Check out photos of the new Black Desert Resort course in Utah that is quickly earning rave reviews.
Black Desert Resort Golf Course in Ivins, Utah, opened in late May as the last course designed by Tom Weiskopf, who passed away in 2022. The Golfweek’s Best raters have a lot of great things to say about the new layout not far from St. George in the southwest corner of the state.
The resort’s 18-hole layout is open for daily-fee play among the region’s ancient basalt rock formations near Snow Canyon State Park. Partnering with architect Phil Smith, Weiskopf built an expansive layout with most fairways 70 to 100 yards wide. The course features two driveable par 4s, the fifth and 14th.
Upon buildout, Black Desert will feature a full hotel and conference center, more than a thousand residences, trails, a spa and plenty more. The property is managed by hospitality-management company Troon Golf, and Black Desert is already slated to host an LPGA event starting in 2025. The course also will offer an amphiteater-style 19th hole and a 36-hole lit putting course.
After a first tour of the course, the Golfweek’s Best raters had many positive comments.
“An amazing design and absolutely stunning contrast of the lava rocks with the greenery and surrounding red mountains,” wrote one rater. “Truly an oasis. Several holes can be played in multiple different ways depending on your confidence that day as risk/reward options abound. It’s a beautiful course, one you’ll remember for a lifetime.”
“Black Desert blew me away,” wrote another. “It has everything I would want in a modern course. The combination of setting, vistas and course itself is the total package. The black lava rock is so unique, I’ve never seen it anywhere else in the mainland. You also have the beautiful sweeping vistas of the red canyons visible from every hole.”
Check out several photos from Black Desert Resort below.
A new golf course, the Cardinal, will open in the spring of 2024 at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan. Designed by Raymond Hearn, the 18-hole Cardinal was laid out as an entirely new routing on land formerly used for a 27-hole layout at the Inn at St. John’s.
Alongside the new 18-hole layout will be a seven-hole short course, a two-acre putting course and a shortgame practice area. All that will wrap around the resort’s driving range and a Carl’s Golfland retail store.
It’s all part of a renovation to the property formerly owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. The property was donated in 2021 to the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation and has been rebranded as Saint John’s Resort. The $50-million transformation includes updated rooms at the resort’s hotel, a 6,200-square-foot pavilion, a ballroom and more.
The routing for the new Cardinal golf course at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan (Courtesy of Saint John’s Resort)
The Cardinal will be the first new high-end, public-access layout in the Metro Detroit area in more than 20 years.
“The land, with its natural glacier forms and beautiful 100-year-old trees, was a great foundation to work with,” said the Michigan-based Hearn. “We were able to save many of the old mature trees and create a routing that kept them in play around green sites and along fairways, which is a bit unique in today’s golf course architecture that focuses more on tree removal.
“This also allowed me to draw on my inspiration from previous Donald Ross, Tom Bendelow and Willie Park Jr. projects as well as one of my favorite courses, the Old Course at Sunningdale by Willie Park Jr. Our goal was to create a fun golf experience, and I believe we have achieved that and then some with this project.”
Check out the photos of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner’s latest course creation.
Much attention has been paid to the design duo of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in recent years for their work restoring multiple host sites of major championships, and rightfully so. Los Angeles Country Club, The Country Club, Winged Foot, Southern Hills and more have hosted majors after the designers lent their expertise in putting the courses back into the shapes intended by their original architects.
But what about Hanse and Wagner’s original work? They can bring the heat to their own designs, too, and that is on full display with the Fields Ranch East course at Omni PGA Frisco Resort near Dallas, the new home of the PGA of America.
The East recently opened to public play shortly after hosting the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship (won by Steve Stricker), the first of dozens of top-tier events scheduled to be played there.
Playing as long as 7,863 yards with a par of 72, the East is part of a new complex that includes a resort, meeting spaces, dining, shopping, a lit par-3 course, a massive putting green and plenty of ways to practice. It sits alongside the West, a course designed by Beau Welling.
