Having just returned from my first trip to Bandon I can now opine. What a place? Mike Keiser is truly a hero with a vision. Luckily I was able to meet both Shoe and Tom Jefferson. Their kind friendliness was SOP from every staff member. Not in a forced fake way, (like PB) but truly genuine.
Immediately I was put off [edit] that two of the three courses had one shotters for their second. Mind you, as golf holes, they were all very good to great, but for me, that's just too early in the round for such an exacting question.
Initial impressions of Pac D. were varied, but mostly awed. I sensed some of Pete's (9th DZ) and surely Mike's influences. The intimacy was apparent with all the criss-crossing (maybe a tad too much leading to some confusion). I thought the opener was a bit odd with it's randomly placed rough grassed mounds. It was intriguing though, and, I really wanted another bite of that apple after my caddie had me hit 3 wood. For my game, it made no sense because I can screw up easier with less club, while confident of getting up and down from anywhere.
The feature shaping on some of those bunkers was narly cool, in a good way, but in no way appeared all that natural to me (or the site). I suppose it was the retail affect's coolness which out weighed the desire for a naturalness? Also, you can keep that beach sand! Maybe if I had a month to perfect the type of swing needed, I would change my mind. The Redan seemed like an odd addition, but after watching Ben make a deuce, I can forget that aspect of crit.
Clearly the ocean's influence was a huge part of the experience. My two days there saw perfect weather, with a rough sea, causing the salt mist to hover like scenes from those Fantasy golf pictures.
I felt the one aspect that most closely resembled anything at Ballyneal was the home hole strategies.
Truthfully, a better comparison would be BN v. BT. I was blown away by the Trails beauty.
Did C&C have Mike's influences the same way Kidd and Doak did? I know at BN, Tom was given free reign to design, save for one instance which turns out to be moot because that's where Jim saw the home green on his initial visit, anyway.
BTW, Old Mac looked glorious. The views of the Hogsback hole was quite distracting (in a good way, maybe?) while playing Pac Dunes.
That's enough for now, maybe after further marinating I'll have something new to add.
(I did not go back over and read all the responses to this thread. Choosing to add to it than start a new "MY" experiences thread.)