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GOLF senior editor Nick Piastowski plays five courses at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort and discusses what he likes about each one.

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The post Your primer to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, host of this week’s U.S. Amateur Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post Your primer to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, host of this week’s U.S. Amateur Championship appeared first on Golf.

Even if you’ve never been to Bandon Dunes, chances are you’ve heard of Bandon Dunes. Odds are also decent that, at some point this week, you’ll be tuning in to watch the 2020 U.S. Amateur Championship, which is currently underway at the Oregon resort. Like what you see? Then read on. Here are seven things you should know about Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.

Where is Bandon Dunes?

Bandon Dunes sits on the southern Oregon coast, 80 miles north of the California border, and 250 miles south of Portland. The closest commercial airport is roughly 30 minutes up Highway 1 in North Bend, a small seaside city that is not to be confused, though it sometimes is, with Bend, a high-desert city some four hours east. The small city of Bandon, where the resort is located, was once nicknamed the “Storm-Watching Capital of the World.” There were local groups devoted to watching wild weather roll in off the ocean. Though Bandon isn’t known by that moniker today, the wind can still really blow along the coast here, fitting conditions for the links-land golf at Bandon Dunes.

What courses does Bandon Dunes offer?

The resort is home to five 18-hole courses (Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails, Old Macdonald and Sheep Ranch); a 13-hole par-3 course called The Preserve; and the Punchbowl, a 100,000-square foot putting course.

OK … tell me more about these courses

Siblings in spirit, each 18-hole course has a personality of its own. Bandon Dunes, a layout with broad fairways, deep bunkers and expansive greens, starts inland, just behind the main clubhouse, and works toward the Pacific, with stirring front- and back-nine stretches along the coast. Pacific Dunes, the highest ranked of the resort’s courses, is a master routing that bucks convention. Its back nine opens with consecutive par-3s — two of four par-3s on the closing side. Old Macdonald takes its name from C.B. Macdonald, a looming figure in American golf architecture. And like Macdonald in his own Golden Age works, the course incorporates template holes into its routing, including an Eden hole, a Biarritz and a Redan, as well as a long par-4 patterned after the Road Hole at St. Andrews.

Bandon Trails, the only of the bunch that does not kiss up against the coast, makes up for its absence of water views with boundless shot variety and strategic demands. Ask a Bandon caddie or a single-digit golfer, and they’re apt to tell you that it’s their favorite layout on the property. Sheep Ranch, the newest of the 18-holers, is set on the smallest plot of land but occupies a mile of coastline, the most ocean front of the five layouts. There is not a single sand bunker on the course, but there are Pacific views on every hole and nine greens set hard along the bluffs.

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Where do these courses rank in the U.S.?

Three of Bandon’s 18-hole courses reside on GOLF Magazine’s current roster of Top 100 Courses in the World, with Pacific Dunes at 24, Bandon Dunes at 80 and Bandon Trails at 87. Sheep Ranch, which recently reopened after a thorough remake of what was originally a scruffy 13-hole course, was not eligible for rating at the time the most recent World Top 100 voting was completed. But many believe it will be a strong contender for the next world ranking, as well as for GOLF Magazine’s list of Top 100 Courses in the United States, which comes out later this year. Time will tell.

How has Bandon evolved?

Developed by the Chicago-based businessman and golf junkie Mike Keiser, the resort opened in 1999 with a single golf course, Bandon Dunes. But even then, Keiser had something more in mind. It was his contention that while one course qualified as a curiosity, two courses made for a destination. The more golf you offered, the bigger the draw. The resort’s second course — Pacific Dunes — opened in 2001, followed by Bandon Trails in 2005, Old Macdonald in 2010, and Sheep Ranch in 2020. The Preserve and the Punchbowl opened in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

Bandon Dunes is the same vintage as Destination Kohler, the vaunted Wisconsin golf resort, which also opened in 1999 and will host next year’s Ryder Cup. But Bandon’s evolution has been different. Where Herb Kohler went all in on Pete Dye as the architect for his courses, Keiser has flipped through his Rolodex to tap a range of top designers at Bandon. David McLay Kidd, Tom Doak, Jim Urbina, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have all left their imprint on the resort.

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What other impact has Bandon had?

When Bandon Dunes was in its planning stages, skeptics scoffed at the idea that a golf resort could survive in such a lonely spot. The property’s success didn’t just silence the doubters. It helped reshape the industry. The phrase “remote golf” entered the lexicon, and a Field of Dreams approach became a guiding ethos, inspiring such off-the-beaten-path golf projects as Gamble Sands, Silvies Ranch and Streamsong, among others. The idea that if you build it, they will come no longer seems silly, so long as the golf is really good.

Have there been any other championships held at Bandon?