The Oklahoma resort said it spent $15 million to build the par-3 course that honors military veterans.
Shangri-La Resort in Monkey Island, Oklahoma, announced Thursday that it will officially open its new 18-hole par-3 course, The Battlefield, on June 30. Designed by Tom Clark and Kevin Atkinson, the layout features more than 100 feet of elevation changes and will play to 3,000 yards.
In a media release announcing the news, the resort said it cost $15 million to build The Battlefield, each hole of which has been named in honor of an Oklahoma veteran of World War II. It’s part of a $100 million investment in the property since owner Eddy Gibbs took over in 2010. The resort is managed by Crescent Hotels and Resorts as part of the Lifestyles by Crescent Collection.
The Battlefield features holes ranging from 110 to 245 yards. It joins the three existing nine-hole courses already at Shangri-La – the Legends, Heritage and Champions nines – along the shores of Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in northeast Oklahoma. Shangri-La ranks No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in Oklahoma.
“The Battlefield is a beautiful, captivating, and purposefully designed short course like no other,” Shangri-La director of golf operations Rob Yanovitch said in the media release. “It’s an endlessly fun and engaging experience for golfers of every skill level that also recognizes our brave military personnel, with special commemorations to World War II veterans on every hole. Daily presentations in The Battlefield Clubhouse also honor military personnel and American veterans. The course has an energy and excitement that, along with our renovated, world-class 27-hole championship course, elevates the golf experience at Shangri-La into the must-play category among Midwest destination resorts.”
The new par-3 course also has a 165-yard warmup area and a 10,000-square-foot practice green. There are five sets of tees on The Battlefield, plus a set of close-up tees for beginners, children and players wanting to work on their short games.
“We take great pride in Shangri-La having become a beloved destination for outdoor recreation, world-class golf, quality time with family and friends – all in an idyllic natural environment,” Shangri-La president & CEO Barry Willingham said in the media release. “The opening of The Battlefield, though, marks an achievement and source of pride that’s difficult to put into words. To have a grand-scale living monument that honors our veterans and military service people fulfills a meaningful vision for our team and our commitment to never forget to honor those who have made our freedoms possible.”
“Because the native contours and dune formations are so good, very little earthmoving will be required.”
Ernie Els has signed on as signature designer for a new course in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: Oleada Golf Links Los Cabos. The course will anchor the new Oleada Pacific Living and Golf, an 860-acre oceanfront resort community 15 minutes from downtown Cabo San Lucas.
The Pacific Ocean will be the backdrop for the course built into a desert landscape. A media release announcing the news said the site features dunes and sandy ridges, ideal for golf. Also slated to work on the project is Greg Letsche, senior design associate of Ernie Els Design.
“Because the native contours and dune formations are so good, very little earthmoving will be required to build the course,” Els, a South African who has won four major championships among his 19 PGA Tour and three PGA Tour Champions titles, said in the media release. “Shaping will be very minimalistic. Man cannot improve on what Mother Nature has created over the eons. The golf course that we create at Oleada will be here long after I’m gone. That means something and it makes me feel very proud.”
Plans for Oleada also include oceanfront residences, and the first phase of development includes three resorts as well as the golf course. Work on the project began in January, and the development is slated to open in 2026. The course will allow non-resort public-access play for its first season.
Els Design has built more than a dozen courses around the world in locations such as the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, South Africa, the Bahamas and the U.S. The company’s website lists six other courses in development in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, the Dominican Republic and Croatia, as well as this project in Mexico.
“With its rolling dunes, elevation changes and majestic desert-meets-ocean setting, I believe we can produce a versatile test that will rank among the best and most beautiful courses we’ve ever built,” Els said of Oleada in the media release.
Check out the photos and renderings of Rodeo Dunes, which will begin with two 18-hole layouts.
Sure, it might have involved a bit of trespassing, but Michael Keiser has proved that not all who wander are lost.
