Bandon Crossings' architect Dan Hixson was kind enough to email me a ton of information about the course back in late April. I was in Scotland/Ireland at the time and when I got back I neglected to share the information here on this thread (my apologies to Dan!). Course sounds quite interesting, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it when I'm in Bandon in the next few weeks.
Hello Mike Erdmann,
Thanks for your interest shown about Bandon Crossings and myself. You are correct; I have contributed my $71 (par at CE) to GCA. I enjoy reading the site frequently. I am not a member of the website, but like OPB and public radio if I am using it a lot I like to contribute. I am very busy with my design business, many other interests and life, so just reading others opinions is enough from the great site. I personally can talk about golf courses, design and whatnot until I am blue in the face and everyone around me as well. I just choose not to put my opinions out into the big online world. I tend to learn a lot more listening (reading) and thinking than trying to sound intelligent via the internet (probably because of an IQ near my contribution amount).
About Me
BC is my first full course to be built. I have designed 2 others with one to start in September in Walla Walla, and the other in the Reno area and may or may not ever be built. Both are with housing. Up to now I have done remodeling projects; Riverside, CE, Portland GC, Emerald Valley, Resort at the Mountain and others, about 15 times a shovel has moved dirt for my designs. I am only a one man operation, as I know many people much smarter than I that can fill in any area I lack knowledge.
About Bandon Crossings
The site of BC is excellent. It includes open rolling pasture lands, bottomlands (about 40’lower) and coastal forests. Only about 20 acres were cleared of trees and brush. Approximately 80% of the golf course lies with no shaping at all. We mowed, sprayed, tilled, sand capped and seeded these areas. The other 20% of the ground we shaped to build the course, where several ridges were reduced to create sightlines and to generate materials for other feature construction, tees greens and bunkers. The natural drainage features were never altered and fortunately we have pure sand underneath our topsoil, sometimes 2’ below, sometime 8’. We were able to construct our greens in the same method used at Bandon Resort, pure sand and virtually no drainage. This method allows an unbelievable freedom in the design. The greens were built by removing all topsoil, sandstone, red shot and clay until we reached pure sand. We then imported more sand from one of our borrow pits, essentially flip flopping the materials. The dozer shaper Brian Felton would then, while I was with him, create the shapes I had designed. After he was done I would spend anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days per green on a sand pro “playing” to build the details that you see so often on sand based courses, but not on USGA greens. This improvisational method is ridiculously fun for someone like me who has never worked on straight sand, and the creative process really opens up.
Tony Russell (brother of Troy, head of Agronomy at BD) was our contractor. If you don’t know, Tony is one of the very best with an excavator building bunkers in the world. Having worked with Doak’s group at Pac, Pasa, Claremont, Seabonack and with Coore and Crenshaw and Jeff Bradley on Trails, his knowledge and skills are way up. This was Tony’s first full golf course as contractor. Needless to say this has been a very good deal for me. I would flag a bunker with irrigation flags, give Tony a few brief thoughts (deep, shallow, flashy etc) and let him go. I was amazed at his skills of not only operating the machine but mostly his artistry in the details, all while fully understanding how the bunker and the area around would drain. After the second bunker of the 63 on the course, I was pretty sure I had the best man for the job. I would only rarely have him change anything on a bunker, and I can honestly say most came out better than I had envisioned or drawn. He is awesome. On top of that and more importantly, we have become great friends and I only hope I can get him and crew to build some of my future projects. I can’t divert enough credit to Tony’s experience in building, his good eye, and using him as a sounding board for ideas.
As far as describing the design, I certainly feel that most on GCA would consider it minimalist. I don’t know, what the term means any more, and I certainly did not build anything to fit that name. I think the course is very simplistic, and certainly not over done. Anything bold is what the land gave us. Much of my early designs (remodels) were somewhat copies of the best features of what ever course I was designing on, hardly minimalism. Virtually every bunker here was built into an existing upslope, with an occasional hidden bunker behind a green to stop balls from worse. Only 2 greens were lifted, about 4 feet, and that was for drainage (actually flood control) on the two greens in the bottomlands. A few others were lifted a foot or so, and one was lowered by about 3 feet. The rest were about on grade. An interesting routing came about because of the shape of the land and features with back to back par 5’s, twice. Holes 4 and 5, and then 12 and 13 along with 18 are par fives. They range from 500-600 from the tips. The five par 3’s range from 150 to 235, and the par 4 range from 325 to 455. The result is a par 72 just under 7000 yards. On the fifth hole we built an alternate green that will be used for occasional play, thus making a 9 hole card without going into the bottomlands. No hole even remotely resembles another, and the natural beauty of the site is great. There are a few off-site eyesores and power lines along the 4th hole but…you can’t always have the Pacific as a border.
Many of the bunkers will have native edges on the non-play side tying into the native foliage. A portion of the course (holes 6 through 14) moves in and out of a forest made up of mainly Firs, Madrones, Pines, Cedars, Rhodies, Huckleberries and other various coastal species. The grasses on site were of a pasture variety with almost everything imaginable. The greens were seeded with A-4 bent, fairways and tees with Rye and the rough with a rye fescue mix. Momentarily we considered the same turf as BD but it was very clear the fescue could not with stand golf carts. The cart paths (only around greens and tees) were built after all the holes were complete. They are gravel and seeded with a grass strip between the tire tracks. The concept was to build them to look like the previous farmer had built those years ago.
I was given as close as possible to 100% artistic license on everything about this course as the owner felt very comfortable with me, the time I had spent on the ground, the routing plan, green details and the early holes that were built. I doubt if I build 20 more courses in my life that I will ever have that freedom to build a course with only a very short design program, which was:
• par 72
• near 7000 yards
• fun to play
• within our budget
While our budget was very small by modern standards, I am not sure what we would have done different with more money. I think the budget forced me and everyone involved to get creative many times when more money simply could have made things easier.
I say all this about the course from a very non-objective position. I have been on site 173 days on 58 trips (so far) from my home office in Portland. With this many trips and days on-site and I am far to in love with the course to even try and quantify its quality. It has been a real joy to show it to many golf professional friends and family and the response has been overwhelmingly good. The owners are very happy and excited with the completion of construction and the work done by myself, Tony and crew and Brant Hathorn (superintendent) and his crew. Everyone worked very hard, and watching the grow-in and see the thing turn into a golf course has been life altering for me. Mike I would love to tell you how great it is, but that is not really my thing. I hate self promotion even though this business forces one to do that time to time. I didn’t leave CE 8 years ago to just build courses to just make a check. Hopefully when you and everyone else that will play Bandon Crossing, will have those feelings we golf crazy people can get from a great golf course. A course is only as good as those that play it think, not what I say.
As you see I have rambled on and on and it is getting late. I had decided long ago if Bandon Crossings was a topic on GCA and someone asked to find out more about it from me I would respond to the first, and that happened to be you. Fortunately (or unfortunately maybe) you had your email on your profile. You can do anything you would like with any or all of the information as you see fit. Please be respectful that I am not interested in promoting myself, I want my work to do that. Word of mouth is the best marketing of a designer. I have made my business from zero to what it is today by that alone. However I am totally committed to helping the owners to have a very successful golf operation and creating interest through a gca website is welcomed.
Thanks again,
Dan Hixson