Bandon Trails Golf Course, Bandon, Oregon - A Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw Links-Style Course Ranked As One of the Best in the Country

Bandon Trails is one of three golf courses at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Bandon, Oregon. A fourth course is slated to open in 2010. The resort is set on Oregon's rugged coastline about 100 feet above the Pacific Ocean, making it an ideal location to capture the essence of Scotland's great links courses. At the resort, golfers will experience untamed shores that go on for miles, and grassy, primeval dunes that run out to the ocean.

In describing the land used for the resort's courses, GOLF Magazine had this to say: "Probably the finest land made available for a golf course in America since Alistair Mackenzie was shown the site for Cypress Point Club on Monterey Peninsula...''

Bandon Trails was the third of the resort's courses to be built, opening in 2005. Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the course begins atop a massive sand dune, before quickly opening up to sprawling meadows. The layout then works higher into the coastal forest, before returning back to the dunes for its finishing holes.

The 18-hole, par-71 course plays to 6,633 yards from the back (Black) tees, with a USGA rating of 72.9 and a slope rating of 133 on Fescue grass. From the next set of Green tees, the course plays to only 6,142 yards, making it a relatively short course, which is helpful since it's for walkers only.

In describing the course, architects Coore and Crenshaw had this to say: "In the profession of golf architecture, all one can ask for is to be given an extraordinary site and the freedom to work with it. Mike Keiser has afforded both at Bandon Trails. We have tried to tread softly on this spectacular landscape, laying out a golf course that required little alteration to the site while providing golf as diverse as the land itself. As its name implies, Bandon Trails will take you on a journey, a nature walk if you will, through windswept dunes, meadows of vegetation framed by indigenous shrubbery, and through woodlands of towering fir and spruce trees. Sometimes the journey and the golf will be wild and tumultuous, sometimes serene. Whichever, we hope it will always be interesting and enjoyable.''

Since its opening, Pacific Dunes has received many honors and awards, including rankings among the top golf courses in the country. GOLF Magazine rated Bandon Dunes #15 among the Top 100 Courses You Can Play, Golfweek also ranked it #10 on its list of Best Resort Courses and #21 on its list of Best Modern Courses, while Golf Digest ranked it #14 among America's Greatest Public Golf Courses.

The resort features a Practice Center that covers 32 acres just east of the Pacific Dunes course, allowing players to work on all aspects of their game. Lessons and a golf shop are also available.

A variety of lodging options are also available, as well as several full-service restaurants, lounges, hot tub, sauna, exercise room, and locker rooms.