[Garland Bayley]

PS - Garland, if you think Bandon is overly expensive, go pony up at Pinehurst, Pebble or Cabo for four days.  Bandon doesn't crack the top 10 on price for public golf in this country, but it certainly does on quality.

The minimum for me to stay and play at Bandon in Sept. is about $500 per day. I have been able to stay and play links course in the British Isles for $125 per day in Sept. When done for 21 days, like I have done on by Buda trips, that is about an $8000 savings. And in the British Isles I get a fabulous breakfast to boot.

I found some of my favorites links courses that way, such as Strandhill for about $40 while staying in better accommodations for $70 than Bandon offers for $300.

[Tom_Doak]

Does anyone that should really be in any hall of fame really need a hall of fame?  Halls of Fame bring in members to sell tickets to the annual fundraiser to help keep the hall of fame in business.

The best thing about building a great course is that, unlike a fleeting golf career, itvwill still be around for other generations to appreciate.  They are a Hall of Fame all their own.


Plus, in Mr Keiser's case, his heirs will still be making money off those courses.

[Sven Nilsen]

PS - Garland, if you think Bandon is overly expensive, go pony up at Pinehurst, Pebble or Cabo for four days.  Bandon doesn't crack the top 10 on price for public golf in this country, but it certainly does on quality.

The minimum for me to stay and play at Bandon in Sept. is about $500 per day. I have been able to stay and play links course in the British Isles for $125 per day in Sept. When done for 21 days, like I have done on by Buda trips, that is about an $8000 savings. And in the British Isles I get a fabulous breakfast to boot.

I found some of my favorites links courses that way, such as Strandhill for about $40 while staying in better accommodations for $70 than Bandon offers for $300.

Good for you.  But that has no bearing on the cost of high end public golf in the United States (and you're smart enough to see the difference).


And if money is an issue, feel free to visit in the off-season.  Its much cheaper, and the links nature of the courses mean they are still very playable.


Right now the rates are as cheap as you can get, and we're having one of the nicest fall's I've ever seen here.

[Steve Lang]

Does anyone that should really be in any hall of fame really need a hall of fame?  Halls of Fame bring in members to sell tickets to the annual fundraiser to help keep the hall of fame in business.

The best thing about building a great course is that, unlike a fleeting golf career, itvwill still be around for other generations to appreciate.  They are a Hall of Fame all their own.


Plus, in Mr Keiser's case, his heirs will still be making money off those courses.

of course, until the course gets turned into a hops farm ...

[Kalen Braley]

I'm still open to hear why specifically Bandon is Disney World golf....  Garland, Rich?

P.S. I don't see cost as a reason, you can pick any product or service or market niche in the world and there are various pricing models with great $$$$ variance.

[Rich Goodale]

Kalen


Bandon has 4+ excellent golf courses, just as Disney World has 4+ excellent carnival rides.


Both Orlando and Bandon suffer from the lack of "there there" (per Gertrude Stein re: Oakland, CA).


Rich

[Mike_Young]

Does anyone that should really be in any hall of fame really need a hall of fame?  Halls of Fame bring in members to sell tickets to the annual fundraiser to help keep the hall of fame in business.

The best thing about building a great course is that, unlike a fleeting golf career, itvwill still be around for other generations to appreciate.  They are a Hall of Fame all their own.


Plus, in Mr Keiser's case, his heirs will still be making money off those courses.

Yep....

[Garland Bayley]

,,,
And if money is an issue, feel free to visit in the off-season.  Its much cheaper, and the links nature of the courses mean they are still very playable.
,,,

Great! Winter weather, short days, and I still have to pay $75 more!

[Sven Nilsen]

,,,
And if money is an issue, feel free to visit in the off-season.  Its much cheaper, and the links nature of the courses mean they are still very playable.
,,,

Great! Winter weather, short days, and I still have to pay $75 more!

There are plenty of folks taking advantage of the 55 degrees we're seeing, and many of them are getting in 36.


Perhaps its the beauty of the winter season here.  It gives Oregonians the chance to take a spur of the moment trip when the forecast looks good.  And there are a lot of people who will book for this time of year just because. 


As for whether or not "there is any there there," I'll leave that up to everyone else to decide for themselves.  There's plenty for me, and part of the appeal is that it is nothing like Disney.


Sven

[John Kavanaugh]

What's wrong with being like Disney?

[Sven Nilsen]

What's wrong with being like Disney?

Nothing, its how Shadow Creek gets by.

[Tom_Doak]

Great! Winter weather, short days, and I still have to pay $75 more!

