Bandon Trip Report (August 2019)

Hey everyone, I'm under a month to go until arrival at Bandon, which is pretty crazy to think about. I'll definitely add to this thread as I arrive, but I wanted to start by offering up my planning experiences and some background.

Here it is!

**How the Trip came to be:**

I got the itch some time in the Winter/early Spring to start looking at somewhere fun to take a golf trip this summer, and some of the early candidates were Bandon, Wisconsin, and Cabot. I talked with a couple buddies about their interest in a trip, and they weren’t super interested in doing a destination trip to a place like the ones I just listed. So, it turned into a solo trip. I wanted to get a rough budget together for doing a proper trip to each place, and it turned out that doing a good trip to Wisconsin and hitting some of the big places like Erin Hills, Sand Valley, and Kohler was going to run me more than doing a trip to Bandon, especially factoring in the cost of a rental car that would be split with me, myself, and me. I still want to do those other trips, but another year lets Sand Valley and Cabot mature and opens up the possibility of doing them with other people. I went to Bandon once before in the summer of 2014 with my dad, and that was a tremendous trip, probably my first exposure to bucket-list level golf. I got hooked and have continued to travel for golf since then.

**Golf and Lodging Itinerary and Booking Process:**

Bandon was good enough (who am I kidding? Amazing enough) that I considered going back, and I started to look at flight costs to the various airports (Portland, Eugene, North Bend). We flew into Portland last time, so I assumed I’d do it again, but going as a solo made me consider taking a look at North Bend flights, since I could just do a shuttle to the resort instead of renting a car. I found that United had decent availability to North Bend at a really good rate using miles, so I moved some miles over there and booked the flight into North Bend for essentially $0 out of pocket.

With the flights in hand, I turned to booking the golf side of the trip. I started out planning to play 5 rounds of golf on the “big courses”, hitting all four of the main courses and then playing one replay round based on whatever was available. I wanted to include the Preserve on this trip, because last time my dad and I did not get to play it as we did a super short 2-day trip with 36 holes each day to hit the four big courses. My ideal early schedule looked something like this:

**Day 1:** Arrival, Shorty’s, Range, Punchbowl.

Essentially free arrival activities.

**Day 2:** Bandon, Trails.

After listening to some podcasts that recommended starting with Bandon, I was looking at Bandon as my first round. Trails is always recommended as an afternoon round to get out of the wind a little bit, so I slotted it in here.

**Day 3:** Pacific, Preserve.

I wanted to get Pacific in the morning to reduce summer winds, and using the Preserve as a lighter afternoon to break up the trip was in my plans.

**Day 4:** Old Mac, Replay.

I wanted to keep Old Mac in the morning because I played it last time in hellacious winds in the summer and got beat up. I’d like to see how it holds up in the morning.

**Day 5:** Departure, no golf.

I put a separate thread together documenting how I got from that itinerary to my final itinerary. It's floating around the Northwest section still.

My final itinerary after a few calls and some GolfWRX discussion became this:

Day 1: Same arrival activities

Day 2: Pacific, Trails

Day 3: Preserve, Pacific

Day 4: Old Mac, Bandon

Day 5: Bandon

I have a caddie request for my first round on each of the four big courses, so both rounds on Day 2 and on Day 4. My plan is to carry/push-cart my way around Pacific and Bandon for the second go-round on both.

The only trouble I ran into when booking golf was that the resort was actually sold out lodging-wise on night three of my trip (between days 3 and 4) and the Preserve was booked solid the afternoon of Day 3 when I initially wanted to slot it in. When my dad and I went a few years ago, we actually stayed off-site two of the three nights we were there at a place called the Bandon Inn. I gave them a call and they had a room and a AAA discount the night I needed, so I’m staying there one night in the middle. Going off property is a little unfortunate, but I was in the “take what I can get” mood having booked flights and looking at golf at this point. It also ended up being ~½ the price of a room on property, as a plus.

