Lodging. I've got mostly solo. A few buddies trips and a few with my girlfriend.

1. The Lodge - so convenient for everything. When I was just there in April 2022 the lodge was all closed up for accommodations as the rooms were being renovated. Never been loud even with the restaurants downstairs. Gym, spa, and sauna downstairs is nice for big golf trips.

2. The Inn - would potentially go #1 for me if the library bar/area was open (closed indefinitely since Covid). The Inn has it's own check in/front desk which is convenient. Very close to Preserve/Trails and a short easy walk to the lodge. Rooms are a little bigger than the lodge and the views of 18 at Bandon from across the canyon are great

3. Lily Pond - Biggest rooms I've seen and comfortable. Lower level have little outside patios. Less convenient to everything but especially to share a room (they're all double queens I believe) it's nice to have all the room.

Haven't stayed at the Chrome Lake, Round Lake or the Grove.

Also would love to do one of those AirBnBs near-by with 4 double rooms and a poker table, pool table, fire pit etc if I was going with a group of 8 or so.

A current list of course ranking. Preserve is always something I would play given the time.

First is if I had one round to play (final day, or passing through (lol)) and had time for one round:

1. Bandon
2. Trails
3. Sheep
4. Pacific
5. OM

Ranking of courses like in order of quality of routing, conditions, etc.

1. Trails
2. Bandon
3. Pacific
4. OM
5. Sheep

And finally my "if you have 10 rounds how do you split them" ranking:

3 Bandon
2 Trails
2 OM
2 Sheep
1 Pacific

Pacific is beautiful and has like 15 amazing golf holes but I also find it to be very hard and the least amount of fun, especially as the bulk of my rounds have been with the winter south wind.

After 4 rounds at sheep I went from being amazed (round 1) to really thinking it stunk (rounds 2 and 3) and now coming to a good understanding that it's an awesome resort course where you get a lot of great ocean front holes but it's not some amazing piece of routing brilliance (like Trails) or complete golf course (Bandon).

Old Mac could almost be my favorite at time - so many cool holes and a fun routing. I really like just about every hole and get quite excited each time I play it.

Trails is so pure - what a routing and an amazing variety of holes. I think if they added 5 yards of extra green on the back of #14 (there's room) it would be practically flawless. Some fun and nice birdie opportunity holes. Some long and tough holes where par feels like a win. So peaceful and engaging.

Bandon is my like perfect golf course - perfect length, great width, amazing green complexity, etc. I don't have any holes I would really change or dislike and have found in my last two trips that the greens have been the best on the property - they roll amazing.

Caddies. My brother is a full-time caddie up there so of course if you enjoy playing with a caddie and it fits in your budget I think it's worth it.

That said it's a huge caddie system with 200+ year-round caddies and 400+ in the summer. So you could get a crappy caddie who either drinks too much, talks too much or is a bit of a douche-tool

But for the most part I have found all but like 2 (out of 20+) of the caddies I've had and been in group with to be really great and an addition to the round/experience.

The biggest gripe I see from some (and one first timer in my group last month) is that they expected the caddies to help them make every putt. Not possible due to the subtlety of the greens and how hard it is to convey speed and line from player to caddie. I do find that the caddies due a good job of adjusting to how the players putt - and giving dying speed or holing speed type reads based on how the player putts.

Likewise I find that the caddies do a good job figuring out player yardages and helping usher you around the courses.

This trip was my first experience with caddies double bagging and splitting/chopping (3 bags between 2 caddies). I had always though that it would really slow down play and reduce the amount of attention each player got but I was surprised how well it mostly worked. I think the caddies realize that for the most part the players are self sufficient in some regards. Player A left and Player B right on a par 5 - hand one of them a hybrid and head to the others, etc. It is slower but not severely so and it works - plus the guys making the extra money I think they work hard for it and still provide a high level of service.

I haven't done the group caddie thing but I am intrigued but mostly for me I'm looking to keep my energy up by not carrying or pushing and that plus the advice makes it totally worth while.

I will pre-rank my courses prior to the trip:

1 - Trails - Partly because this is the least played course. Mostly because of the solitude. This is a course I could pick if I could only play one more the rest of my life.
2 - Pacific - Played the most rounds here and I know how to get around it, so that likely has something to do with it. I just like the layout.
3 - Old Mac - This was dead last by a long ways the first couple times I played it. The more I do now the more I enjoy it. It has a possibility to move up to #2 after this trip.
4 - Bandon - I have played this one the least but I dunno, I really just don't enjoy it as much (relatively speaking).

Incomplete - Sheep

Not rated - I also enjoy the preserve. Playing it with buddies for the first time should be even more enjoyable.

Someone on my trip is staying at a rented 4BR house so I will see what it's like. Will also ask about the price too. The tough part about it is not being able to get tee times far in advance. I put him on my reservation for an extra $20 a day in order to get his tee times.

BTW house is just south of the city of Bandon.

King, I'm also a member of the "Pacific isn't my favorite" club; our membership is small. It's obviously a great course, but I do wonder if it's oceanfront location has something to do with its popularity.

great stuff...i'll chime in this evening when i have more time.

