Some locals would cringe at this since gorse is such a nuisance in Bandon (and caused the town to burn down twice), but we too love the way gorse looks and plays in certain places but so much of the gorse you are talking about was not there with the original design. The gorse overtook the beach grass and dunes which looked better (in some people's opinion), was also penal if you hit it in there, but at least a golfer would find their ball. Ultimately, we have to manage it or it will take over the whole place, we just can't let it go. It does look awful when we pull the gorse out - at first, I just don't know if there is a better way to manage it. We are not intentionally softening up the course, but we don't see it as a bad thing if golfer's can find their ball and play it. The dune sand and beach grass combo does not make for an easy up and down. And if it helps keep play moving, thats not bad either.
As far as the first hole on Bandon we had a couple things in mind. First, as Tom said, we wanted to cut down on the number of golf balls in the parking lot. Second, David Kidd did want to build a green down in that open sand by the second tees (which moved too). So David built that alternative first hole. Well, none of us like it as much as the original first hole, and frankly, believe it or not, it doesn't cut down on the balls that are taken by the summer wind to the right, so we're basically going to abandon the new hole and go back to the original. We tried, and it didn't work.