Random Bandon Thread

[dcmidnight]

8 hours ago, mci711 said:

Anyone going to be at Bandon the next couple weeks want to pick me up one of these water bottles and mail it to me? 😂  I'm hoping they still have them in November - great deal, $20 for a yeti. Wish they were online.

 

https://www.bandondunesgolf.com/blog/bandon-dunes-and-freshwater-trust-team-yeti-reduce-single-use-plastic

 

I've asked them a couple of times and they said they will try to sell them online but had no plans to. FFS please stop constantly showing cool stuff online to degenerates like me if you are not going to offer to sell me one lol.

 

Just occasionally I feel like they have a huge miss in the marketing/potential sales department. When I was there in the beginning of October, in each pro shop they were all wearing logo'd buffs with the individual course logo - and some of them were pretty cool. BUT - not for sale. What do you mean? Oh sorry sir, we're not selling these, even though we wear them. Took them maybe....6 or 7 months to decide to sell them online whereas in the actual middle of the pandemic, they probably could have made a mint selling those things from people onsite.

Edited May 6, 2021 by dcmidnight

[thechief16]

I suspect that they can't sell them online due to MAP from Yeti.  If you can get one online from BD for $20, why would anyone buy them for $30 anywhere else?

 

Not that I have checked out the BD website every other day since the announcement.  Which may, or may not, have resulted in yet another pro shop purchase that may or may not have included one of the aforementioned buffs (and a couple packs of the new branded Western Birch tees).

 

I'll surely be hitting up the crew headed out in the fall for a couple Yetis. 

 

  

[2bGood]

13 hours ago, thechief16 said:

I suspect that they can't sell them online due to MAP from Yeti.  If you can get one online from BD for $20, why would anyone buy them for $30 anywhere else?

 

Not that I have checked out the BD website every other day since the announcement.  Which may, or may not, have resulted in yet another pro shop purchase that may or may not have included one of the aforementioned buffs (and a couple packs of the new branded Western Birch tees).

 

I'll surely be hitting up the crew headed out in the fall for a couple Yetis. 

 

  

I suspect I was in the minority when I got the Yeti email. The build up had me thinking - cool they will give me a free bottle, but then I see $20.

 

I go for a week and go through 20+ bottles of water typically. I am all for refilling a water bottle and like that they will have fill stations, but they are going to both save money from me and charge me for the privilege of them saving money. 😃

 

I assume everyone would be an environmentalist if they were going to make money doing it. 

[dcmidnight]

IMO the smart thing to do would just be to increase your resort fee - or whatever fee they wanted to hide it in - by $20 and give you a free bottle.

[Drwoods2017]

We're headed out there in 2 weeks.  Can anyone whose been recently comment on dining.  Were you guys able to eat at the restaurants or did you have to do grab and go? We were originally told to make reservations then told we couldn't make them because of the limited capacity.

[gambit]

On 5/5/2021 at 7:24 PM, mci711 said:

Anyone going to be at Bandon the next couple weeks want to pick me up one of these water bottles and mail it to me? 😂  I'm hoping they still have them in November - great deal, $20 for a yeti. Wish they were online.

 

https://www.bandondunesgolf.com/blog/bandon-dunes-and-freshwater-trust-team-yeti-reduce-single-use-plastic

Just call the pro shop and they'll ship it to you. Shipping charge should be minimal.

[blink3665]

On 5/5/2021 at 7:24 PM, mci711 said:

Anyone going to be at Bandon the next couple weeks want to pick me up one of these water bottles and mail it to me? 😂  I'm hoping they still have them in November - great deal, $20 for a yeti. Wish they were online.

 

https://www.bandondunesgolf.com/blog/bandon-dunes-and-freshwater-trust-team-yeti-reduce-single-use-plastic

 

It's a fantastic deal. I got one, and actually now wish I had bought 2. 😞

 

I asked at 2 different pro shops, front desk of check in, and the main gift shop at the Bandon Dunes, if they had the white one. All sold out is what I was told. So I bought a Black one. You'll never guess what I saw in the main Bandon shop the very next morning. 😞 

[buzlin]

I emailed the resort about ordering one of them and they said they're only offering them to guests at check in.  