**Secondary booking process (shuttle, clubs, etc):**

Booking transportation to and from the resort was really the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place. According to Bandon’s website, there are really two competing companies that offer shuttle service to the resort, Aviation Transportation and Connoiseurs Transportation. I guess there are taxis as well, but for one person they would’ve ended up being more expensive than the shuttle round-trip from what I could gather. I gave both places a call and Aviation ended up being a little cheaper, so I went with them. They were very easy to work with and knew my flight times immediately once I told them the dates of my arrival and departure. Thus far, I would recommend them.

On the recommendation of a few threads here, I’ve opted to ship my clubs to the resort using Shipsticks. This will be my first experience using them since I’ve always been fine bringing them on the plane, since the plane cost is either free with Southwest or usually less than Shipsticks. I only booked one-way since it seemed to be a much bigger deal with issues into North Bend than coming back, which for me seemed like a smaller deal. I’ll just bring them back with me on the plane going home.

**Some more notes:**

I’ll be sure to update the thread as I get to the resort and report back on my experiences once I’m there! I know that I really appreciate the various threads documenting people’s experiences at Bandon. It’s a great way to begin the trip sometimes months before you actually go! Thanks for reading thus far.

Nice, looking forward to following this thread. I am considering the exact same trip next summer. Please keep us posted.

How much is the shuttle? When I flew to Portland the rental car was cheap but the drive was long. Would look at North Bend next time.

Shuttle was about $60 round trip plus tip for us the last time we went. Nice part was that one of our guys had to leave a day early and Aviation was able to fit him in with another group. Great customer service from them.

@exgolfpro thanks! i'm definitely planning to continue updating as I get closer and actually arrive at Bandon!

@philsrhman I was quoted $65/person RT by Aviation, not including gratuity, and $75/person RT by Connoiseurs for just myself. They said they offer group rates as well so if you have a few people with you, you might be able to get it down a little lower than what I was quoted.

Which shuttle provides beers for the trip or is that an urban legend? I'm planning to fly into North Bend this time and jumping in a shuttle and cracking a beer sounds about 100x better than jumping in a rental car and preparing for the 2.5 hour drive from Eugene after already completing 3 flights.

@eboettne can't remember the exact wording, but i think both of the transportation companies (Aviation and Connoisseurs) would be willing to pre-shop for you (i.e. they'd have beer for you if you asked them to bring some) but I don't remember if they would charge you or have it complimentary. Maybe someone else can chime in who's gone through the experience.

Aviation has a cooler of beers waiting for you. Their drivers will also pre-shop for you if you ask. Can’t remember the mark up, but it wasn’t crazy. They mainly work off of tips.

Our shuttle driver asked us if we wanted to go to a dispensary on the way to the resort. We said no, but she drove us to Bahama Buds anyway. Our group was late 40 guys. We looked at each other, laughed and went in. I bought some CBD gummies with no THC. I actually think they worked at reducing inflammation. Might be worth a shot.

> @wtoomey said:

> Aviation has a cooler of beers waiting for you. Their drivers will also pre-shop for you if you ask. Can’t remember the mark up, but it wasn’t crazy. They mainly work off of tips.

Very cool, great to know. Thanks!

> @ibradley said:

> Our shuttle driver asked us if we wanted to go to a dispensary on the way to the resort. We said no, but she drove us to Bahama Buds anyway. Our group was late 40 guys. We looked at each other, laughed and went in. I bought some CBD gummies with no THC. I actually think they worked at reducing inflammation. Might be worth a shot.

This is pretty hilarious, imagine playing those oceanside holes if you had the gummies WITH thc. That'd be something.

I'm at that super excited stage pre-trip. I just finished reading Dream Golf, which I highly recommend to everyone. It's a great look at how Bandon came to be. I kind of assume it's required reading for anyone hanging out in this forum. My clubs are getting shipped off mid next week, so this weekend is actually my last practice opportunity before going. I may be in over my britches here, but now I'm debating if I should try to get one more round in on the day I currently have Preserve and Pacific and instead play the Preserve my opening day. Any thoughts on that? My biggest concern would be burning myself out from 13-36-36-36-18.

