Spent a wonderful Saturday afternoon playing the finished holes at Bandon Trails (holes 1-5, 17-18). With a light fog rolling in off the ocean and the mid-day sun, it was pretty crappy for taking photos, but I did take some nonetheless.
Trails is an entirely different feel than Bandon or Pacific. The first two holes start in the dunes before you cross the road and head into the forest. Especially with the forest holes, Trails has a much more intimate feel than the other two courses. I'm not going to go out on a limb and say it's a better course than Pacific Dunes. There's no way anyone can legitimately say that, with only seven holes finished and available for play. But at the same time, I enjoyed these seven holes every bit as much as Pacific Dunes. We'll just have to see once the whole course opens next June.
Some of the photos look a little oversaturated, but that's my lack of Photoshop expertise and just doing this quickly. Didn't get any photos of the first hole, unfortunately, so have to start with #2.
Neat downhill par 3 that's has more room left than it looks.
You can see here that the 2nd has plenty of room left and short.
Looking back from the 2nd green up to the tee on the dune.
View from the 3rd tee.
Fairway bunker short of the 3rd green.
Looking back from the green up the 3rd fairway.
The fourth hole is just a fantastic par 4, playing into the prevailing summer north wind. From the photo, that ridge appears to be a backstop on the left side of the photo, but it actually runs diagonally left to right down the middle of the fairway. Left of the ridge and you're flirting with hidden bunkers on the left side of the fairway, much right of the ridge and you have a somewhat blind shot to the pin. The green is actually in line with the right edge of the fairway in the distance. This is a hole I could spend hours playing and figuring out.
View of the 4th green from the left side of the aforementioned ridge.
Greenside bunker left of 4th green.
Bunkers on back right of 4th green.
Wonderful short par 3 with a diabolical green.
Hard to capture in a photo, but the 5th green is a wild one! Greens are still pretty slow, but I'm imagining that when they speed up, balls will funnel towards that bunker on the right. This shot is taken from short-left of the green.
17th green from the tee. The prevailing north wind in the summer is blowing from the right, so that bunker is really going to make you pucker if the pin is tucked behind it.
Back to the dunes. This is the view from the tee on 18. Fairway has more room than it looks once you get up there.
View from the fairway to the 18th green.
This shot is actually from the 1st fairway, looking backwards up 18 from the side.
Bandon Trails clubhouse adjoining the 18th green.