[BG5]

Random question.... I will be playing 36 holes each day that I am there in June.  A lot of my morning tee times are about 9:00.  Would it make sense to try and bump those up earlier to avoid as much wind as possible?  The first part of trip I will be golfing as single so hopefully would help.  How early do you veterans prefer to play?  I likely won’t be a party animal out there 😎

 

Lastly, my afternoon times are all around 4:00.  We have a huge game in between but my thoughts were either take a nap or get a message if I start to feel the affects.  Thoughts on a huge gap?

[Edaw68]

The gap between isn’t a big deal, especially as a single. Gives you plenty of time for lunch, footcare, stretching, etc. As a single if you find you’re waiting around for the second round it’s usually easy enough to just check at any one of the pro shops for openings at any of the courses and walk on.

[dcmidnight]

I will say this too, if you have a caddie, they will appreciate the time. I never thought about it when we went out but we usually had two or so hours and our caddie mentioned how much they appreciate having the time to eat and put their feet up too.

[2bGood]

15 hours ago, BG5 said:

Random question.... I will be playing 36 holes each day that I am there in June.  A lot of my morning tee times are about 9:00.  Would it make sense to try and bump those up earlier to avoid as much wind as possible?  The first part of trip I will be golfing as single so hopefully would help.  How early do you veterans prefer to play?  I likely won’t be a party animal out there 😎

 

Lastly, my afternoon times are all around 4:00.  We have a huge game in between but my thoughts were either take a nap or get a message if I start to feel the affects.  Thoughts on a huge gap?

Trying to avoid weather at Bandon is a fool's task. Don't move tee times around for this purpose. 

 

More time between rounds helps some and hurts others. The worst thing I have I can do when playing 36 multiple days in a row is take a long break between rounds - my old bones and muscles seem to prefer to keep moving. 

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by 2bGood

[dvq9654]

On 5/8/2021 at 4:46 PM, 2bGood said:

Trying to avoid weather at Bandon is a fool's task. Don't move tee times around for this purpose. 

 

This is excellent advice. We went last May, and I would argue our two best rounds were when the weather was the "worst" (see below for some specifics). If we had tried to plan around the weather or thrown in the towel, we would have missed out on awesome experiences. Take whatever the weather gives you and enjoy it.

 

Instance 1 - It was supposed to rain hard all AM and we had an Old Mac tee time. We showed up and were the first ones off - just the two of us. This was in the midst of COVID, so that may have played into it, but felt like we were the only ones on the course for at least the first hour or two of our round. The alleged rains weren't anywhere to be found, but we were enshrouded in a dense, low cloud cover, with absolutely zero wind. We played ~13 holes in dark, overcast, calm conditions and it was surreal. It started to rain a bit on the last handful of holes, but even that was intermittent. The real stuff came down about 15 minutes after our round. Was one of the coolest rounds I've played until... 

 

Instance 2 - Soon after we left Old Mac, it was absolutely pouring rain. We had a tee time in a couple hours at Pacific. We headed back to our room, grabbed some food and started watching the hourly forecast on weather.gov. Didn't look good, but we asked ourselves, "what else are we going to do?" So, we took a few swigs of whiskey (and packed some extra in our bag) and headed for Pacific. When we tee'd off, it was dumping. Fairways were soaked and we figured we'd walk off 18 soaked and frozen. We were wrong. Rain let up on 3, clouds started to part and we played 15 holes amongst low hanging, wispy clouds with little to no wind. I shot a cool 73, walked off dry and with a huge smile on may face. Pacific is my favorite Bandon track because of this round

 

I'm sure there are other cases where you're cursing the golf gods because the weather is brutal, but don't turn back - you never know what you'll get.    