When it comes to staging USGA championships, this is not Bandon’s first rodeo. The resort also hosted the 2006 Curtis Cup (on Pacific Dunes); the 2011 U.S Amateur Public Links (on Old Macdonald and Bandon Trails); and the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four Ball (on Pacific Dunes). In this week’s U.S. Amateur Championship, the opening two rounds of stroke play were held Monday and Tuesday on Bandon Trails and Bandon Dunes. The match-play portion of the event, which runs Wednesday through Sunday, will be held on Bandon Dunes, the resort’s original course. Bandon Dunes was designed by David McLay Kidd, who grew up in Scotland, where match play is common, and who says he built Bandon Dunes with match play in mind. Now his course takes center stage — and on your living room TV, no less — this week.

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Published in 1976, The World Atlas of Golf should be a cornerstone of any golf architecture library, and maybe its finest feature is contributing editor Pat Ward-Thomas’s article, “Elements of Greatness: A Classic Course.”

Remaining true to each actual hole number (a No. 1 had to stay a No. 1, a No. 2 a No. 2 and so on), Ward-Thomas created an ideal 18, picking one hole from famous courses worldwide.

“Many may disagree with the composition of the course,” he wrote, “but nobody could fairly dispute that it would call upon a golfer to demonstrate skill in every part of the game; that it embraces the quality of exceptional design, and much of the beauty with which golf is blessed; that it would command respect from the mighty and be a great deal of fun for anyone to play.”

Mission accomplished, and brilliantly so: Ward-Thomas rightly focused on the quality of each hole as well as how those holes would relate to one another. It was an eye-opening read the first time and remains just as entertaining the hundredth time. Still, the book was published back in 1976—what about all the brilliant layouts built since?

Many people, myself included, believe that we’re living in a second Golden Age of course design, so it seemed only fitting that my homage to “Elements of Greatness” stick to places built post-World Atlas of Golf. As it’s meant to be a celebration of modern design, this list is restricted to one entry per architect, to acknowledge as many leaders in the field as possible. Also worth noting: 14 of these 18 holes are accessible to the paying public, a telling sign of progress.

Hole No. 1: Wolf Point

Port Lavaca, Texas — Par 4, 320 Yards

Architects: Mike Nuzzo with Don Mahaffey

Why it’s great: A wide but strategic fairway provides the perfect getaway for an opening hole.

Overview: Ask four golfers why they like a hole and you’ll often get four different answers, but every (sane) golfer agrees that a wide fairway is the ideal way to start a round. Old Tom Morris taught us this lesson at St. Andrews; at Royal Melbourne, Alister MacKenzie perfected the notion of gaining advantage from a particular spot in a sea of short grass.

America’s widest first fairway, and one of its smartest, resides at Wolf Point, a course originally built for one man on his East Texas ranch that has developed a cult following among design aficionados since its 2007 opening.

A lake sits off to the left, the rest of Texas is to the right and the golfer finds himself staring at a fairway 240 yards wide. To miss it would bring shame, and yet, sure enough, the more you position the drive toward the trouble left, the better the angle of approach to most hole locations given the green’s predominant right-to-left cant.

Hole No. 2: Kingsley Club

Kingsley, Mich. — Par 3, 150 Yards

Architect: Mike DeVries

Why it’s great: An ultra-precise par-3 shot is the perfect follow-up to a wide-open starter.

Overview: People who study golf’s pace of play—yes, there are such people—pooh-pooh the idea of a reachable par-5 or a par-3 early on either side, holding forth that such holes cause play to back up. My experience says that the opposite holds true, that both hole types invariably spread out play.

Regardless, Mike DeVries routed this one-shotter along the top of a ridge, with the narrow green naturally falling off on both sides toward either deep bunkers or, worse still, thick fescue grass. The green, at 38 yards, is much deeper than it is wide (just nine yards at the front).

Yard for yard, this may well be the hardest hole on this entire Dream Course. More important, the juxtaposition of its intense call for precision against the freewheeling, spacious opening hole is simply too delicious to pass up.  

Hole No. 3: Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island, S.C. — Par 4, 365 Yards

Architect: Pete Dye

Why it’s great: Green complexes this good don’t need bunkering.

Overview: Pete Dye did the game a huge favor when he reestablished the popularity of the short par-4. A 1963 trip to Scotland cemented his fondness for such holes, and this one might well be his finest. The fairway offers plenty of width; when the pin is front-left, the golfer aims right off the tee and vice versa. The merciless, bunkerless green is nothing more than a knuckle perched some five to seven feet above its surroundings, and its relative flatness provides no help in stopping approach shots.

Notably, when the breeze is off the Atlantic and into the player, the 3rd plays easier than when the wind blows offshore and the hole is downwind, as the already small, 3,920-square-foot green becomes even more elusive. Golf is more interesting to more people when accuracy and finesse trump brute strength, and it’s fascinating how a short hole with a tame putting surface can do just that.

