Golf's New Mecca

Bandon Trails ***½

Anywhere else in the world, this would be feted as perhaps the best course in the region. Here it ranks a distant fourth behind its siblings. Opened in 2005, it kicks off brilliantly with two holes weaving through some of the biggest dunes in the place, but then gets lost in the trees, literally. All the courses at Bandon are walking only, so it’s jarringly incongruous to find a truck waiting to shuttle us from hole 13 to the notoriously unplayable 14th.

This 325-yard hole appears to be a classic risk-reward par-4, but in practice it's infuriating, with no real way to get to the green. The hole drops from the tee, before rising again to the green, and the fairway slopes sharply from left to right. As such, anything short will kick down and away to the right. Nothing on the fly will hold the green, and in the one possible spot on the left that might allow a ball to run on, there is a bunker. Off the tee, pretty much everything from a four-iron to a driver will end up in the same divot infested patch o and from there it’s nigh on impossible to hold the green with the approach. From experience, it’s best to putt from beyond the hole as chips have almost no way of stopping before running into the bunkers on the right.

This is the least played course here, and it’s clear why. There is no doubting the architectural credentials of Crenshaw and Coore, but even they couldn’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, and have probably done their best with what they were given. Playing amidst pine forest, with Bandon's Pacific Ocean-hugging alternatives just minutes away, is simply not an attractive option.

Par: 71. Yardage: 6,765.
Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.