> @ibradley said:

> Our shuttle driver asked us if we wanted to go to a dispensary on the way to the resort. We said no, but she drove us to Bahama Buds anyway. Our group was late 40 guys. We looked at each other, laughed and went in. I bought some CBD gummies with no THC. I actually think they worked at reducing inflammation. Might be worth a shot.

works wonders, when it builds up

man this sounds like an epic trip. and i understand having troubles find a group to go on a trip like this with. i have had similar struggles. i am interested what you think of the solo trip and see if it would be worth doing one myself. good luck and enjoy bandon!

@tonypizzle will definitely let you know how it goes! I'm interested myself to see how it's different than my trip five years ago with my dad.

> @tonypizzle said:

> man this sounds like an epic trip. and i understand having troubles find a group to go on a trip like this with. i have had similar struggles. i am interested what you think of the solo trip and see if it would be worth doing one myself. good luck and enjoy bandon!

If you hunt around there are a few trip reports for solo trips. Pretty much all of us that have done it recommend it.

@Edaw68 i will have to rummage around and find some. my main concern would be getting bored not having someone to talk to haha. but im sure the golf is always good!

I shipped my clubs off yesterday, so I'm officially now in the anxious waiting game phase of the trip. I'm checking the weather now, going back and forth about whether I should see if I can throw in an extra round on Trails, and listening/reading any Bandon material I can find. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to the No Laying Up Bandon podcast at this point. I'm really hoping Fore Play puts out their show with Matt Ginella next Tuesday so I can listen to it on the plane, otherwise it may be more No Laying Up and reading Dream Golf while getting over there.

One question for the group: I haven't booked any dining reservations. Should I give them a call just to be safe? Or should I be able to eat as a single/at a bar at McKee's/Tufted Puffin most nights? My assumption is that I won't be doing the "fancier" dinners really at Pac Grill/Trails End and may hit those as Lunches between rounds.

> @newg33b said:

> I shipped my clubs off yesterday, so I'm officially now in the anxious waiting game phase of the trip. I'm checking the weather now, going back and forth about whether I should see if I can throw in an extra round on Trails, and listening/reading any Bandon material I can find. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to the No Laying Up Bandon podcast at this point. I'm really hoping Fore Play puts out their show with Matt Ginella next Tuesday so I can listen to it on the plane, otherwise it may be more No Laying Up and reading Dream Golf while getting over there.

> One question for the group: I haven't booked any dining reservations. Should I give them a call just to be safe? Or should I be able to eat as a single/at a bar at McKee's/Tufted Puffin most nights? My assumption is that I won't be doing the "fancier" dinners really at Pac Grill/Trails End and may hit those as Lunches between rounds.

Check out GolfHolics youtube channel as well- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCliskiVzccS700jUPAJaSIg/videos. I've never watched any of their content really, but stumbled upon them this week, they just completed a trip to Bandon. The only video they have up so far is travel day, so not much there, but looks like they're be posting individual course vlogs in the upcoming days if you can't quite scratch that itch.

> @newg33b said:

> I shipped my clubs off yesterday, so I'm officially now in the anxious waiting game phase of the trip. I'm checking the weather now, going back and forth about whether I should see if I can throw in an extra round on Trails, and listening/reading any Bandon material I can find. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to the No Laying Up Bandon podcast at this point. I'm really hoping Fore Play puts out their show with Matt Ginella next Tuesday so I can listen to it on the plane, otherwise it may be more No Laying Up and reading Dream Golf while getting over there.

> One question for the group: I haven't booked any dining reservations. Should I give them a call just to be safe? Or should I be able to eat as a single/at a bar at McKee's/Tufted Puffin most nights? My assumption is that I won't be doing the "fancier" dinners really at Pac Grill/Trails End and may hit those as Lunches between rounds.

It never hurts to call and make reservations, but I can't imagine as a single you won't be able to get a spot at the bar easily enough. Especially this time of year you can probably get outside seating fairly easily at Trails or Pacific too, but even when I've gone with groups of people for dinner at McKee's without a reservation, the bar has been open.