Hole No. 4: Tobacco Road

Sanford, N.C. — Par 5, 535 Yards

Architect: Mike Strantz

Why it’s great: A great hazard you can challenge but recover from if you miss.

Overview: The dearly, too-early departed Mike Strantz left behind a small portfolio of nine original works that range from intimate to muscular. His designs resisted stereotyping except for one feature: He adored the button-hook par 5, meaning a hole that swings around a great hazard. Tobacco Road in fact features two such holes, this one and No. 11.

The latter plays around the deepest hazard in North Carolina, but the 4th was chosen for the grace with which the fairway tumbles and connects to the green. Also, the great hazard being more human in scale, at six feet deep, tempts golfers into greedier tactics than the hazard at 11, which is three times deeper. Hazards from which you can recover are more enticing, and therefore interesting, to challenge than water features like lakes and ponds, which are overly penal with no hope of recovery.

Hole No. 5: The Cove Club at Cabo Del Sol

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico — Par 4, 470 Yards

Architect: Jack Nicklaus

Why it’s great: A study in keeping the foreground “quiet” so the background can sing.

Overview: Standing on this elevated tee, with the distant flag flapping against the Sea of Cortez, it’s easy to understand why Jack Nicklaus maintains that golf is best appreciated played downhill. A lateral hazard runs the length of the hole along the right, while a shoulder from the hill protrudes in from the left. The closer the golfer hugs the lateral hazard, the better the optics for the approach shot to a green intensely connected to the sea. The putting surface starts off glued to the ground front left but gradually rises as it angles away to the right. Brave is the player who chases after back-right flags, as the short grass surrounding the green is only too happy to whisk balls away. No bunkers required, and at high tide the water can get as close as 15 yards from the green—the light touch of salt spray can make even the most concentrated golfer back away from a putt.

No. 6: South Cape Owners Club

Namhae Island, South Korea — Par 3, 235 Yards

Architect: Kyle Phillips

Why it’s great: Every course needs a “heroic” moment.

Overview: One sacrosanct rule in architecture: There are no rules. It’s easy to wax poetic about the ground game, as witness our prior hole; sometimes, though, it’s mighty rewarding when the architect demands that the player simply hit the damn shot needed. Such exemplars—think, No. 12 at Augusta National or No. 16 at Cypress Point—create the sport’s most thrilling, indelible memories.

This South Korean beauty replicates the latter’s heart-pounding excitement of launching a long iron off a cliff and over the pounding surf. The jagged cliff-line proved ideal for Kyle Phillips, who routed three of the course’s one-shot holes along it. He artfully arranged the tees here to make the shot palatable for as many skill sets as possible, but most players can’t help but have a crack from the tips, so compelling is the heroic carry. Though the setting steals the show, the rolling green itself is also full of character.

Hole No. 7: Ardfin

Isle of Jura, Scotland — Par 4, 460 Yards

Architect: Bob Harrison

Why it’s great: There’s an obvious shortcut off the tee—but is it the right answer?

Overview: Should there be a set way to master a hole or many? The 7th at Ardfin, opened in 2016 and criminally under the radar, is an example of posing a conundrum not easily solved. The straight line from tee to green traverses broken ground; the crescent-shaped fairway is an inverted C to the right. Logic suggests hugging the inside of the curve to reduce the distance for the approach…yet that route often yields a blind shot. From the outside of the fairway, more is revealed but the shot is longer.

One rub for the downhill approach: The green follows the slope of the surrounding land, i.e., the putting surface cascades from front to back. Trying to get the ball to behave and stop on the correct part of the green—even on a rare calm day in the Inner Hebrides—is among the more exasperating yet thrilling tests this Dream Course poses.

Hole No. 8: Congaree

Ridgeland, S.C. — Par 5, 545 Yards

Architect: Tom Fazio

Why it’s great: An old-school nod to “using the ground.”

Overview: For golf architects as for rock bands, the early work often remains the most original. To Tom Fazio’s credit, three decades after his designs at Wild Dunes and Wade Hampton reestablished that the sport should be about fun, he was producing top-notch courses like Congaree and Gozzer Ranch.

Much of Congaree’s playing season occurs when its Bermuda fairways are dormant—and blazingly quick. This golf-for-golfers club doesn’t color or overseed the fairways: Ownership appreciates the ground game and understands that the new Bermuda grasses aid this approach. Fazio imbued this design with numerous cases whereby you hit to X to end up at Y, none so dramatic as here, where the thrilling challenge is to hit left of the green, avoiding all the trouble on the right and allow the 30-yard-long kicker slope to feed the ball down and onto the open green—a shot to savor for the thinking golfer. 

Hole No. 9: Askernish

Askernish, Scotland — Par 4, 340 Yards

Architect: Martin Ebert

Why it’s great: It proves that super greens don’t have to be superfast.

