Fazio course for Bandon?

[Tom_Doak]

Dan:

Everything in Bandon looks like a golf links.  The "beginnings of fairways" you saw are just clearings that Tony Russell made once we were finished building Pacific Dunes, before the gorse had grown back.  We just suggested that he leave the gorse on the small dunes and clear at fairway width through the valleys, but no holes were laid out at that time.

I believe that will be the site of the fourth golf course so it could be considered something of a start ... I'm sure now that everyone wishes we had cleared more of the gorse because it has grown back with a vengeance!

[Brad Tufts]

One of the more interesting things of my recent trip to Bandon was the infiltration of the gorse all over the Bandon property.  They have removed it from several holes (is it ever 100% gone?) like the dunes surrounding #14 green at BD, and from the hillock to the left of the tee on #13 at PD.  There is a board up in the pro shop about the eradication of the gorse in certain spots, showing progressive shots of the bushes trying to take over the 14th green at BD.  With the gorse in bloom during my trip, the stuff looks mighty healthy, and it appears keeping it at bay will be a constant problem on parts of Pacific Dunes (#3, #14, #15, #17, #18) and Bandon Dunes(#11, #13, #14, #18)

I heard that it once grew in the more open areas on the holes near the lodge, and while I think BD would look a bit better with a few gorse bushes on the open holes (#9 and #10 especially), I realize that it's probably tough to argue for its continued existence, considering the stuff is so hard to maintain (or kill).  Can it be burned out with control like prairie grasses?