This has been referenced by a couple of other folks in earlier threads, but there was a (thankfully no fatalities) train derailment and collision in University Place, Washington on February 26th. I have golfed here with the gentleman who claims to have been the original hole name author and I'm sure he never quite envisioned this:
The smell of the workers dismantling the chunks of metal was notable on all the Sound-side holes, as were the sounds and the sight of the smoke...Supposedly some 12-15 freight cars were damaged to varying degrees:
As far as the course is concerned, I played last on March 7th, and the course was reasonably firm considering all the rain we have had. This is the overview of the 5th green looking southwest:
The big difference is that the greens were very, very fast and pretty smooth, which will shock some foks because they will not believe this is possible. The greens in the downgrain, downhill directions were comfortably stimping at 11-12, and the uphill, upgrain putts were perhaps settling in at 8.5-9. On a quiet Monday in March, several hole locations had to be moved after the first hour's play because groups could not finish certain holes. The location on #1, for example, was at the union of the three dominant slopes toward the right-center and slightly back and it was not possible to reliably keep putts within a 2 ft radius of that hole. The "backboards" which some on here take issue with the course for were more like slingshots under those conditions, with various shots being repelled far off the greensites in other directions than usual...
Greenside #6
The green speeds is likely a very temporary condition, as they have had fertilizer (?) applied and have recently been rolled. We should see some grass growth here before long, which will slow down the greens as well.
Looking over #12 from high above #13 tee:
Nevertheless, for now, the turf has all of the wonderful playing qualities of the turf we love so much down at Bandon, with the immediate additional challenge of incredibly speedy, yet pretty uniform, greens. Also, lots of new sand has been brought in over the winter, and many of the lofted approaches which find the sand/waste areas are plugging, and deep. If you like your bunkers as penal hazards, then head right out there. It's a challenge just to get the ball out the fried eggs/plugged lies. This is also likely somewhat temporary, as when even more rains come the sand will settle out more evenly, and less up in the faces.