That classic J.R.R. Tolkien line is apt, as Keiser’s head apparently is always on a swivel as he searches for sand and hills and available land suitable for great golf courses. Developer and co-owner of Sand Valley Golf Resort along with his brother, Chris Keiser – and the son of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort founder and owner Mike Keiser – Michael brims with energy in his hunt for a next interesting golf opportunity.
Now on the slate is the public-access Rodeo Dunes in Colorado. The developers officially announced Tuesday that construction soon will start in earnest on 36 holes across 2,000 acres of idyllic sand dunes less than an hour northeast of Denver. Preview play might be available on one of the courses by the end of the 2024 with that course fully opening in 2025, Michael Keiser said, adding that the timeline is still loose but the second course likely will follow a year later. The order of which course opens first is still to be decided.
The site for Rodeo Dunes in Colorado includes natural blowouts and sandy expanses. (Courtesy of Rodeo Dunes/Brandon Carter)
Both course routings have been completed, or at least as complete as they can be before construction progresses with possible changes. And they likely won’t be the only two courses there for long – there’s room to build as many as six full courses at the site. A short course and Himalayas-style putting green are expected to be added soon, and Michael Keiser said eventually there might be accommodations but that nothing is set in stone. The property will operate as part of Dream Golf, a collaboration with Bandon Dunes, Sand Valley and Cabot.
The Keiser brothers will lean on the famed design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to design one of the 18-hole layouts, a running relationship that has proved extremely successful for the Keiser family and partners with previous tracks such as Bandon Trails and the Sheep Ranch in Oregon, the eponymous Sand Valley course in Wisconsin and Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia.
The other 18 goes to a new signature designer but a familiar face: Jim Craig. A longtime course shaper for Coore and Crenshaw, Craig gets his first crack at a routing of his own in Colorado. Michael Keiser established a bond with Craig during construction of Sand Valley, and Keiser said he couldn’t be more excited to give the Texan a breakthrough opportunity at Rodeo Dunes.
“He’s a bit of a savant,” Michael Keiser said of Craig, who in his 25 years working as an associate for Coore and Crenshaw has contributed to layouts such as East Hampton and Friar’s Head in New York, Old Sandwich in Massachusetts and the aforementioned Sheep Ranch. “He sees things other people don’t see. And I’ve learned to trust that. … He has a very special mind. You’re not always going to say, this hole reminds of ‘blank.’ You’re going to say, I’ve never seen a hole quite like that before.”
When the Keisers first became interested in the ranch land that will become Rodeo Dunes, Craig would drive up from Texas to walk the site and offer his opinions at Michael’s request. His enthusiasm was a major part in landing his first solo design, Michael Keiser said.
Craig is a soft-spoken man of long labor and relatively few words, but his sharp wit shines through in conversation. He said that after landing the job at Rodeo Dunes, he feels like Forrest Gump during the movie character’s first meeting with Lieutenant Dan at a U.S. Army camp in Vietnam. Craig quotes the line, “I sure hope I don’t let him down.”
The Rocky Mountains are in view from the site of Rodeo Dunes. (Courtesy of Rodeo Dunes/Brandon Carter)
It will be a big job, for sure, as Michael Keiser has a goal of greatness. He said he’s taking inspiration from Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska, also designed by Coore and Crenshaw and ranked No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the United States.
“We will strip everything out but the bare essentials to have the purest form of golf that I think we’ve ever done,” Michael Keiser said. “Our goal is to present golf in its purest form the way I think Sand Hills has done as well as anyone in this country. Bandon Dunes is that in so many ways, but if I was to come down to it, Sand Hills is even more of the model because I think it’s even more raw and pure. So our goal is to build Sand Hills for the public, with multiple courses.
“I say all this humbly. We always start with who we aspire to be. … There’s never going to be another Sand Hills. Ever. Period. Full stop. But everything they’ve done well there is what we’re trying to be.”
The land certainly appears to lend itself to such aspirations. Michael Keiser said the natural site will require minimal shaping, making construction relatively easy now that the two routings have been roughly determined. The site is full of sandy blowouts and dunes that reach 80 feet in height, which takes us back to that trespassing interlude mentioned above.
