Bandon, good golf but bad....

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

I think everyone should realize how CHEAP Bandon is in comparison to EVERYTHING out there in its class.

Kohler  $325 for Whistling Straits
Pebble $450 for Pebble Beach
Sawgrass $295 for TPC (might be higher)

Harbour Town and Kiawah are well north of $200.  

Yet, you can roll up and play Pacific Dunes for $185 and then half that for the second.  None of the places listed above would let you back around for less than full tilt.  

And for the people that think it isn't nice enough then don't come back and be sure to tell your friends how crappy it is as well.

To be fair, if you take into consideration the cost of getting there included in the green fee, prices come more in line.  Plus, you might want to check your replay rate facts.  Replay on The Ocean Course is $110 ($160 if transfering from another one of our courses).

[Steve_Roths]

Flying to Portland is cheaper than flying to Charleston.  By far.  You can always get cheap fares into Portland and then a nice four hour drive down to Bandon.  With Kiawah there is no real cheap alternative.  Charleston, Columbia, & or Jacksonville never really have cheap alternatives to getting into them.  

I am not knocking Kiawah at all, its a beautiful area and a great course.  But, if you are coming from the midwest the cost point is moot.

What is the cost for walking up to the proshop and getting out on the Ocean Course these days?  Are you guys in the $300 range yet?

[Glenn Spencer]

Flying to Portland is cheaper than flying to Charleston.  By far.  You can always get cheap fares into Portland and then a nice four hour drive down to Bandon.  With Kiawah there is no real cheap alternative.  Charleston, Columbia, & or Jacksonville never really have cheap alternatives to getting into them.  

I am not knocking Kiawah at all, its a beautiful area and a great course.  But, if you are coming from the midwest the cost point is moot.

What is the cost for walking up to the proshop and getting out on the Ocean Course these days?  Are you guys in the $300 range yet?

Nice 4-hour drive? It sounds like Bandon is a golf only trip, Kiawah has it all.

[Tom Huckaby]

In fairness, Steve left out that you can also connect in Portland to Horizon Air puddle-jumper down to N. Bend, making flying into Bandon that much easier.  The times I've gone - from SF Bay Area - we got on a plane at 7am or something and were at the resort at noon, teeing it up at 1 - at pretty darn reasonable air fares too through Alaska Airlines.

BUT... I'd agree that Bandon is a golf-only trip.  Oh, a few here have taken non-golf wives along, but man they better be into seaside hikes long naps or they're gonna be bored stiff.  I gather that Kiawah does have a LOT more to do for the wife and kids.

TH

[John_Cullum]

TH

Don't work against me!! I've almost got this trip rationalized.

[Tom Huckaby]

TH

Don't work against me!! I've almost got this trip rationalized.

 
I'm all for you, man.  Just full disclosure, that's all.

[Dan Herrmann]

Tom - or just marry a gal that's more addicted to golf than you are  

[Tom Huckaby]

Tom - or just marry a gal that's more addicted to golf than you are  

Well now there's the best answer of all.  So dammit Dan, where were you 15 years ago when I started the journey that got me into this mess I'm in now?

 

[Brent Hutto]

All I know is this. Last time I ran the numbers, for someone living in South Carolina it's cheaper to make a golf trip to Edinburgh/Fife than to Bandon. By comparison Kiawah is so cheap and easy I don't know why I don't do it every weekend  

[Tom Huckaby]

Brent - yep - we've discussed this before, that's for sure.

I suppose the same goes for Pebble for me - it's sure as hell cheaper for me to play there than it is to play Bandon, all things considered.

So why don't we play these local greats more often?  

 

[Jason Blasberg]

They raved about the golf but said everything else was bad, poor food, poor service, just not what you would expect.  Has anyone else heard or expierenced this?  

I find it hard to believe that they thought the food was poor . . . did they eat in the main lodge or dine in the pub?  The main dining room was more than adequate and they had a good wine list.  I certainly consider myself a food snob and after playing 36 a day, dinner in the main lodge at night was just perfect (understandably my focus that week was not on the dining).

I found the lodge at BD to be perfect, not too much, but not too little.  With a great view of the course, it's hard to ask for much more.  

[peter_p]

Brent,
When I first played Bandon and met Josh Lesnick in command central I said pretty much the same thing. The course was every bit as good as Scotland, but you couldn't get them or east coasters to come because it was a lot cheaper to stay on the atlantic.

[Jason Blasberg]

and I also can not for the life of me recall a single meal that I ate all those days.

Geoff:

You must not have had the breakfast burrito at Pacific Dunes, simply awesome   especially considering I was awake for about 10 minutes both mornings I scuffed them down (they were served from the temporary facilities in 2003 so I"m not sure if they were being served when you were there).

[Craig Sweet]

So they had what was, in their minds, a less than great experience. So what?  

[Dan Smoot]

Dan,

My problem with Pacific Dunes was it lacking in a place to prepare for the round.  I think the facility is a one shotter if you get my drift.

