Bandon Preserve - The Photo Tour

[Matthew Essig]

All yardages are from back tee to middle of green

HOLE 1



A straight-forward hole with only one trick: the green is about 50 yards deep, which you cannot tell from the tee.



From the middle tee, you can see the Trails practice green left, how deep the bunkers are in front, and you can sort of make out how deep this green really is. The green extends all the way back to the dip between the dunes straight back from the center pot bunker.



The bunkers are probably the worst places to miss the green. (being on the dunes or being down left isn't great either)







Now you can see how deep this green really is. From the back edge. You can also see that there is not a ton of slope in the green. The general slope of the green is right to left, with some ridges that divide the green into lower left sections and higher right sections.



On dunes to the right of the green. Another way to see how deep the green is, and see the ridges in the middle of the green that divide the green high right and low left again. You can also slightly see the steep fall-off to the left of the green, which is between the two pictures.





Overall - misses left and right of the green are in trouble. Misses short in the bunkers are in trouble. But accuracy is much more important then distance-control as the green is deep and fairly flat. Birdie hole.

[Joe Byrnes]

Is there a drop zone from the practice putting green for balls that are deflected down there?

[Matthew Essig]

HOLE 2



Two things you immediately see when you step up on the tee. The OB right and the extremely deep bunker short (possibly the deepest on the course).



The bunker is very deep.



The bunker left is not so bad unless you stay on the side-slope.



From the back-edge. Due to the shadow, you cannot see the divided green. It is divided into high back and right sides and a low left bowl.



Overall - Both accuracy and distance-control must be right when you hit your tee shot. The only real bail-out is long, and that is not a guaranteed up-and-down. Even if you hit the green, you have the divided and contoured green to deal with. Difficult right hole location on the right as it is a high spot and OB just right of green. A par hole.

[Matthew Essig]

Is there a drop zone from the practice putting green for balls that are deflected down there?

As of now: no.

[Matthew Essig]

HOLE 3



Another deceptive green. It extends further left and right then you can see. There is a hidden bunker right and a huge drop-off right. The green funnels off the front left, the front edge, and the right side except where the bunker is. The biggest trick once again, though, is the green extends further back then it looks. The green is about 35 yards deep.



The false front.



The collection area front left.



The bunker right.



The fall off right. You can see the fall off is on either sides of the bunker. Being in the bunker when missing right is the best place to be (you can't say being in a bunker is the best place to miss it very often).



From the back edge. You can see how far back the green extends. The back portion is in a low area, with the fall off right looming plus the false back edge.



Overall - Hard to hit, for sure. Fall offs short left, short, right, and long. Green is fairly flat, sloping left to right. There is the ridge dividing front and back, too. If it is dead calm and you are accurate from 85-105 yards, birdie hole. If one of those two is not true, good luck making par.

[Ronald Montesano]

Any thought given to "fore left" off the first tee? Pulls or hooks and whammo! lawsuit.

[Matthew Essig]

Any thought given to "fore left" off the first tee? Pulls or hooks and whammo! lawsuit.

So true.

[Matthew Essig]

HOLE 4



A hole that is right in front of you, except for the small hidden portion left. Heavily contoured, and shares the green with #7 which you can see on the right behind the tree.



From a tee box forward, you can see the left portion of the green more.



Front right to back left. You can see the buried elephants.



Standing at junction between the #4 and #7 double green to back left.



On dune behind green looking towards front right.



On dune behind looking toward front left.



Left edge looking to right.



On #5 tee, looking at green from left to right.



Overall - Distance control is probably the most important as it is not very deep; however, with all of the ridges that divide the green left and right, accuracy is important, too. If you hit the green, you must have touch when going over the ridges. If you hit it in the right section, it is probably a birdie as other than the ridges, the green is fairly flat. If it is dead calm and you are accurate from 105-120 yards, birdie hole. If one of those two is not true, good luck making par.

Note: the construction you can see on some pictures short-right of the hole is the construction of the half-way house. It is accessible on hole 4, after 7/before 8, and after 10/before 11.