Michael and Chris were stuck in an airport years ago, discussing what would make ideal sites for more golf. They mentioned the private Ballyneal Golf Club, a Tom Doak layout in Colorado that ranks No. 4 among all modern U.S. courses. Could there be much more land like that available in Colorado, they wondered. Michael Keiser studied Google Earth and topographic maps for clues, and curiosity eventually led him onto an airplane then onto Interstate 76 northeast of Denver. He found a site that had caught his eye, and he couldn’t believe the dunes.
Michael said exuberance got the best of him and he took off jogging through the golden hour as the sun set, trying to see what was beyond each of the ensuing hills. The place stretched for miles, full of potential golf holes. But as vast at that sky might have been, Keiser wasn’t alone.
“I was trespassing on the site, which is probably a dangerous mistake in hindsight, in cowboy country,” Keiser said. “I did get caught by a rancher, who turned out to be a very pleasant fellow. But he wasn’t thrilled that I was trespassing. He was 200 yards away, and I’m walking toward him and we’re both thinking, ‘How’s this going to go? This might not be good.’
“I just walked right up to him and asked, ‘Are you a golfer?’ And he was sort of startled, and he said ‘Yeah, I do play sometimes.’ So I said these dunes are fabulous for golf, and he looked at me cross-eyed. But we had a nice chat. He was a really friendly guy, and he kindly escorted me off the property. That’s how it all started.”
Turns out the land was owned by the Cervi family, owners and hands-on operators of a major rodeo production company – real cowboys. Michael said it took years for him, a Chicago developer, to fully earn their trust. But after they “realized I wasn’t crazy, or too crazy,” the Cervis agreed to sell a portion of ranch land for golf development, and the family will continue as partners in Rodeo Dunes, Michael said.
Colorado has proved to be a lucrative state with plenty of sand sites, perfect for firm and bouncy golf courses. (Courtesy of Rodeo Dunes/Brian Krehbiel)
It’s a busy time for the Keiser brothers, who soon will open the much-anticipated Lido course constructed by Doak, the third traditional 18-hole layout at Sand Valley, with member play beginning in May and opportunities for resort guests to play it at the end June. They also are opening Doak’s Sedge Valley course at Sand Valley, with limited preview play possibly beginning this year and the full opening coming sometime in the spring of 2024. And no doubt there are other potential projects around the country – speculation swirls constantly about where the Keiser family might build next.
Michael Keiser, with a fair dose of boyish enthusiasm, said it’s all about finding even more fun places to hit a golf ball, even if it happens to be found in a rancher’s field.
“The site feels like you’re in Ireland,” he said of Rodeo Dunes. “We’ve had a drought for two years so it isn’t green now, but when I first stepped on the property it was emerald green. The contours and the topography are very Irish. I mean, it feels like you’re at Lahinch. That’s the size and topography and scale and amplitude of those sand dunes. …
“My dad started with the idea of elite private golf, stripping it down to the pure golf, and bringing it to the public. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Best golf views in the world? Cabot Saint Lucia enters that conversation. But how will it play?
Bill Coore doesn’t want to talk about “signature holes.”
That leftover cliché of 1980s course development and marketing has fallen out of favor among many fans of great golf architecture, for good reason. In trying to design one hole that is especially photogenic or memorable, the other 17 might be best left on the cutting room floor.
“We’ve failed, to be quite candid, if we have a signature hole,” said Coore, partner of Ben Crenshaw in designing several of the best modern courses in the world. “To me, that basically is saying that you spent all your efforts on that one hole. You grounded the entire golf course around one hole.”
Coore admits with a chuckle that he has resorted to subterfuge when presented the question of what is the signature hole at several courses he has routed around the world.