 

Maybe I am missing something here.  I think the practice facilities are great unless you mean you need a "one shotter" to prepare for your round.  I don't care about the plexiglas, I usually can't take my focus off the cavernous bunker next to the 18th green remembering I don't ever want to go there.  The clubhouse is small and simple as it should be and I can't wait to get off the patio to get to the 1st tee.  The main facility next to the Bandon Dunes course is just fine with me.  It sure beats the environment around the Pebble Beach Lodge ("I want your money").  Pacific Dunes needs no embellishment.  Golf as it was meant to be.  Walking, a four hour round, no stacked up tee times, the dunes, the ocean, the elements and what a golf course.

[Brent Hutto]

So why don't we play these local greats more often?  

Good question. For some reason paying $200+ to play a course right down the road, even a great course with impeccable credentials like Spyglass Hill or the Ocean Course, seems like an unconscionable sum. But when I'm 4,000 miles from home and across an ocean $180 for two rounds at Walton Heath seems like a steal.

I think ultimately it comes down this. A day at Pebble/Spy/Pasa for you or at Kiawah for me mentally compares to staying home and playing at Santa Teresa or Columbia CC for virtually nothing. But I compare playing at a course in England or Scotland or Bandon to playing other expensive courses in England or Scotland or Bandon and so a couple hundred bucks seems required rather than optional.

[Brent Hutto]

When I first played Bandon and met Josh Lesnick in command central I said pretty much the same thing. The course was every bit as good as Scotland, but you couldn't get them or east coasters to come because it was a lot cheaper to stay on the atlantic.

I think possibly the combination of exchange rate and airline ticket prices (due to fuel costs) have whittled the difference down in recent months. But it's pretty much an irreducible fact of Bandon's location that east is east and west is west, so to speak. Green fees in the winter seem to be much cheaper at Bandon but then again airfares across the Atlantic are cheaper then too.

I suspect I'll see Bandon if and when a group of guys I want to play with are going there. And even then probably not until I've had my first crack at Fife and the Highlands. I must say though that the combination of not needing a passport or having to drive on the wrong side of the road plus a walking-only course is very attractive.

[Paul Richards]

>When I first played Bandon and met Josh Lesnick in command central I said pretty much the same thing.


Great quote!


I, too, felt like I was at the best pub in St. Andrews as well......

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I am at a loss as to all this bad food stuff. There is a breakfast buffet in the lodge. The ladies cooked me whatever I wanted, whether on the menu or not, at the Bandon Trails Facility. I mean the eggs were scrambled good, the fruit was fresh and the bacon was good. Plenty of juice and service was fast. I mean the only negative I have actually heard is the girl in the mens room was not great looking and available to service golfers.

[Paul Richards]

Tiger

I'm with you, man.


Don't know where all these premadonna's are coming from ....

[Mike Hendren]

There are golfers,  and then there are consumers who value people and things based solely upon what they do for them.  

I paid $85 for my room at the Pine Crest Inn in Pinehurst Sunday night.  Included the equivalent of an outstanding $30 steak dinner and $15 full breakfast.  No ironing board or iron, no clock/radio, missing remote, peeling wallpaper and loud window a/c unit.  The phone didn't work.  

Like staying at my late Grandmother's house.  I can't wait to go back and take some friends.  

Mike

[John Kavanaugh]

I thought the Pine Crest was very expensive during the Kings Putter oops I mean Dixie Cup...but..it might have been in season and the rate did include golf..

note:  I got a better rate at Bandon than I did at the Pine Crest and I'm not including my internet discount.

[Mike Hendren]

Barney,

Summer in Pinehurst must be the ticket:  $85 room, $37 at Tobacco Road and $80 at Mid-Pines.  Hotter than a pair of jumper cables at a Skynyrd concert, but a nice breeze blowing through the tall pines.

Mike

BTW, when does my suspension expire?

[Mike Hendren]

OT, but if any peeps are putting together a Bandon Trip next year (hopefully off-season) and have room for yours truly, I might be interested.  Thanks.

Mike

[rjsimper]

It's tough to compare the Pine Crest and Bandon Dunes.  I've stayed at both, and the Pine Crest, to me, is where golfers that are "in the know" stay and congregate in the area, whereas the Carolina and the P'hurst resort are a bit showy.

I think the Pine Crest has character that far exceeds any resort I've stayed at...including BD.  This is not a knock on BD, but rather a praise for the PC.  

The breakfast and dinner at the PC are awesome, though, and I would agree with the assessment of them as a total of about a 45/night value.  I am surprised BD doesn't have some sort of Breakfast/Dinner package as say, a 30-40/night add-on to any stay.  It seems a prime candidate for an All-inclusive deal.

I, for one, can't wait to get back.  All this talk has got me itching to punish myself by staring down the tee shot on #1 at PD knowing full well it's dune-bound.

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