Overview: Situated in the Outer Hebrides, Askernish has the distinction of being built this century over ground once occupied by a 19th-century course designed by titans Old Tom Morris and Horace Hutchinson. Course owner Ralph Thompson got the idea in 2005 to maximize the wondrous dunescape here on the Isle of South Uist and called in architect Martin Ebert and greenkeeper Gordon Irvine to carry out his vision.

The course has only four formalized bunkers, and that’s plenty given the rollicking land. Just four people maintain the course, and the greens don’t play as intended if they Stimp much above 8. Never mind: As a set, the green complexes represent one of the game’s finest collections, headlined by the 9th, where the putting surface is set at a 45-degree angle to play. A deep depression in front and a deeper one in back confound the golfer, making this wee two-shotter a position hole with teeth.
Old Tom and Horace would be proud.

Hole No. 10: Gamble Sands

Brewster, Wash. — Par 3, 140 Yards

Architect: David McLay Kidd

Why it’s great: Challenges the notion that the target must fit the shot.

Overview: You hear it all the time: The target should fit the shot. A short hole? The green should be small. While that can be true, a small target has the sometimes unwanted effect of focusing a golfer’s concentration. As Nos. 9 and 10 at The Old Course have demonstrated forever, large greens at short holes make getting a pitch close bizarrely vexing.

Leave it to the Scotsman David McLay Kidd to pick up on such a design cue. Though the green measures a whopping 13,119 square feet, its interior contours are superb and the desired birdie often proves elusive. Even more maddening is when a bogey surfaces because the golfer got out of position on this position hole. For such a short hole, the massive green provides an uncommon amount of hole locations, be it back left atop a plateau or to the right in a bowl guarded by a bunker. That’s called flexibility, people.

Hole No. 11: Cabot Links

Inverness, Nova Scotia — Par 5, 540 Yards

Architect: Rod Whitman

Why it’s great: A par-5 that keeps its foot on the pedal.

Overview: Too many par-5s lack merit by tolerating loose play. Either the drive or layup is a nonevent, or the pitch to the green uninteresting. Here, each shot builds off the prior’s success. Finding the sloping fairway off the tee is paramount as Rod Whitman routed the hole such that the second shot must scale a 30-foot bank or else you’re likely headed for a regrettable sequence of events.

The 72-yard-wide, thought-provoking landing area for the second is actually wider than the driving zone, debunking the myth that a classic three-shotter must progressively narrow. As the hole is uphill and generally into the wind, Whitman extends an olive branch with the high left side of the green complex maintained as tight fescue, so that players can deaden their approach and watch the ball trickle off the slope and drift toward the hole. Both Mike Keiser and Ben Crenshaw consider this among the best par 5s they’ve seen. Enough said.

Hole No. 12: Erin Hills

Erin, Wis. — Par 4, 435 Yards

Architects: Dana Fry, Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten

Why it’s great: The glories of natural topography.

Overview: Recent restoration work at several Golden Age designs, including Eastward Ho!, Moraine and West Bend, has highlighted how thrilling golf over glacial landforms can be. Same here with the 12th at Erin Hills, which captures the sensation of playing across tumbling landforms even when more than 1,000 miles from the nearest coastline. Its fairway heaves and plunges, and architects Dana Fry, Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten did well to leave the landforms alone and keep the machinery away. The world’s most distinctive holes are the ones that follow nature’s lead, as unlike man, nature doesn’t repeat herself.

I once wrote of No. 12, “This is a prime example of what people mean when they write about a well-routed hole over great land. Courses over more mundane land can’t compete with drama so deeply rooted in nature.”

Dare I say, those words still hold true.

Hole No. 13: Pacific Dunes

Bandon, Ore. — Par 4, 444 Yards

Architect: Tom Doak

Why it’s great: Aesthetic pleasure is a key part of golf’s appeal.

Overview: This hole was a no-brainer selection: Just look at the thing! With the coastline left, a stunning blowout dune right and skyline green ahead, it epitomizes the allure of golf at Bandon Dunes Resort. Really, what more do you want? What most players don’t realize, though, is that this picture-perfect hole was a late addition to Tom Doak’s routing. As he explains in his new book on routing courses, Getting to 18, Doak originally had several holes routed on land that ultimately was used by David McLay Kidd for the Bandon Dunes layout. Thankfully, owner Mike Keiser kept gobbling up land to the north and presented Doak with the opportunity to include the parcel that houses the 13th into the final Pacific Dunes routing. 

Unlucky 13

Built in 1988 in Northern Michigan, Tom Doak’s first design, High Pointe, now lies fallow, but those lucky enough to play it won’t forget the experience. The 430-yard, par-4 13th was as good as it gets: a downhill two-shotter to a green that fell away to the back left. Capping off a grand hole with a bland green in the name of “fairness” proved flawed thinking whose time would soon pass, thanks in part to Doak, who went on to earn fabulous sites and build even better courses but arguably has yet to build a hole that clearly surpasses this marvel.

