I found a weird nine-hole layout, Covesea, that cost about 8 pounds and appears to be a one-man operation, and I mean owner, course designer, pro, and greenskeeper is the same guy--picture below of the elevated green at the par 3 fifth to show it's not a dump).
For going on over fifteen years now, I've probably played 75% of my rounds outside my home area. I'm just glad that MB is close enough for me to get there in less than six hours by car, which I definitely appreciate since all my other destinations are a day's trip away.
Awesome golf life - keep enjoying it
Golf is just an excuse to drink whiskey and smoke cigars