Edited May 10, 2021 by dvq9654

[deadsolid...shank]

I got a FB message last week saying there is now a direct flight from Denver into North Bend. Sorry, don’t remember the airline. But I know I’ve read how troublesome the connection to NB can be. 

[BG5]

Random question.... i plan on playing some closer tees to help my game out as these courses look pretty tough.  At least Trails, Pac Dunes and Bandon Dunes look tough to me.

 

How much roll does your ball get on drives.  Are these courses so firm that you get alot more roll than your average course?  I usually drive my ball about 230 so would it be fair to say I may get an extra 15-25 yards here?

[blink3665]

6 minutes ago, BG5 said:

Random question.... i plan on playing some closer tees to help my game out as these courses look pretty tough.  At least Trails, Pac Dunes and Bandon Dunes look tough to me.

 

How much roll does your ball get on drives.  Are these courses so firm that you get alot more roll than your average course?  I usually drive my ball about 230 so would it be fair to say I may get an extra 15-25 yards here?

 

I'm normally a 220-240 driver up here in the soft PNW. I was getting 240-260 pretty regularly, without really trying to step on it. I dont know if it was the constant adrenaline from being at Bandon, or the hard fairways, or both. But I would anticipate that you will be able to tack on 15-25 yards pretty easy, as long as youre hitting fairways.

Edited May 10, 2021 by blink3665

[dvq9654]

Random question - what is considered "windy" at Bandon, MPH-wise? It doesn't matter and it will be what it will be, but curious what would be considered mild vs. windy for those who have been and kept track. We went last year, but it wasn't something I focused on and am curious given an upcoming trip. 

[BG5]

I have been watching the wind each day on weather.com in Bandon in May....Seems like almost every day in May about noon you have around 20mph up until 7-8 at night.  The the morning in May it has been around 10-15 mph up until noon ish.  My guess that anything over 25 mph is considered "windy" and I would expect anything under 25 mph to be considered normal.  I have never been but using weather .com for alot of years its amazing accurate.  With that being said Bandon is on the coast so maybe that totally changes things in terms of accuracy.

[buzlin]

I feel like a 2-3 club wind is expected.  Once it gets over that, it becomes a have fun, have some laughs experience.  

[spud3]

58 minutes ago, BG5 said:

Random question.... i plan on playing some closer tees to help my game out as these courses look pretty tough.  At least Trails, Pac Dunes and Bandon Dunes look tough to me.

 

How much roll does your ball get on drives.  Are these courses so firm that you get alot more roll than your average course?  I usually drive my ball about 230 so would it be fair to say I may get an extra 15-25 yards here?

Start with the green tees and evaluate from there.  If you find yourself hitting mostly long irons and hybrids into greens, then move up to the golds.

 

I've started playing gold tees from any non-par 3 that's over 400 yards.  I've never been a long hitter and just passed the big six-oh, so my game is edging toward the next tees up.  It's a lot more fun hitting mid and short irons into greens...

[BG5]

5 minutes ago, spud3 said:

Start with the green tees and evaluate from there.  If you find yourself hitting mostly long irons and hybrids into greens, then move up to the golds.

 

I've started playing gold tees from any non-par 3 that's over 400 yards.  I've never been a long hitter and just passed the big six-oh, so my game is edging toward the next tees up.  It's a lot more fun hitting mid and short irons into greens...

 

Spud...thanks for feedback....I am only 40 but have found that playing closer tees just makes the game so much more enjoyable as I am also not a huge hitter.  I was planning on playing a combo of the golds and oranges (Womens)  It should play about 5300 which should really make it that much more enjoyable

[spud3]

46 minutes ago, dvq9654 said:

Random question - what is considered "windy" at Bandon, MPH-wise? It doesn't matter and it will be what it will be, but curious what would be considered mild vs. windy for those who have been and kept track. We went last year, but it wasn't something I focused on and am curious given an upcoming trip. 