Well, Bandon is almost here! One part of the anticipation stage of the trip has been putting Bandon, OR on my weather app and monitoring quite closely. Unfortunately, I saw Wednesday's forecast change from very nice/partly cloudy to rainy over the last few days :( Granted, everywhere I've checked says it's only supposed to be "showers" and that there's a 40% chance of rain but of course now I'm thinking it'll practically be a monsoon. I don't really have rain gear, so I may have to run out to the store today to buy some. Kinda unfortunate that I'm hitting maybe the one day with rain all summer, but oh well. It's gonna be great regardless!

The weather on the Oregon Coast (note that we don't call it "the beach") can and will turn on a dime. The forecast could be 100% sunny and warm and a squall could fly in and out at any time. Chances are certainly less for a monsoon in the summer, but they do happen, but storms of those levels are usually predictable. It's the spotty showering activity that can slip under the radar (literally), especially if it's a cloudy day anyway.

I can't imagine not taking a full rain gear set on a Bandon trip at any time of the year. Definitely get the gear before you go, as the prices in the pro shop for rain gear are resort-level.

@spud3 fair point on the rain gear. i guess i was trying to avoid it if possible but I do remember people (Matt Ginella, e.g.) saying to bring rain gear even in the summer.

Use Accuweather for your weather app. They have a station a couple miles down the road and seem to be the most accurate. Forecast looks good

DAY 1:

I guess I was really spoiled the last time I came to Bandon, mostly because I lived in Denver at the time and all I had to do was hop on a 2 hour flight and drive down from Portland. Coming from the East Coast is certainly longer, but the only real issue was that my flight into North Bend was delayed about 5 hours in San Francisco, so I got to know that airport real well. I lucked out in that I didn’t book any golf for my arrival day, otherwise that would’ve been wiped out: I probably got to the resort at 6:30 instead of some time around 1 or 2. In spite of the fact that getting to Bandon took way longer than anticipated, once the wheels touched down in North Bend, I felt at ease.

As I mentioned in my pre-trip summary, I had booked transportation through Aviation, and to my surprise, I was the only person on my flight to use Aviation, so I lucked into a private shuttle ride from the airport to the resort! The ride was lovely, and they were very generous in offering me any water, soft drinks, or beer I might want for my stay at Bandon. I would definitely recommend. My driver commented that she must have gotten a bit numb to how beautiful this part of the country is, mostly because I kept commenting on how beautiful the rivers, trees, and mountains looked as we drove the half hour or so down to Bandon.

Once I arrived at the resort, check in was smooth and easy. I was eager to get out and hit balls and dust off the cobwebs built up in my golf game from not playing for a couple weeks due to shipping my clubs ahead early, so I went over to Guest Services, found my clubs in their travel bag right where everyone said they’d be, and I grabbed them and headed over to the practice facility. As an aside, the shuttles are amazing and very prompt. When I was here last time, my dad and I had a car, so we didn’t really use the shuttles that the resort provided. They’re timely and comfortable. Someone must have pushed the “guest just arrived to the resort button” since the shuttle that took me over to the Practice Facility was playing “Heaven is a Place on Earth”. Bandon certainly feels that way at times.

After being dropped off at a completely empty practice range, I realized that the driver had just told me that I was too late to use the range itself, so my “consolation prize” was hitting putts on the enormous practice green to get accustomed to the lag putts that I inevitably will see on all the courses.

I was eager to try out Shorty’s because I had skipped it on my last trip. The red flag was flying, which meant that I kept myself to holes 1,2, and 9. In spite of this, it was a blast to buzz around Shorty’s by myself for just a few minutes. For a “free” amenity, I was pleasantly surprised by how real the undulations and bunkering were on the greens that I saw. It was a really nice warmup to just hit a couple shots into those greens.

My tour of Bandon’s free warmup activities brought me to the Punchbowl as light started to fade. The Punchbowl was entirely empty except for one group of maybe 8 guys that were a good ways ahead of me as I started. I remember playing the Punchbowl with my dad on my previous trip, and it’s just a bundle of fun. Ironically, the putt I had the most trouble with was probably 15 feet, but those 15 feet required navigating a huge hump and getting the ball to trundle down just to the hole and not down past it. I could see the Punchbowl being even more fun with a group where some friendly wagers and beverages are consumed.

