A vista of the treeless plain that constitutes the ground for most of Old MacDonald. See the rest of the Bandon Dunes Old MacDonald Photo Gallery below.
Bandon Dunes Old MacDonald Photo Gallery
The Old MacDonald Course at Bandon Dunes is the response of Tom Doak and Jim Urbina to the question: What would classic golf architect Charles Blair MacDonald have created on the Oregon Coast.
Routed largely around a treeless plain between two immense dunes, Old MacDonald is pure links joy. The ground is hard-and-fast. The bunker are threatening. The ground has as many waves as the sea. And the wind — the wind charges in from the sea, crests the first dune, wreaks havoc on balls in the plain, then bounds over the second dune to threaten players on the remaining holes.
The result is a course that is a supreme test of golf imagination. None of the usual calculus works at Old MacDonald. Rather than scientifically choosing a club based on yardage, elevation and wind, a successful player imagines the path of the ball, and then chooses a club to get the job done. A 150 yard shot might be a driver, or a six iron, or a putter. A 250 yard shot could be a driver … or a nine iron.
I wanted to play this course again and again. It was unmitigated golf joy.
An Old MacDonald photo gallery follows:
The first at Old MacDonald is a 341 yard par 4.
A view from the fairway on Old MacDonald’s first.
The second at Old MacDonald is a 375 yard par 4.
The third at Old MacDonald is a 375 par 4 with a blind tee shot over a high dune past the “Ghost Tree”
A view of Old MacDonald’s fourth from the top of the high dune in the middle of the hole.
The fourth at Old MacDonald is a 504 yard par 5.
A view of the green at Old MacDonald’s fourth
The fifth at Old MacDonald is a 160 yard par 3.
The sixth at Old MacDonald is a 555 yard par 5.
The seventh at Old MacDonald is a 363 yard uphill, dogleg par 4. Photo by Tony Korologos at hookedongolfblog.com TK was one of my traveling companions.
A view from behind the green on Old MacDonald’s eighth, a 181 yard downhill par 3.
Old MacDonald’s ninth is a 416 yard par 4
The tenth at Old MacDonald is a 465 yard par 4.
The eleventh at Old MacDonald is called “The Road Hole,” as it is modeled after the famous one at The Old Course.It is a 445 yard par 4.
The twelfth at Old MacDonald is a 237 yard par 3.
The thirteenth at Old MacDonald is a 346 yard par 4.
The fourteenth at Old MacDonald is a 370 yard par 4.
A view from the fairway on Old MacDonald’s fourteenth.
The fifteenth at Old MacDonald is a 535 yard par 5.
The sixteenth at Old MacDonald is a 455 yard par 4.
The eighteenth at Old MacDonald is a 469 yard par 4.
A naturally windswept bunker at Old MacDonald.
A view of the green from the fairway on Old MacDonald’s sixteenth
The seventeenth at Old MacDonald is a 546 yard par 5.
A view of the Pacific Ocean from Old MacDonald.
A vista of the treeless plain that constitutes the ground for most of Old MacDonald