Hole No. 14: Chambers Bay

University Place, Wash. — Par 4, 495 Yards

Architects: Robert Trent Jones Jr. with Bruce Charlton and Jay Blasi

Why it’s great: A dogleg that tempts — as it should.

Overview: At the heart of great architecture lies the temptation to attempt something to gain an advantage for the next shot. The dogleg is among the most time-honored of the myriad ways to present such a puzzle, and this one is among the best.

From an elevated tee, the golfer can readily grasp the risks and rewards of hugging or even cutting off the dogleg by carrying as much of the sandy waste as possible. A small central hazard of the sort far too infrequently found in modern architecture must be avoided as the hole elbows from right to left. The golfer then faces a hugely appealing approach thanks to the fescue fairways, whereby a low bullet draw can run forever toward a bank along the green’s right that helps feed the ball toward the hole. A sprawling bunker complex runs tee to green along the left and exemplifies Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s artistry—no surprise from a man who takes pride in composing poetry.

Hole No. 15: Bandon Trails

Bandon, Ore. — Par 4, 405 yards

Architects: Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw

Why it’s great: A truly sublime and thoughtful green complex.

Overview: Every course has a shortfall, and so does every Dream Course. Yes, it’s criminal that no hole from Sand Hills nor Friar’s Head appears in this compilation. Blame Coore & Crenshaw, not me: They’ve provided too many dazzlers from which to choose!

A diagonal cross bunker 130 yards from the green makes this a nervy drive; getting your drive close to, but not in, is a simple objective—except for the uncertainty of stopping a ball on these fescue fairways. What truly makes the hole is its fabulous found green site. Nestled in an amphitheater of dunes, the green appears as an extension of the fairway, climbing a false front and then rising to the rear: a postcard-perfect green complex with handsome bunkers carefully teased from the surrounding dunescape. Many people judge a course by the strength of its two-shotters, and one thing is without question—you have just played four straight sterling ones.  

Hole No. 16: Ballybunion Cashen

Ballybunion, Ireland — Par 3, 160 yards

Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr.

Why it’s great: A short par-3 with never-ending shot demands.

Overview: The Jones family patriarch, Robert Trent Jones Sr., acted as a bridge between the Golden Age and modern architecture. His reach of more than 500 courses is staggering considering his career mostly unfolded before air travel became routine. Many of his works were built on heavier-soil sites, so what a thrill it must have been to receive this commission in the early 1980s.

Not reliant on length, the 16th is prickly. Depending on the wind’s strength and direction, the tee shot may well have to be shaped and the trajectory definitely controlled. That’s what great golf is about, prompting better players to display the full arsenal of their shot repertoire. In this case, that takes place in one of the game’s most magical settings, with southwest Ireland’s fabulously massive sand dunes stretching up the coast and the sight and roar of the Atlantic just left adding to the drama.

Hole No. 17: Carnegie Links at Skibo Castle

Dornoch, Scotland — Par 4, 305 yards

Architects: Donald Steel with Tom Mackenzie

Why it’s great: An impactful, drivable par-4.

Overview: In the first Masters, the nines were reversed, so the current Nos. 12, 13 and 15 lived on the first nine. Unimaginable! Where a hole falls in a round impacts its influence. Many thrilling short two-shotters come so early (including No. 3 at Augusta) as to limit their sway, but such is lay-of-the-land design.

Drivable short par 4s are the darling of modern architecture, and among the best late-round versions lives at Skibo. Situated at the end of a peninsula that juts into the Dornoch Firth, the 17th’s setting is impossibly gorgeous. Four deep pot bunkers litter the fairway; an angled green best accepts shots from the left, meaning that a tee shot needs to be aimed toward the firth and danger in order to open up the spine of the green for one’s approach. This teaser sealed the fate of the 1996 Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match between Fred Couples (birdie) and Greg Norman (bogey).

Hole No. 18: Castle Stuart

Inverness, Scotland — Par 5, 595 Yards

Architects: Gil Hanse and Mike Parsinen

Why it’s great: An exciting closer that makes you want to return to No. 1.

Overview: A home hole has two prerequisite duties: pose interesting questions to suitably conclude a match, and make you itch to play again. Plenty of long par-4s do that (Harbour Town, Winged Foot’s West), but a half-par hole to the easier side (Pebble Beach, St. Andrews) does a better job drawing a player back.

Few perform their functions as well as the closer at Castle Stuart. Watching Scottish Opens here have been fascinating. One day, this hole is driver, wood, mid-iron; the next day, driver, mid-iron! Such elasticity doesn’t come by chance. The fairway cascades downhill, and its artful contours make a huge difference in where a tee ball finally ends. Under favorable conditions, golfers relish a crack at the green in two over broken ground and past bunkers. Otherwise, the fairway left of such trouble provides the safe passage—and lends the hole the coveted virtue of playing well for all players in all conditions.