I consider anything under 10 mph to be "calm," 10-20 as "breezy," and 20-30 to be "windy" (with appropriate adjectives for each of those).  That's for the sustained wind speed.  Gusts are a different story.  Sustained wind over 30 makes playing "Golf" fairly problematic and gusts can be strong enough there to blow your putted ball offline (or off the green), not to mention make it difficult to maintain your backswing.  I toss the scorecard and play old balls when it's that windy.

 

One thing to consider is if the source of the weather info is the airport or the resort.  The airport is quite a ways inland and will be less windy than right down on the water.  I ask every time I go if they would please set up a weather station at the lodge and put the data on the web site.  They have yet to listen...

[spud3]

3 minutes ago, BG5 said:

 

Spud...thanks for feedback....I am only 40 but have found that playing closer tees just makes the game so much more enjoyable as I am also not a huge hitter.  I was planning on playing a combo of the golds and oranges (Womens)  It should play about 5300 which should really make it that much more enjoyable

Sure, that's the great thing about it - you can start with what seems like it would work and adjust (or not!) from there.  Make it fun!

[CDM]

16 hours ago, deadsolid...shank said:

I got a FB message last week saying there is now a direct flight from Denver into North Bend. Sorry, don’t remember the airline. But I know I’ve read how troublesome the connection to NB can be. 

 

United Airlines is flying direct into North Bend from DIA now.  Going end of June and we looked at it but decided to do Portland and play the day we land.

 

Edit:  Plus if I recall right I don't think they had flights the days we are going.  I think it started a few days after our trip. Also the direct flights I am pretty sure was certain days.

Edited May 10, 2021 by CDM

[ryu123]

BG5,   as for overall driving distances, several things to consider.    The resort is obviously at sea level (or 80 feet above, in places), the fairways are very firm, plus the wind can be formidable.

 

Some years ago I played with two very good players from San Diego.  Downwind they hit long high drives that were 60 - 70 yds past mine.  Into the wind, with my low draw I was almost even with them, including the rollout.   So ball flight is important.

[jrg75]

5 hours ago, BG5 said:

 

Spud...thanks for feedback....I am only 40 but have found that playing closer tees just makes the game so much more enjoyable as I am also not a huge hitter.  I was planning on playing a combo of the golds and oranges (Womens)  It should play about 5300 which should really make it that much more enjoyable

Gold should be fine and Green are probably doable at your length.  I'm 45, probably a little longer but always play Green.  There's a decent mix of hole lengths and wind direction that it seems to even out in my opinion.

 

I just looked at the flyovers and my yardage books, i honestly think the orange tees would be a mistake.  It takes away some of the cool angles, plus it makes some ridiculously short holes and brings into play some weird hazards if you hit driver.

[CDM]

Question, what dates are the Solstice this year?   

[spud3]

Actual event is June 22

[2bGood]

6 hours ago, jrg75 said:

Gold should be fine and Green are probably doable at your length.  I'm 45, probably a little longer but always play Green.  There's a decent mix of hole lengths and wind direction that it seems to even out in my opinion.

 

I just looked at the flyovers and my yardage books, i honestly think the orange tees would be a mistake.  It takes away some of the cool angles, plus it makes some ridiculously short holes and brings into play some weird hazards if you hit driver.

Yes the oranges seems like it would not be much fun if you can hit the ball 250 (with the roll you get there). Keep in mind it is pretty wide open, and the  ball rolls out nice and some of the greens are rather large depending the course (meaning the front of the green is closer than you think)

[BG5]

Good Point about the Orange tees.  I live in the midwest so I might drive up to Sand Valley and Mammouth Dunes and play the Senior tees which are about 5700 yards and see how I like it.  I am guessing that will give me a good idea about which tees I want to play.  I did play both courses last year at Sand Valley but cannot recall the tees I played but I think they were the mens tees which seemed a bit much for me.