If you think the days are short in Bandon in December, you should see England right now.  Pitch black at 4:00 pm!

[Thomas Dai]

Great! Winter weather, short days, and I still have to pay $75 more!

If you think the days are short in Bandon in December, you should see England right now.  Pitch black at 4:00 pm!

Many/most games/sports have an off-season. We sometimes forget this in relation to golf and our golfing expectations more and more reflect our forgetfulness.
Atb

[Sean_A]

ATB

Golf doesn't have an off-season and never did.  Some areas have a can't play season (weeks or days)...Augusta National being the exception 

As to the question...if folks are happy to have MK and he is happy to be inducted...why shouldn't he be in HoF?

Ciao 

[Mike Wagner]

,,,
And if money is an issue, feel free to visit in the off-season.  Its much cheaper, and the links nature of the courses mean they are still very playable.
,,,

Great! Winter weather, short days, and I still have to pay $75 more!

No sir .. you don't HAVE to pay anything.

[Mike Wagner]

NO!


He promised golf as it used to be at Bandon and then back tracked once he found out how much money he could make by turning it into a Disney World resort.

+1

A Disney resort targets kids and gives them what they want, and charges what the market will bear well  beyond what what is necessary to make a comfortable profit.

Replace kids with "retail golfer" (GMWAS), and you have Disney Oregon.

I'm dying to hear how you precisely define "necessary" and "comfortable" (as used in your post) with actual #s. 

[John Kavanaugh]

Bandon and Disney already operate at full capacity. Would you suggest that they lower prices and award access based on a lottery? Would that benefit the quality of either experience?

[Jim Nugent]

Both Orlando and Bandon suffer from the lack of "there there" (per Gertrude Stein re: Oakland, CA).

I thought that is the point of Bandon: golf IS the there there.  You don't go to make the pub scene.. or explore historic ruins... or pursue the fairer sex.  You go to play the game, enjoy time with your buddies, experience four of the best courses in the world in ever-changing conditions. 

What there is there at Sand Hills?  Prairie Dunes? 

[John Kavanaugh]

Prairie Dunes is pure Kansas. It may not have there, there but it bleeds somewhere, somewhere.

[John Kavanaugh]

Bandon is pure resort. I have never met a group of assistant pros who so obviously wanted to be anywhere but behind the counter. Is there one Inuit caddie or is everyone on a nomadic trek between Dead concerts? Where is the Oregon at?

[Terry Lavin]

Prairie Dunes is pure Kansas. It may not have there, there but it bleeds somewhere, somewhere.

When you're driving to PD and you get within a half mile or so of the entrance and the landforms start erupting out of the usually dead-flat ground, you are there there, mon frere.  It is at once the most surprising and "been there forever" kind of place that I've ever visited to play golf.


And there's no need to go to the local saloons, though I've done that a time or three, because the local members are the most welcoming crew that I've encountered before.  One night we were invited to dinner at a member's home.  A retired NASA astronaut, he runs the space museum in town.  It was otherworldly, to be sure.

[Tom_Doak]

I have to object about the Disney part.


When Bandon Dunes opened, and we were building Pacific Dunes, I felt strongly that one of the things that made the place special were the people who worked there.  They were happy and proud that all these golfers were coming to their home on the Oregon coast for the first time and loving what they found.  It was genuinely friendly- the opposite of Disney.


I recognize that it's eighteen years since then, and nine since we built Old Macdonald which is really the last time I spent much time there, and change is inevitable - but has that really gone away and it's all just management company people now with name tags telling you what state or country they're from, like dealers in Vegas?  If so, I will shed a couple of tears in mourning.

[Thomas Dai]

Golf doesn't have an off-season and never did.  Some areas have a can't play season (weeks or days)...Augusta National being the exception 

When courses in certain areas are historically shut for extended periods of time at the same time each year then it seems to me that golf in that area is pretty seasonal! Guess if folks travel extensively with a constant follow-the-sun approach then perhaps it isn’t personally seasonal, otherwise imo it most certainly is.

By the way, Rans featured interview with Edwin Roald contains some interesting points on this matter.
Atb

[Kalen Braley]

Kalen


Bandon has 4+ excellent golf courses, just as Disney World has 4+ excellent carnival rides.


Both Orlando and Bandon suffer from the lack of "there there" (per Gertrude Stein re: Oakland, CA).


Rich

The home of golf St. Andrews, with how many courses now...is the original Disney then??


If that's how you're defining it, then so be it.

[Sven Nilsen]

There's no there here.   

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