I checked into my room in the Lodge, and I found myself realizing how convenient staying in the Lodge is. The one night that I had stayed on site previously was in Lily Pond, which while nice, doesn’t make it as easy to just walk downstairs to grab a bite to eat, a drink, or ask Guest Services a quick question. Now I have the honor of sleeping on my “overnight lead”: Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails await for what I hope will be a great day of golf.

DAY 2:

My day started bright and early, as I knew I had 36 holes ahead of me. I opted to hit the Practice Facility before my tee time at Pacific Dunes because I wasn’t able to hit balls on arrival day like I was originally planning to do. I was joined by a bunch of other golfers bright and early on the range, including a twosome whom I met on the shuttle ride over that happened to be paired up with me around Pacific. In an unusual twist on the typical Bandon summer weather pattern, the morning was overcast, and the forecast called for rain for most of the day. While I was able to stay dry during the warm up, the same cannot be said of my round at Pacific this morning. I knew we were in for some rain when the caddies that were stationed at the shuttle drop off at the Pacific Dunes pro-shop were donned in their Gore Tex rain suits. Luckily, I had picked up rain gear of my own before leaving for the trip, and it came to be incredibly useful: it rained solidly for all but maybe 3 holes on the front nine during our round, and I would’ve been soaked to the bone (or out however much the Pacific Dunes pro shop would’ve wanted for a rain jacket). I think the twosome with whom I was supposed to play got scared off by the weather: they didn’t show on the first tee and I ended up having my tee time moved up by 10 minutes and playing with a threesome. We also had an atypical southerly wind for the round, which was lighter and counter to the typical strong, northerly breezes that Bandon usually sees in the summer. This meant that 4 played slightly into the wind while 13 played slightly downwind.

A few general thoughts on the course and my experience:

In spite of the unpredictable weather we got, the round was outstanding. I had played Pacific years ago on my previous trip to Bandon, but the holes never seemed exactly how I remembered them: maybe more uphill here, a different framing/angle there. It felt fresh and not at all repetitive.

I found myself remarking time and again how undulating all of the terrain at Pacific is: wild humps and bumps litter the layout and make for some crazy bounces and lies.

The par 5’s at Pacific were so intriguing: the use of center-line bunkers to force players to make a decision on what would otherwise be a grip it and rip it type shot on a par 5 with a pretty wide fairway brought lots of strategy to the round.

I forget how much the wind influences how these holes play: today I played 13 with 3-wood and a short iron where last time I played driver, 4-iron and may have still been short of the green.

I was really impressed by the quality of the inland holes, which is a testament to how well Doak was able to design the course. I’m struggling to think of any holes that I would consider “weak”. Essentially every hole had fun, challenging golf shots required and standout characteristics.

My favorite three-hole stretch on the course: 9,10,11. I really think this is the coolest aspect of Pacific Dunes that really sets it apart from any other course I’ve ever played: you have a really cool par 4 with two greens (we played the upper today) that consequently leads to two drastically different shots into 10, and then follows up with a second par 3 in a row in 11 with gorgeous views smack on the coast and up North towards Old Mac and the Sheep Ranch.

My favorite hole on the course: 4. The word “epic” comes to mind when describing 4 at Pac. It’s a challenging tee shot and another challenging approach along the cliffs high above the Pacific. Truly a dramatic crescendo on the front 9.

I really think it’s a testament to Pacific that I was having so much fun while getting poured on to the point that puddles started to form in low points on some of the greens. It really holds your attention for the entire 4+ hours it takes to go around the track. An unbelievably awesome golf course.

After the round, I quickly made my way back to the room to shower and dry off from the previous round. The shower between rounds (if time permits) is a 10/10 recommendation. I felt awesome after getting refreshed before making my way over to my afternoon round on Trails.