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The post Course Rater Confidential: What makes golf-course routing so hard, and so important? appeared first on Golf.

The post Course Rater Confidential: What makes golf-course routing so hard, and so important? appeared first on Golf.

GOLF’s Top 100 course panelists are among the most respected and well-traveled course evaluators in the game. They’re also keen to share their opinions. In this GOLF.com series, we’ll unlock their unvarnished views on all questions course-related. The goal is not only to entertain you but also to give you a better understanding of how to understand and appreciate golf course architecture. You can see GOLF’s latest Top 100 Courses in the World ranking here, and meet all of our Top 100 panelists here.

1. Routing has been called “the hidden art” of golf-course architecture. Are there any golden rules of routing? Absolute no-nos? Any hard lessons you’ve learned in your own career about what to do (or not do) when routing a course?

Tom Doak (Panelist since 1983; has played 97 of the World Top 100; author of the forthcoming book on routing, Getting To 18): In general, I feel that others’ rules for golf design were made to be broken, but one absolute no-no for me is to build a dogleg hole with another golf hole on the inside of it. I managed to win the job at Stonewall in Pennsylvania many years ago by remarking how people would inevitably short-cut their planned 18th hole by going down the 10th fairway, which they had not noticed. But then I made the same mistake in our redesign of Atlantic City Country Club, extending the 10th hole into a par-5, which meant that going down the fairway of the 9th would be an attractive option to some. Just try telling people not to take advantage of a short-cut in a casino town! Never again…

Jim Urbina (Panelist since 2015; has played 69 of the World Top 100): In his book, Golf Architecture, Alister MacKenzie described 13 rules to follow when designing and building a golf course; he broke every rule. Several hard lessons to learn. When someone says, “Build me a championship golf course,” the golf course should be hard but fair and the golf course should have a balanced scorecard. These are a few examples that stifle the designer. These demands hamper the creative process when trying to find the best holes on any given property.

The great architect George Thomas had this to say about the planning of a golf course: “The greatest care must be taken to secure the full value, with the least congestion, moderate expense in construction and other necessary fundamentals. The proper solution is much on the order of a chess problem; the first effort is not generally the best. … Slopes, hills, mounds or any other contour which affect the roll or run of the ball, are aids on all parts of your fairway and your strategy should, if possible, hinge on them.”

These are lessons that you learn to observe when routing a golf course.

Brian Curley (Panelist since 2011; has played 65 of the World Top 100): I think it is like the game of baseball. On one hand, it is quite complicated, but on the other, so simple. Never be afraid to break the rules, however. There are numerous factors but I have found your first instinct seems to always be best. In my past dealings in Asia, we often would be asked to give an initial impression of a property (often very severe ones) and I would offer up a quick, “Here’s something for ya” kind of plan to get our foot in the door. Months later, after little or no response, they would come back and say “OK, we are ready to go,” and the plan had been submitted, approved as drawn and with strict limitations for any change. I was amazed how often these were fine as is and required nothing but the next step. Obviously, sites vary dramatically, public vs. private matters, and just the impact of walking vs. cart paths impacts decision-making. But I tend to start with the path of least resistance in terms of proper width and line of sight. On great sites, you tend to work from greensites backwards. On severe sites there is a hunt for adequate landing areas and friendly grades. I have also been much more open to the opinions of operators who focus on pace of play, especially getting players out at the start.

2. For all those armchair architects out there who think, “I could do THAT,” what are some of the biggest challenges of routing that might not be obvious to the outside observer?

Doak: When people tell me one of my holes would have been better had I located the green or tee differently, I think, sure, but what about the holes that come before and after? The routing is a puzzle and it’s important that the pieces fit together well. When we are honing in on the final plan, anytime we consider tweaking a hole, it’s two or three holes that will be affected, because you can’t knock over one domino without hitting another. (Well, I suppose you can if you want a 100-yard cart ride from each green to the next tee, but I hate that sort of arrangement.) The other two fundamentals of routing are trying to plan the fairways around areas where drainage collects, and maintaining visibility from tee to fairway to green, two things that most amateurs don’t even think about until they run into trouble.

Urbina: Linking the best holes together so that they flow, making sure the routing is cost effective, navigating do-not-touch-areas and, most importantly, the walkability of the routing. A.W. Tillinghast said this about course layout: “A round of golf should present 18 inspirations — not necessarily thrills, because spectacular holes may be overdone. Every hole may be constructed to provide charm without being obtrusive with it. … If his round ends happily, this is one beautiful course. Such is human nature.” The outside observer should be careful not to overwhelm the golfer on every tee box with difficult holes. Never force a hole for the sake of the scorecard.

