Old Macdonald, Bandon Dunes, Oregon, USA

www.bandondunesgolf.com

Black tees rating 74.4, slope 131, 6944 yards
Orange tees rating 70.1, slope 117, 4985 yards




A flight to Portland, Oregon and a four and a half hour drive south brings you to Bandon Dunes resort and golfer's heaven.  Three of the four true links courses in the United States are here, set in typical links land overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  The resort was the brainchild of Mike Keiser, a multimillionaire businessman with a passion for golf who wanted to create the same true links experience that he had enjoyed in the UK.  In 1991 he found and purchased 1200 acres of land on the Oregon coastline and the Bandon Dunes resort was born.

Today we played our first true links course here with Marc and Beth Swiontkowski on a beautiful blue Oregon day.  Old Macdonald was designed by Tom Doak and Jim Urbina and is a homage to Charles Blair Macdonald, a Canadian with a Scottish father who was a central figure in the evolution of golf and golf course architecture in the USA.  He was instrumental in the formation of the USGA, won the US Amateur golf championship in 1895 and designed many courses, the best known of which is probably the National Golf Links of America in Long Island, New York.  The holes at Old Macdonald use Macdonald's favourite design concepts based on great links holes in the UK and US and in particular those of the Old Course at St Andrews where Macdonald spent time as a student.

The iconic tree on the dune

ridge at the 3rd

'Hell' bunker

The first impression at Old Macdonald is of space. The first fairway is wide and inviting leading to plateau green and is followed by a par 3, 'Eden', based on the 11th at St Andrews, with a deep revetted bunker defending the green (the Strath bunker).  Then it is up and over a large dune ridge at the top of which the course, backed by the Pacific Ocean, is spread out in all its glory.  On the ridge is the spiky skeleton of a huge dead white cedar tree which can be seen from most of the course.  The course then settles into a succession of high quality links holes each of which pose their own strategic dilemmas. The sixth hole is modelled on the fourteenth at the Old Course and has its own version of 'Hell' bunker.  The seventh climbs up to a plateau green situated on a dune ridge overlooking the Pacific with stunning views along the coastline.  The 8th is a par three called 'Biarritz'.  It has a large swale running across the green and was inspired by a similar hole designed by Willie Dunn in Biarritz, France. 

Looking back at the Pacific Ocean over the 7th green

The elevated 14th green

The second nine is longer and tougher than the first.  The 11th hole, 'Road', has echoes of the famous 17th at the Old Course with its narrow angled green defended by a deep pot bunker.  Redan, the fifteenth hole at North Berwick, is said to be the most copied in the world and it appears as the 12th at Old Macdonald.  The 15th climbs back up for a view of the Pacific and like many other holes is exceptionally well bunkered.  The 16th, 'Alps',  has a large dune hiding the green which lies in a hollow.  The 17th, a lovely par 5 and the 18th with its punchbowl green complete a memorable round.

The strategic bunkering illustrated on the 17th fairway

This is a great true links course, with proper fast running fairways, ragged edged bunkers and huge sloping greens which are said to be the largest acreage of green on any 18 hole golf course in the world.

Worth playing?  Not to be missed.