[Jim Tang]

Matthew -

Great pictures!  I'm looking forward to playing Preserve in July.  It appears thus far the only option off the tee is throwing the ball up into the air.  Do you have the option off the tee to skip it in low on any holes?  Does the contouring around the greens allow you to aim away from the hole location and use the various slopes to work the ball back to the stick?

[Matthew Essig]

Matthew -

Great pictures!  I'm looking forward to playing Preserve in July.  It appears thus far the only option off the tee is throwing the ball up into the air.  Do you have the option off the tee to skip it in low on any holes?  Does the contouring around the greens allow you to aim away from the hole location and use the various slopes to work the ball back to the stick?

Hole #5, which I am about to post, is a hole where the low shot, IMO, is the best shot. On all of the holes you are able to use the bank where the dunes cut into the green, but the best option, IMO, is to go directly at the flag (unless it is in a sucker spot; then you may go a little away from it).

[Matthew Essig]

HOLE 5



Your first clear view of the ocean. DO NOT let the ocean make your mind wonder as this is one of the trickiest holes of them all. Knowing what is going on with this hole before you play it will greatly help you. The green is fairly large. The bunker you see on the right is way short of the green. The run-up area and front part of the green is blocked out, as you can see. IMO, the best shot into this hole is a low run-up, which you haven't been able to before this hole.



The next tee box up is to the right of the back tee box, offering a different angle.



The next tee box up is an even different angle and gives a completely different view to the hole. The bunker short left isn't really in play.



Front left to back right. You can see the huge swale that divides the green in half. BEWARE going any more left than where this picture is.



The enormous fall off left. It makes pins on the left side of the swale extremely difficult.
Side Note: The area where picture is taken and where balls would end up are a couple of the 6th hole's tee boxes.



The bunker down left of the green.



Back left looking towards back right.



Back left towards front left. You can see the drop off left.



Back right towards front right. You can see the expanse of run up available if you want to use it on the tee shot. The right side of the swale is divided into a lower front right and a higher back right.



One last look. Back right to front left.



Overall - As the green is very large, IMO, it is a birdie hole. Even if it is windy and you are not accurate from 150 yards, it is very hard not to hit the green if you aim for the center. Even an o.k. shot is a par, maybe a bogey. It is the really bad shots that will do bad on this hole.

[Matthew Essig]

I'm done posting pictures for a while, so start posting any other questions or comments you want.

[Matthew Essig]

This is actually extremely hard to answer... It is a links course to the core, but playability-wise, you could argue either way. On some holes there is no where short of the green to bounce it on while others it could be the preferred way to play. I am actually going to post a photo tour of almost every angle imaginable of the course (there has been photos of the course on other threads but not all the holes have been shown) later, so the pictures may help answer your question.

Please do! Looking forward to that.

By the way Alex, here it is. Just as I had promised.

[Phil McDade]

Matthew:

Great pics! Quick question -- is this the land of what was/is known as the Sheep Ranch?

[Matthew Essig]

Matthew:

Great pics! Quick question -- is this the land of what was/is known as the Sheep Ranch?

I don't know. To tell the truth, I have no idea what the Sheep Ranch is. What I do know is that the area was a left over piece of land that Coore and Crenshaw had when building Trails, so they just built the par 3 course on it.

What you can't see in my pictures is how crammed in this course is, so I'm not surprised the land wasn't used for Trails.

[Howard Riefs]

Wonderful tour so far. Looking forward to the other holes and insights.

Matthew:

Great pics! Quick question -- is this the land of what was/is known as the Sheep Ranch?

No, it's not the same land. Sheep Ranch still exists.

[Mike Wagner]

Just played Preserve about 3 hours ago - it's really cool.....absolutely everything you'd expect - and then some.

Few things stood out as I was getting absolutely soaked:

-Insane views
-2 or 3 holes where you can only see the top of the flag - really cool hitting into unknown, pretty wild slopes...so fun.
-Huge tees - will make for nice variation
-Greens are amazingly fun...