I had lunch at Trails End, and enjoyed the Noodle Bowl. Flavorful, very different. My take was that it was essentially like a big bowl of Asian chicken noodle soup (with pork belly, greens, and an egg thrown in for good measure).

After I checked in and met up with my caddie, the timing worked out such that the twosome with whom I was supposed to play didn’t quite show up on time, so I ended up having the box to myself as my caddie and I made our way around Trails.

Some thoughts on Bandon Trails:

I’m an enormous fan of Trails, and have fond memories of my first round there years ago. It’s just a classy, excellent golf course that has no weak holes, in my opinion.

I found myself noticing spots where Coore and Crenshaw play some games of deception: making open/forgiving areas look riskier than they are (i.e. short and left on #2 or long and left on #9), or framing a bunker as if it were greenside when in fact it’s 15-20 yards short of the front (#3).

The use of landforms on 4 and 6 was really well done. The hog’s back and kicker/downslope were such cool features.

Something about the way the trees frame the holes on this course is so aesthetically pleasing. Especially once you get into the heart of the course, 3-17 in the forest, it’s so incredibly peaceful.

I enjoyed playing 14 a lot, even though I know the hole is quite controversial.

Coore and Crenshaw’s set of par 3’s here are outstanding: they’re 4 really different shots that require different clubs and are uniformly beautiful and engaging to play.

The highlight of the day scoring-wise was an approach to 8” on 15. A fun kick in birdie!

The center-line bunker strategy element carried over from Pacific to Trails. The par 5’s were quite strategic, and the greensite at #9 is so beautifully framed by the tall evergreens.

The walk is unbelievably serene and peaceful. We saw deer and turkeys in abundance, which only added to the nature trail feel of the course.

My favorite three-hole stretch: man I’m really struggling on this, but I’ll say 7,8, and 9: a beautiful, long par 4, a challenging but fun short 4, and a beautiful par 5 back into the heart of the forest. I kept thinking that there are so many good 3-hole stretches out there: I could’ve said 4,5,6 or 13,14,15 or 11,12,13 as well very easily!

My favorite hole: 11. A big, graceful, gently-turning par 4 framed by the forest and the only water hazard on property. It’s a tremendous golf hole on a course littered with tremendous golf holes.

At this point I was buzzing having walked off Trails and really enjoying the walk. I decided to see if I could get on the Preserve afterwards, and they were able to sneak me out. The $0 price tag of the Preserve at that point was insane.

As so many people have undoubtedly said before, the Preserve is so fun. At least for me, a par-3 course conjures up images of flat, uninteresting holes with little to no creativity in green complex design. The Preserve is as far from this picture as you could possibly get: real-size slopes, bunkers, and contours abound and make for really interesting holes. 6 and 9 were probably my two favorites, both playing towards the ocean, but there were a couple really intriguing holes like 8, maybe a 60-yard flip over a mound, or an Alps par 3 maybe? I could see it being a great way to blow off some steam with a bigger group or to take a breather from the 36-hole life at Bandon.

The audible to moving the Preserve to today unfortunately left my legs quite tired by the end of the round, as you might expect having played 49 holes in a day (my phone said I walked 30,000+ steps). In essence, I just moved up my round on the Preserve to today and ended up with a $100 discount there.

Dinner was at McKee’s. I was lucky to be able to squeeze into one of the last bar seats they had: the place was quite packed and the bartenders were busy people. I had the Shepherd’s Pie, which was filling and tremendous!

Tomorrow is back to Pacific for Round 2. It looks like it will be more typical Bandon weather-wise, with sun and wind. Thanks for reading!!

Loving your posts! I'm there in 2 weeks. Can barely stand it!

Keep the posts coming. Great read

Nice reports! I'm feeling the day to day updates. Keep going and have fun out there!

Man, every time I read a good report like this, I start gettin' that ... feeling......

Great report.

I’ve said it before and it may sound funny being a Top 25 course in the US or whatever but I honestly believe Trails is one of the most underrated courses in the country. The other courses on property are ranked higher because of location, IMO, not course layout. Trails is the one course on property that you could just pick up and drop anywhere and the layout would still make it a Top 25 course.