First timers often prefer Bandon Dunes because it is something they are most familiar with. It's two loops of nine holes, two par 3s and 5s on each side. The course is pretty spacious, the wide fairways allow even the wildest hacker to get around without too much embarrassment. Aside from the 2nd and 3rd holes, there are not a whole lot of long and difficult carries, something I hear a lot of complaints about RE: Pacific Dunes. To be sure, Bandon has some epic world class holes on it, great views of the ocean from just about everywhere on the course; it is as soul stirring a round of golf as you will ever find.
Pacific Dunes simply flies over some people's heads, and that is what I love about it. Few designers spent as much time in the "mother land" as Tom Doak. The great links courses are full of odd routings, quirk and blind shots. Few golf courses embrace the adventerous spirit as Pacific Dunes does. Yup, there are back to back par 3's, 5 par 3s total, a handful of short par 4's, a crazy blind shot up over a wall of grass, a hole with two greens, wickedly deep bunkers, steep drop offs and places on some greens you absolutely do not want to be. With a relative short overall yardage, Pacific Dunes subscribes to Robert Hunter's belief of what a good golf course is all about.
"The ideal course yields nothing to power unless it be used with wisdom. There it, too, must be disciplined and refined. Like all other courses it must possess weaknesses, but rest assured that shots taking advantage of these weaknesses must be well-struck. Let one be a little off center and all one's most powerful blows fall futile...To be down the middle may mean nothing, quite often it may be quite the wrong place. To be long may mean nothing the same, provided it is not schrewdly used...One must hit to position. To succeed at the game of golf one must open up the hole. One must consider the slope of the green. One must place him/herself in position to attack it."
Bandon Trails will never be as inspiring because it is inland. Everyone gets all fired up over the fact that it plays through numerous eco-systems, but this leaves me feeling sort of disoriented. BD and PD maintain a level of consistancy, BT is like pieces of three courses rolled into one. To be sure, the "meadows" holes are utterly fantastic, my favorite on the course. After five plays, however, it is my least preferred of the three. I dread the uphill slog homes. 14 is a tough walk. 16 is straight up a hill. 18 is uphill once again.
But any negative thrown in the direction of Bandon Trails needs to be considered in comparing it to the other two courses on the premises. On its' own, Bandon Trails is phenomenal, so much better than anything else in the region it is ridiculous. You have to travel to Portland or Bend to find anything in its' league.