[Alex Miller]

This is actually extremely hard to answer... It is a links course to the core, but playability-wise, you could argue either way. On some holes there is no where short of the green to bounce it on while others it could be the preferred way to play. I am actually going to post a photo tour of almost every angle imaginable of the course (there has been photos of the course on other threads but not all the holes have been shown) later, so the pictures may help answer your question.

Please do! Looking forward to that.

By the way Alex, here it is. Just as I had promised.

Haha, thanks Michael!

Looks like a lot of fun. I love C&C, but truth be told the front center bunker on the first tee shot perturbs me a bit. Just seems unnecessary, especially for the opening hole. Hate to nitpick, but I'm sure it's a blast to play!

[Matthew Essig]

This is actually extremely hard to answer... It is a links course to the core, but playability-wise, you could argue either way. On some holes there is no where short of the green to bounce it on while others it could be the preferred way to play. I am actually going to post a photo tour of almost every angle imaginable of the course (there has been photos of the course on other threads but not all the holes have been shown) later, so the pictures may help answer your question.

Please do! Looking forward to that.

By the way Alex, here it is. Just as I had promised.

Haha, thanks Michael!

Looks like a lot of fun. I love C&C, but truth be told the front center bunker on the first tee shot perturbs me a bit. Just seems unnecessary, especially for the opening hole. Hate to nitpick, but I'm sure it's a blast to play!

Michael?? That's my father... It happens a lot though.

[William_G]

Alex,

the first hole is so short as is the course, the front bunker on #1 is just game on visually from the start, love it!

[Matthew Essig]

Just played Preserve about 3 hours ago - it's really cool.....absolutely everything you'd expect - and then some.

Few things stood out as I was getting absolutely soaked:

-Insane views
-2 or 3 holes where you can only see the top of the flag - really cool hitting into unknown, pretty wild slopes...so fun.
-Huge tees - will make for nice variation
-Greens are amazingly fun...

How well did it play?? Did you have fun...even though you got soaked?? Would you play it again?? Favorite hole?? Least favorite??

[Alex Miller]

This is actually extremely hard to answer... It is a links course to the core, but playability-wise, you could argue either way. On some holes there is no where short of the green to bounce it on while others it could be the preferred way to play. I am actually going to post a photo tour of almost every angle imaginable of the course (there has been photos of the course on other threads but not all the holes have been shown) later, so the pictures may help answer your question.

Please do! Looking forward to that.

By the way Alex, here it is. Just as I had promised.

Haha, thanks Michael!

Looks like a lot of fun. I love C&C, but truth be told the front center bunker on the first tee shot perturbs me a bit. Just seems unnecessary, especially for the opening hole. Hate to nitpick, but I'm sure it's a blast to play!

Michael?? That's my father... It happens a lot though.

My bad. Fingers got away from me there. Carry on!

[Bill Seitz]

My bad. Fingers got away from me there. Carry on!

You'll have to forgive Alex the occasional confusion.  With the way this baseball season has started, a number of us Angels fans aren't really thinking clearly.

The pictures look awesome, but is a 13 hole par three course worth what they're going to be getting for it?  I can see playing it once for the novelty, but that's a fair amount of dough for a course that, although very fun-looking, sits on the site of four other very fun courses. 

[Stephen Davis]

This is making me even more excited to play this course. I have admired it several times before from afar, but I am excited that soon it will be open to the public. This is going to be a great addition to the Bandon family.

[Stephen Davis]

My bad. Fingers got away from me there. Carry on!

You'll have to forgive Alex the occasional confusion.  With the way this baseball season has started, a number of us Angels fans aren't really thinking clearly.

The pictures look awesome, but is a 13 hole par three course worth what they're going to be getting for it?  I can see playing it once for the novelty, but that's a fair amount of dough for a course that, although very fun-looking, sits on the site of four other very fun courses. 

Bill, I have played Bandon several times and I can say that I am really excited to play this. There are some days that you just don't feel like doing 36 holes and there have been times I have finished 36 and wanted to play more. With them making the 3rd round free I think this will see quite a bit of play, either as an alternative to 36 holes (it is reasonably priced in the winter $50) or as a 2nd or 3rd round on those long summer days.