The 9th hole is a par 4 (with two greens - an "upper" and "lower")
406 from the black tee
379 from the green tee
Not certain if those scorecard yardages are to the upper or lower green.
In another recent thread, Tom Doak declared this amongst his favorite tee shots of all his courses. Wow. Enough said.
Following my second trip to Bandon in 2005, this hole received my "least favorite hole on the course" award. On that trip, I played the hole to even par in 4 rounds (one birdie, one bogey) and it just didn't seem to have any defense. It mostly played to the lower green that trip, and in the summer wind to the lower tee if you are striking the tee ball well you just feel like you can stand up on the tee and pound the ball right down to the front of the green inside 50 yards. Fortunately for me in 2007 we played to the upper green a bit more, I hit one poorly struck tee shot into the "wall of death", and I played the hole a little bit worse. Now I can appreciate what I did in 2005, and I look forward to more attempts at this hole. It's still toward the bottom of the list for me, but if you haven't figured out how much I love ever hole at this course yet you haven't been paying close attention.
The fairway is blind from the tee. All one sees is the giant diagonal dune that guards the fairway. You don't need to cut off quite as much as you think you need to to go for the lower green. The lower fairway serves as a giant bowl and tee shots that stray a bit right as long as they are generall on the right path will find themselves well down the extremely bumpy fairway. When the pin is in the upper green, you must aim much further right than feels comfortable on the first play if you want a good line of sight to the green. You can still play the hole from the lower fairway, but that leaves the dreaded blind approach following a blind tee shot. Not the preferable route on this hole.
It's not hard for this hole to get lost in the mix given the holes it follows and the two seaside par 3s to follow.
The tee shot and the "wall of death"
The fairway pops into view after making the trek up and over the wall.
A wide view of the entire fairway, with both the upper and lower greens in view
Thanks to Scott Weersing for this terrific photo of the approach to the lower green
A view of the approach to the upper, taken from just off the 6th tee
Another view of the approach to the upper
The upper green
The lower green
Looking back on the fairway from the 9th lower green - look at the movement in the fairway!