Some really good info the last few posts KJ, but I wonder about.....

So you're saying there's no young female caddies? Or perhaps you're just a prude.....

immatureBO

oh, i've seen several young female caddies around that place over the years, many of them rather distracting even in the white overalls.

Well day 1 in Portland was a complete washout. It was nice starting around 6p though! Tee time at Pumpkin-Ghost is at 1:50p. If it is a rainout I think plan is Top Golf or hiking in the gorge.

good luck at Ghost with the rain we've had. it tends to be pretty mucky when wet and if they haven't had a chance to mow the rough it's going to be a challenge.
have fun!

Yeah Ghost doesn't look good as of right now. Before I arrived they played Witch. He said it was soft in a few spots and the rough was quite a challenge there.

other alternatives to TopGolf
https://simgolf.com/
https://playxgolf.com/locations/main...r-indoor-golf/

i haven't been to either one but have heard good things. no promises about fit blondes in black outfits.

In my experience Ghost might actually be the worst golf course in the area to play when it's been soggy (the ones that are literally underwater excluded, of course)

yeah, ghost is a challenging course in the fall when it's dry and shaved tight (when the US Ams, Open Q's, and LPGA events have been held)
their problem is the drainage is ****.
spring golf at ghost: drives plugging when you find the fairway, 2" rough that is known to either delete a ball from the face of the earth or require a 5i to pitch out 50 yards, and lol'ing at the thought of putting your ball out of its own pitch mark on the green 'cause that's where it rests

Yep, just horrible. Once you leave the fairway you're slogging through mud, and sometimes even on the fairway. When it's wet I much prefer Quail Valley, especially for the price.

41-47-88

Ugh. It rained on us 5 different times. I hit lots of fairways but irons into the greens were beyond terrible. The rough around the green is no joke. Greens were running super fast even with the rain. Overall I didn't think it was terrible conditions wise. It was soaked for sure, but still playable.

glad to hear you made it out (seriously).
from around noon on the weather wasn't so bad and i was hoping you made it out, until around 3pm when the sky opened up and dropped buckets.
i'm curious to hear what you think about that course (if you can mentally separate the conditions from the layout).
and yes, the rough out there is serious business.

I thought the layout was good, not spectacular. The bunkering around the green was pretty tough. Course kinda reminded me of ones I played in Northern MN growing up.

BTW they were already fixing stuff up and have started putting up grandstands for the Saudi event in July. Guy in pro shop said it will be 12 holes from Ghost and 6 from Witch.

yeah, them hosting the saudi event is the reason most of our group won't play there again. their current ownership group is out of texas and owns courses across the country. bought them in 2015.

enough about portland golf....onward to Bandon!

41-41-82 at Witch

Will post more later.

So at witch 1 birdie and I think 1-2 doubles. That course has so many more better holes to me. The trees frame the course very well. It is super easy to make bogeys on that course. Miss a green and getting up and down for par is tough. Two notable holes:

#10 165ish par 3. I started to struggle getting irons airborne during the round, I think it was a combo of wet ground and uneven lies, and I hit a 7 iron about 30 feet off the ground in the far left trap. I had a huge lip and had to carry a second bunker to get to the green. Hit a perfect one and rolled out to a foot.

#16 - 365ish par 4. I send my drive way left behind two trees in the rough. I have just enough room to hit a shot. Don't look at the yardage and grab 7 iron and too the biggest hook swing I could. Actually pulled it off but should have looked at yardage. I hit back of green, pin was in front. Had about a 100 foot putt from the top tier down to the lower. Too about 10 seconds to get to the hole and it probably would have gone 6-8 feet by but it hit the hole and the pin and bounced out to 2" for par. Actually needed that one as it was worth 3 skins and birdies double.

Cold weather always kills my hands. So far I have a small split in my bottom hand middle finger. Not a great start. Might have to two glove it from the beginning.

Now off to Bandon!

Good luck and have fun

Sheep Ranch (par is 34-38-72)

Shot 37-39-76

2 birdies, no bogeys

Caught it on a no wind day, maybe 5 max. It rained for the first 4-5 holes, nothing major, just a touch annoying. Temp was 42 at tee off but felt find because of the lack of wind. I 3-putt bogeyed 2 of the first four holes, mainly because we had to putt through standing water on the greens from overnight rain. There was spots of water on greens the rest of the way, but they were good enough, although they were pretty slow.

Playing it a second time I could see where I would save some shots. The course was pretty easy. Birdies were on #4 and #17. Our whole group birdied #17 actually. I had a kick-in and the other two made putts of 5 and 10 feet. Easy game.

Bandon Trails

43-38-81

1 birdie, 2 doubles

Wind picked up to the 15 mph range at the start of the round. Me and wind don't mix. I struggled off of the tee most of the round. Birdie was on 18. hit 54* to 10 feet and made it.

Tomorrow is Old Mac in the AM and Bandon Dunes in the PM.

Just one small blister on the toe but I feel great so far.