Staying at The Inn. Standard King room, nothing special. I would call the room a notch below a Courtyard. Basic non-rolling chair at the desk so kinda hard to sit at. I do have a pic of the room and will post it when I get back home.

I was smart and actually did that today for both courses to study tonight

Having to travel for work does have some advantages. I'm already trying to figure out how to get back here again.

get your butt to Shorty's at the south end of the practice facility!!! there's still plenty of daylight to squeeze in 9 holes for $5! take two clubs and a putter and have fun.

punchbowl from the patio at 7:45am on Jan 8th, 2016:

Punch Bowl. Not sure how to embed.

https://youtu.be/imkPL3i3z7o

do you even lag bro?

god, the place is empty. was that mid-day?

One handed putts since I was holding the phone. Couldn't get enough speed to get up it.

Yeah it was around Noon or so. I went back around 3p to play the Punch Bowl and I was the only one out there until the end of my 36 holes. They said it's fairly empty this week. I had my choice of Bandon Trails or Old Mac tomorrow for a replay. Their quote was "it's wide open".

kind of makes sense, it's mid-week and also spring break in Oregon leading up to Easter weekend. Lots of folks on family trips this week and not on a golf getaway. Nice timing.

Awesome stuff so far scott! Enjoy tomorrow and can't wait to hear about your experience! I love and miss that place. Will still post January TR eventually. I'm going again in November.

Photo dump

http://imgur.com/a/Ayn38

Fun pics. Those two images labeled Bandon Trails 18??? are the 13th (and last) hole of the Preserve.

Ah, I was walking to the beach so I didn't know what course or holes they were. I did find a ProV1 walking there, which I grabbed and took pics of on the beach. It was in an odd spot to find a ball.

Teeing off in 1 hour. Don't think there will be much light to warm up though.

LOL at that being an odd place to find a ball. After your rounds today you'll understand why.

edit to mention it is possible (I've seen it) to hole out in 1 from the forward tee with a putter.

Awesome. I hope to go back this year.

45-40--85 at Pacific Dunes
41-44--85 at Old MacDonald

Absolutely loved Pacific Dunes. Really didn't care for Old MacDonald at all.

I thought the back 9 on Pacific was fairly easy. Overall I was hole high or just short of the green on 3 of the 4 par 5's. The one I didn't reach was 18. It played 575y into a 20 mph wind.

I will leave you with two photos. My tee shot to 17, which I missed the putt.


Photo of the ocean in the background.


I will do a full trip report over a few days.

One other quick thing.

7:40a tee time, second off for Pacific. With a foursome we played in 3:50.
12:10p tee time for Old Mac. I went off as a single and didn't catch anyone until 13, which was a twosome of employees and I played through. That's it. Played in 2:45.

Third round of the day is without additional cost. Should have jetted over to Bandon Dunes and gotten as many in as possible.

Great shot on 17 there. That's an amazing hole.

Old Mac is def the most polarizing of the four.

Glad you got to play - looking forward to the full TR

Tee shot on #3 at Old Mac? Meh. Not a big fan of blind tee shots, especially on a resort course. The starter said the dead tree is a good aiming point. I started it right of there and didn't get the cut. Walked up and it was in the middle of the fairway. What I really didn't like was the blind second shot to the green from the middle of the fairway because of the severe mounding.

Pacific 9 was low tees and low green. I did see the high green though. I hit my tee shot left and had a severe lie on a side slope with no view of the green. I didn't expect to get a good hit on it so I took a 5 iron and made great contact and pulled it. I ended up RIGHT of the high green. Not exactly yardage markers from there to the low green. I ended up hitting it to 25 feet or so and made bogey.

Yeah I am all for a true links look, which this is. However, the greens are redic. No greens should ever have slopes like that. Some putts you were lucky to stop it within 5 feet of the hole. Playing the Punch Bowl is good practice for it.

And damn it, I didn't know the 3rd round was free. I would have for sure played another course and probably finished. I did have a 7 hour drive in front of me though.

First part of the trip report the actual golf.

Pacific Dunes
8 pars
7 bogeys
2 doubles
1 triple

The triple was on #7, 436y par 4. I pulled my tee shot right into some trees. Thought it opened up past where I hit it but it didn't and lost the ball. I just dropped near where I thought it would be. Proceeded to hit a bad chip out, then in the bunker, then 2 bunker shots. I gave up and picked the ball up.

I had several reasonable looks for birdie but didn't get a single one to fall. I hit 4 of the 5 par 3's including 3-putting one from about 20 feet.

The par 5's I thought were fairly easy, although I was playing the green tees.

#3 476y - Hit 5i into the green and left it a touch short.
#12 507y - Hit 4i that hit the front of the green but rolled off.
#15 - 504y - Hit a great 3h that caught the front right of the green but rolled off.
#18 575y - Yeah, didn't come close to hitting this one, IN THREE.


Old Macdonald

7 pars
9 bogeys
1 double
1 triple

I had several closer looks for birdie, including one of about 5 feet which I missed. I had probably 2-3 3-putt bogeys as the green complexes at Old Mac are extreme.

The triple was on #11, a 399y par 4. Hit hit probably my best drive of the day and had 93y left. Then I went chunk, putt into the bunker, thin bunker shot over, putt and comes back to my feet, putt on, make for triple.

Photos of Pacific and Old Mac

http://imgur.com/a/l23q3

Is old mac the Doak course? I know he does enjoy roller coaster greens, which I personally love, haven't played any of the Bandon courses though.

Correct, Doak and Urbina.

The resort itself is very nice, although the accommodations are a little meh based on the price. I paid $180 for a basic room, nothing special, nothing horrible.

The food and beverage prices are really good. They have you on property and people rarely leave so they could gouge you but they don's. I had a pizza one night with a soda for $13.50 and a sandwich and soda for lunch for $11.50.

Snacks at the courses were fairly cheap too.

The best part about the resort and all of the courses were the people that worked there. Every single one of them appeared to love to work there. They all ask you about how you played, where you are from, etc.

The caddy that the 2 people had on my Pacific round wasn't the nicest person in the world to myself and the other guy who didn't have one. For example, on a par 3 he would laser the yardage and then say it quiet enough to the people he was caddying for just so I didn't hear it. I had a laser myself and did it easily but that was unnecessary.

Caddy rarely said anything after one of the two of us hit a shot. Maybe one for twice the whole round. I get that we are not paying him but don't go out of your way to ignore the others in the group. Hell even if he was a little bit nicer I would have thrown $20 his way after the round.

After playing the two courses I can honestly say a caddy isn't worth it. Take a rickshaw.

Registered just to say how surprised I am about the caddy situation. I live about 3.5 hours south of Bandon and get up there 4-5 times a year. Probably played 20 rounds there last year. (not so humble brag lol) Of all the caddies Ive had or been in groups with I have never seen that. They are usually super helpful and will rake bunkers, read putts, give yardages basically everything but carry your bag for you if they aren't on your bag. If you want a really good caddy, request Nick W. It sucks you had that experience, because playing Bandon with a good looper is awesome.

Edit: Also the shot on 17, curious what club you hit, and where it landed first. Did you sling a cut in there off the right side and let it roll in there or fly it all the way? Every time I fly it to that green (hitting draw I'm right handed) it never holds. Now I aim way right and just kind of punch one over there and let it roll haha.

Yeah that's really terrible by the caddie.

At the club I work at if a member requests me for a match or something I'm still helping the other guy out as much as I can.