found this in the April 2006 GOLF magazine the other day:

"Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore were given the least impressove property at Bandon and did a decent job with it.  But Bandon Trails is just that  - a decent resort course.  The terrain is ho-hum, tee shots end up in divot riddled colelction areas, and the greens are so slippery and prone to sudden, unexplained shifts in direction that only a masochist or congressman could love them.  

The Trails has some fine holes - No. 14 is so perversely tricky that your caddie may advise you to intentionally miss the green - but it's just not in the same league as its siblings.

Play it first."

decent job?
ho-hum terrain?
tee shots in divots?
greens too harsh?

I disagree with all of the above

Who wrote the article?

I was very impressed by Bandon Trails when I played it for the first time in June.  It seems to me that Trails is often wrongly criticized by mainstream observers, just as Bandon Dunes is often wrongly criticized on this website.  

Bandon Trails is the heavyweight course where everyone goes a different weight classification. Not the Muhammad Ali or Floyd Patterson type, more Rocky Marciano. Probably the most resistant to par. Play him fifteen times and you'll find out what he's made of.  

I know I had great weather for my trips around Bandon Trails...and I played it twice while only playing the other two once...But..I can calmly say that I think Bandon Trails is the best course of the three..

It doesn't have the views of the other two and Isn't as easy a walk either....I just think the golf is better.

100 rounds:
70 PD
20 BT
10 BD

Quote from: cary lichtenstein on August 17, 2006, 03:27:21 PM

John:

Now that you've made that statement, why don't you tell you why!!

Cary

For one..I think it has the undisputable best par 5's at the resort.  Take away the views..the best par 3's and the single best par 4 in number 4.  The most interesting hole in 14...the best clubhouse..the best pace of play...the best finishing and starting hole...is that enough.

I like Bandon Trails a lot, but . . . I'd rate Pacific Dunes' par 5s ahead of Bandon Trails' by a fairly wide margin . . . and no way does Bandon Trails have any advantage in pace of play; in my experience, it had the longest rounds.  

I think the reason many of us think of BT as the third in line at Bandon is simply because it is largely carved out of the trees. When one thinks of the resort, it is the "links like" concepts that attract us. The turf, the gorse, the dunes, etc all remind those who have been to Scotland and Ireland of the true links courses. It is the closest thing we have on this continent that I am aware of and we love the "feel" of BD and PD.
BT is an outstanding course, it just gets away from the notion of "links" and is more like many other courses we have seen carved through the trees (with the exception of 1, 2, 17 and 18) It "feels" more like a North American course even though the turf is not unlike that on BD and PD.

For that reason, I think, that it is perhaps unfairly treated as the weak sister. Not a shot at the quality of the course which I think all agree is excellent. I have been there twice now and would prefer to play the first two courses simply because they are "links like" but also to play BT because it is a bloody good course.

Bob Jenkins

Bob J.

Do you believe that Bandon Trails would be rated as the 10th best public course in the U.S. if it were not located next to Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes?

Do you believe that Bandon Trails would be rated as the 10th best public course in the U.S. if it were not located next to Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes?

That's a hell of a question.  Of course it presumes that it is the first - and then perhaps only - course built by Mr. Keiser on that site.  Being the first, I have to believe people would go nuts over it even more - as they did re Bandon Dunes - which at one point was #2 on this very same list.  

So I have to believe if it were the first - and only - if anything it would be ranked higher.

All this being said, there is no doubt it gains publicity and gets seen by many more people than it might, due to its illustrious neighbors.  But then again, many people do seem to denigrate it in comparison to said neighbors, so in the end it might even lose value because of this... As Spyglass Hill seems to due to its neighbors.

TH

Regarding Mr. Huckaby, he who has had 27 posts on this site, it there a point in time when you lose your seniority and have to start over again? Maybe some of you can help him out.

Yeah, I'm pretty damn brash for a newbie, aren't I?

I had a little glitch yesterday, got de-listed and reinstated.  But of course there's no seniority and re-start level - look at Tom Paul and his 23,000+ posts.

 

Interesting suggestions.   I have played at Bandon Dunes at least once every year since it opened in 1999.  I doubt very much that I would have felt compelled to make a return trip, which is a long one from the East Coast, just to play Bandon Trails, had it been the first course built, whereas I know I would have felt so compelled by Pacific Dunes, had that been the first course.

We played the Trails 3 times in January, and I am about to play it again in a couple of weeks. Perhaps my perceptions will change, but I don't think it would be rated as high but for its location.

If Pacific Dunes was the first course, I would have made a return trip to play it and only it.  Ditto Bandon Dunes.  I don't think I would have felt that way had Bandon Trails been the only course.  

Last year, I played Highland Links.  I would readily make a return trip just to play Highland Links again, but I am saving that trip until Cabot Links opens up....