"When great new golf courses such as Oregon's Bandon Dunes come along - as they do every hundred years or so - it's difficult to describe them because folks have already exhausted all the superlatives in characterizing other, far lesser courses. A layout such as Bandon Dunes calls for an entirely new vocabulary."

Links - The Best of Golf

Hole 6 (photo by Wood Sabold)

Bandon Dunes

Bandon, Oregon, USA

Opened 1999

www.bandondunesgolf.com

The one that started it all. I was 27 years old when I first set foot on the property, and I knew in an instant I was looking at the opportunity of a lifetime. My mandate was to create the first genuine Scottish-style links course in America, and I believe there are few places outside the sand dunes along the Oregon coast where this would be possible.

I spent eight months on the ground with the crew at Bandon, designing the course in the field. A routing plan and basic sketches were all I needed. As is often the case, land that was largely unsuitable to any other self-sustaining use proved perfect for golf. The greatest challenge was not unearthing the golf holes but clearing the fragile dunes of the overgrown gorse and pine trees, neither of which are native but were choking out the indigenous plants.

As much as the course is my design, Bandon Dunes is the vision of one man, Mike Keiser. The resort has grown, with a second and third course in play and a fourth on the way, however I remain grateful for the opportunity and proud that the original Bandon Dunes course that my team and I built continues to earn accolades and entertain golfers.

Learn more about the story in Dream Golf: The Making Of Bandon Dunes.