Curley: Don’t get too hung up on the scorecard and by all means try to use the routing as the first tool to create variety in design. Look for natural holes as much as possible but, at the same time, do not be afraid to move dirt if you must. Grades must be lived with for the life of the course but nips and tucks can change initial designs (many great courses have done so over the years but few have made drastic grade changes). Find the great opportunities but don’t shy away from an occasional breather hole. Find the great natural par-3 but remember (as Pete Dye told me) you can always put a par-3 anywhere.

3. What’s an example of a masterful routing?

Doak: Cypress Point is famous for how it goes through the dunes into the trees, back out into the dunes for the 8th and 9th, back into the trees again at 10 and 11, and then out across the dunes to the ocean. At Pacific Dunes I tried to mimic that. Many people have noted how the holes along the ocean aren’t at the end of each nine, but interspersed through the round so you never know when to expect them. But, the other great feature of the property was the bowl of sand dunes in the center, which gave me places for four great short par-4 holes, but I didn’t want to use them all consecutively. So, you play the first and second holes in the bowl, then you head to the ocean for 3-4-5, come back into the bowl for the 6th-7th-8th, head to the ocean again (twice), and come back through the bowl one last time at the short par-4 16th.

Where the terrain was relatively flat and boring, we built our longer holes, including three of the par-5s (the 3rd, 12th and 15th). Each of them starts with a tee in the dunes, and ends with a green either at the foot of the dunes or just up in them. In between, there’s not more than three feet of elevation change along the way, but each of them gives you bunkers crowding the direct line of play either on the tee shot or the second shot, so no one ever complains of them being dull.

Urbina: One of my favorite routings is Riviera Golf Club in California. The first hole on the front nine starts out to the east, holes 2-5 circle back toward the west and southwest. Over the next four holes, directions change three times. The back nine starts off to the south and swings through multiple compass changes, finishing to the northeast on the famous 18th hole that goes uphill. The looping of the routing and the constant change in wind direction is always challenging the golfer. It is a fabulous George Thomas routing.

Curley: Having grown up just a couple of par-5s away, I am a huge Cypress Point fan and always find reason to note its greatness. In terms of breaking the rules of routing, Cypress has back-to-back 5s, back-to-back 3s, is an uneven 37-35, and you tee off over 17-Mile Drive to start. Yet it is the best golf experience in the world. Much of the greatness stems from having a walking-only, no-continuous cart path design. The magic of the center dune (which functions like the hub on a wheel with holes playing in and out) would never have the same charm if cart paths were required.

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Ed. note: As GOLF’s chief photographer and visual editor, Christian Hafer visits some of the most gorgeous and exclusive golf courses and properties in the world. Here, in his Field Guide, he’ll take you along for the ride. Lucky for us, Christian never leaves home without his camera. Follow Christian Hafer on Instagram here.

Way out west, hard against the Pacific Ocean, sits a collection of golf holes unrivaled by any other in the world. Twenty-one years ago when it first opened, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort changed American golfers’ perception of what a golf resort could be.

Rugged and remote, the first course, Bandon Dunes, created by then-unknown Scottish architect David McLay Kidd, was an instant hit. More dynamite courses from other accomplished architects came next: Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails and Old Macdonald. On June 1, comes the latest installment in the Sheep Ranch (but more on that later).

There’s also the Punchbowl, a massive 100,000-square-foot putting green with more options and undulations than you know what to do with. But my favorite place on the property might be The Preserve, a 13-hole par-3 course designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw that’s the perfect way to start, end or break up a day at Bandon.

Bandon is remote, but getting there is actually much easier than people think. I’d gladly travel twice the distance for a trip to Bandon. There are flights into Portland (four hours north), Eugene (two hours north) and North Bend (45 minutes away), and once on property you never have to leave. Everything is designed to let golf be the principle focus and encourage as much golf as possible — 36 holes a day, 54, you name it. Just make sure to snag some of Bandon’s famous protein balls. Oh, and dinner without the meatloaf at McKee’s would be a borderline sin, especially after a rainy wind-whipped day on the links.

If you gave me one last place to visit on this earth, I’d pick Bandon. Hands down. Maybe I’d consider Scotland or something else overseas, but after playing Bandon’s offerings once again and then experiencing the Sheep Ranch, I’m all in. Once a “secret” Tom Doak course famous for its lack of yardages, the course in its rogue state encouraged you to make up holes on the fly. Today the property boasts the best views in Bandon — and some of the most dramatic green locations I have ever seen. Sheep Ranch is also the windiest site among Bandon’s courses, meaning keeping sand in bunkers wouldn’t be realistic, so architects Coore & Crenshaw opted to shape a few bunkers, leave them be and let the turf do its thing.

