Tiger:
It's been awhile since you've been there, no?
Boy, I find a lot to disagree with in your assessment of Bandon Dunes course. Kinda strange, you and I are usually quite simpatico. But here goes...
#1 - no target to aim at? Please. If anything there is MUCH more of a line to follow than #1 PD on the tee shot. Then let's talk about the greens... BD is a table-top, yes, but it's HUGE and one can run it up from the right in any wind, and the ball will stay up on the right no matter what. #1 PD is in a hollow but more importantly is pretty darn tiny... Heck, to me both are pretty darn fine golf holes, the bottom line being there's no way #1 PD, with it's moonscape fairway with death on both sides, is a better golf hole due to playability. I like the hole. Just don't tell me it's better than #1 BD - it's not. And #1 BD is "poorly thought out"? Please. It gives you a choice to make off the tee (right is better line in, but is risky).. then a darn fun green to shoot at. Just how is this poorly thought out?
#7 BD - I don't see the problem - there is a LOT of room on the left to take the ball in, missing the falloff on the right.
Yes, there are table-top greens besides this, but that's what makes them fun.... None of them are undoable, or to put it better, any less doable than the greens at many holes on PD... think about PD 6, 11, 13, 14 in this contect... kinda tough to put all the bad thoughts on BD!
Collection areas are a problem? Go look at the divots on #16 at PD - good lord, the low points are so covered now, it's damn near impossible NOT to hit out of a divot unless you drive the green. So hmmmm... did Doak also make this rookie mistake in design and drainage? As for #13 BD, yes the balls do collect into certain places, but they are HUGE so it's not nearly the problem it is on 16 PD. And if one is looking at 17 flag while playing 13, well one ought not to be fooled more than once.
15 and 6 are the same holes? Please. #6 goes over a cliff area, same as #11 PD. If anything those two are similar golf holes. #15 is night and day different... death bunker right, requiring a ballsy shot into the wind that I find thrilling. Played it into a 4club wind the other day, and it was doable.
16 is a horrible hole down-wind? Huh. Tell that to my guys, all of whom loved it, all of whom played it in a two-club downwind. Now of course in a gale it becomes problematic, but one could say that for about 30 of the 54 holes on the property so I find that to be not a very valid critique...
17 is unplayable in a south wind? Yes it becomes tough, and yes perhaps more fairway should be allowed to the left, but just hit an iron off the tee and it's doable... In any case the approach is so damn fun there, and the green so cool, I find it hard to criticize that hole too harshly.
Oh well, we could go on and on, and maybe we will. Just assume I have a counter to every point you make.
The bottom line is this: the course are as different as night and day, yes. Different look, different feel, different play. I find that to be a GOOD thing. The difference just is not that one is great and the other is not.
Pacific Dunes is a great golf course.
But so is Bandon Dunes.
And Bandon Trails just may be better than both of them.
TH