How links golf in Oregon became my favorite experience in the game» BY KEVIN MERFELD
he best day of the year is that Sunday in March when we gain an extra hour of daylight. It be- came an offi cial holiday on the Merfeld calendar
in 2004, when I chose the frigid beaches of Oregon and binging on golf over the steamy beaches of Cancun and binging on booze during my college spring break. My dad and I haven’t missed a March
since. Daylight Savings is our new Christmas morning. We spring out of bed, jump into our car and cruise 10.5 hours up the coast to what might as well be the North Pole and Santa’s Workshop. Our Golf Wonderland is called Ban- don Dunes Resort, and our father-son pilgrimage has morphed into a foursome that now includes two of my old college roommates. (They have seen the folly in their previous spring break ways.) Since our fi rst trips to Oregon,
Bandon has swelled from two of the best-kept secrets in golf with Spartan amenities to four courses rated inside Golf Magazine’s Top 15 U.S. Courses You Can Play. A 13-hole par-3 course opened in 2012, and it was promptly ranked Golf Digest’s No. 3 Most Fun Public Course in the country. There are now more restaurants (six) and lodging options (fi ve) than championship golf courses (four). But golf is still fi rst, second, and
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were given a parcel of land between Bandon Trails and Bandon Dunes, and asked to build as many compelling holes as they dream up. They invented 13 unique par 3s for Bandon Preserve, which donates all net proceeds to the philanthropic Wild Rivers Coast Alliance.
third at Bandon. A policy that perfectly embodies this philosophy is Bandon’s replay rate: the second round of the day is half-price, and the third (if you can swing it) is free. Our March trips include at least fi ve rounds in three days, while Bandon actually holds a summer solstice event where all four 18-hole courses can be played in one insanely overindulgent day. Golf at Bandon is encouraged in just about every known form: its four uniquely spectacular coastal courses; a 13-hole par-3 loop that will undoubt- edly house some of your favorite shots of the trip; a top-fl ight driving range that ingeniously converts into another fantastic par 3 course; and even a St. Andrews-inspired Himalayas-like putting course that barrels through a 100,000 square-foot green.
FALL 2015 /
NCGA.ORG / 29
PHOTO: WOOD SABOLD
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76