What’s beautiful about Bandon is that everyone has their own course ranking. The variety, quality and location of the golf all makes for an unmatched experience. Sure, it rains and it’s windy (you could also get gorgeous sunny weather), but that’s part of the experience. If you’ve never been to Scotland to play golf, Bandon will take you there. I’ve sat under the moonlight, sunset and sunrise just to take a break from the world. We play golf to escape and have fun, and we play golf to travel and experience life. There’s no better place in the world to check those boxes than on the Oregon Coast.

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GOLF’s Top 100 course panelists are among the most respected and well-traveled course evaluators in the game. They’re also keen to share their opinions. In this GOLF.com series, we’ll unlock their unvarnished views on all questions course-related. The goal is not only to entertain you but also to give you a better understanding of how to understand and appreciate golf course architecture. You can see GOLF’s latest Top 100 Courses in the World ranking here, and meet all of our Top 100 panelists here.

What is the most underappreciated feature of golf-course design and why? And what’s an example of a course where this feature is put to especially fine use?

David McLay-Kidd (panelist since 2004; has played 60-plus of the World Top 100): Golf at its best is an exploration of a landscape. If everything is seen at first glance, then there is no adventure, no exploration, no mystery, no intrigue. The best golf courses offer that exploration — most golfers are likely unaware of the journey a great course takes them on. The skill to weave that path through a landscape is an underappreciated feature of golf design.

The best course layouts wander somewhat unpredictably across the landscape. My favorite layouts include Kingsbarns, Swinley Forest and Royal Melbourne. Another subtlety of golf design is the use of light in design. Every golf course architect I know loves to play with shadows. Low light can cast long shadows over the most subtle features while a midday sun can still throw shadow on a deep north-faced bunker. These shadows are key to the visual appreciation of a golf course. Think of all the photos you’ve seen of the fairways at St. Andrews on a late summer evening. Without the shadows it’s a different look altogether.

Tournaments

Steve Lapper (panelist since 2009; has played 84 of the Top 100): Smart routing is the least-noticed by the large majority of golfers, and often the most critical task for a golf architect: How to find the best holes, best green sites, how to make the highest use of the land forms, how to make use of natural dunes, how to navigate geological or geographical restrictions. Can it be a walking course, with proximate green-to-tee walks? Does the layout flow across the compass of wind? Will it return to the clubhouse after nine holes? All of these questions, and more, create a puzzle an architect must solve. It is even more so for a bland site that needs vision to transform into something interesting.

Sand Hills is a perfect example of balancing the use of natural land features with its large sandy blowout styled bunkering and innate green sites. Cabot Cliffs, Pacific Dunes and Ohoopee Match Club are also wonderful modern examples. Fishers Island may be the very best example of a routing that maximizes a water aesthetic. Classics like the Old Course at St. Andrews and Royal Melbourne West are both routed across the wind compass keenly and yield 18 wonderful holes in an intimate setting perfect for walking. The list could go on, but almost all the greatest courses have very solid routings. It is the core of their existence.

Brian Curley (panelist since 2011, has played 65 of the Top 100): As far as the required skills of a golf architect, I would offer the ability to transform a difficult site. This has been a modern-day phenomenon as equipment available today makes it feasible. This can vary from a dead flat site with no features or vegetation where everything must be created, to the extreme terrain of rugged properties where severe slope and soil conditions must be overcome. I do not want to sound as if all great properties can be handled by anyone with a good team, but there are very few architects with the experience of dealing with extreme terrain and very few that have managed to produce world-class courses on these sites.

I think there is a misconception that most sites offered to architects start out looking like Sand Hills or Bandon Dunes and that holes are merely “found” and bunkers added here and there. The reality is that most sites require some manipulation/rough grading, etc., to create playable terrain, long before there is discussion of features. On a few occasions the site bears no resemblance to natural golf terrain. For instance, I did Mission Hills in China, where I guarantee over 95 percent of the site was not even walkable, covered in severe rocky slopes. After massive cuts and fills and the coordination of thousands of pieces of equipment and labor, sites like this begin to resemble playable golf terrain. At that point, the detailed design process begins and is followed by a massive re-vegetation effort. In the case of Mission Hills, world-class golf was created and world-class events are held (such as the WGC-HSBC Championship, The World Cup of Golf and more).

I have also seen courses that attempted this but failed for lack of proper design and construction, usually for a lack of enough rough grading, and the result is a lost-ball fiasco. Designers lacking the vision, skills or experience can produce woeful courses. A great example of transforming a flat, nondescript site into a stunning, creative masterpiece would be Tom Fazio’s Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

For those who argue that these sites should not be “transformed” to begin with, the reality is that in many countries, the only properties available are these extreme sites. The good, well-located sites are protected for farmland or other purposes. Unfortunately, this also adds to the extreme cost of construction and deters many beginning golfers in new markets.

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