“We’ve actually gone to the reverse sometimes when somebody will ask what’s your signature hole – at least I have, I don’t know that Ben has – but a couple times I have literally picked the most bland hole on the entire course, and I’m talking about photogenically and visually speaking, and said that’s our signature hole right there,” the native of North Carolina said with a laugh.
Instead, Coore wants to lay out courses that flow from hole to hole, never lacking in interest while taking advantage of all the ground has to offer. He’s more concerned about the shots to be played on any given hole, less so with photo ops.
Even on the inland holes atop a ridge, as seen from behind the third green, Point Hardy Golf Club at Cabot Saint Lucia offers stunning views of the ocean and volcanic island. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
“We think of golf as being a collection of holes that go together and fit together,” he said. “Maybe one or two or three or four are more dramatic than the others, but we don’t think of them as signature holes.”
So what to do with a site such as Cabot Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, home to Coore and Crenshaw’s still-in-development Point Hardy Golf Club? The whole place screams, “Take a picture!” Cliffs rise straight from the Atlantic Ocean with new golf holes perched atop them, waves crashing into white foam below. This is one of Earth’s great meetings of land and sea.
Given such a beautiful tropical site that really has all the makings of a photo shoot, with a mile and a half of see-it-to-believe-it scenery, on what do Coore and Crenshaw narrow their focus to build a golf course bestowed with so much drama?
Really, Bill? Not the point of cliffs jutting into the ocean on this end of the property, or the promontory at the other end? Even Coore smiles as he describes the wow factor of Cabot Saint Lucia, one of several new Cabot Collection properties that will expand the Canadian company’s reach over the next several years from Nova Scotia to the tropics, Scotland, Florida and western Canada.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoZyeGOM-8n/
“The site is so visually spectacular,” said Coore, whose design credits include such highly ranked layouts as the Sheep Ranch and Bandon Trails at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, Sand Hills in Nebraska and Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia. “Most people will come here and ooh and ah, particularly as you look down the hill or look along the cliff at the shoreline and the ocean. It’s almost beyond description, dramatic. Ben and I are both pretty conservative when it comes to our assessments and descriptions, but you’ll see, it’s just, well …”
His voice trails off as he imagines the cliffs and all the opportunities for superlative golf holes upon them. Then he gets back to the matter at hand and what he considers the primary job of a golf architect, especially at an extreme site such as Point Hardy featuring volcanic hills and rocky ground. Coore has said before that it’s easy to build a hard golf course, and the trick is in designing a fun layout that golfers want to tackle again and again.
“Playability, playability, playability,” he repeats as his mantra. “And trying to create a golf course that doesn’t end up being one that people might come and take photographs of every hole and just a photogenic course, and then they go, ‘Eh, it really wasn’t that much fun; I didn’t enjoy it,’ kind of thing. It would be too extreme, or something. That’s what we’re hoping not to happen. We want to try to create something that they’re going to want to come back and play.”
Architect Tom Fazio is returning to Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia, with plans to combine nine existing holes with nine new holes and introduce them as a new, 18-hole private golf course.
The existing nine holes that will be used for layout is The Bluff nine that currently is part of the 27-hole The National course. Fazio built all 27 of those holes, which also include the Ridge and Cove nines. The Ridge and Cove nines will continue as The National, which currently ranks No. 10 in Georgia on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in each state. The National also ties for No. 187 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of resort courses in the U.S.
Reynolds Lake Oconee operates as both a resort and a members club. With the addition of the new and yet-to-be-named Fazio course, expected to open in late 2024, Reynolds Lake Oconee will have seven courses. Five of those – Great Waters, The Oconee, The Preserve, The Landing and The National – will be open to resort guests, including those who stay at The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee. Two of the property’s courses – Creek Club and the newly combined Fazio 18 – will be private. All the public-access courses at Reynolds Lake Oconee rank highly in Georgia on Golfweek’s Best state-by-state list, with Great Waters by Jack Nicklaus the highest among them.
Fazio built The Bluff nine in 1997 as part of the original National course, and The Cove nine was added in 2000 on the parcel that includes forests, streams, ponds and views of Lake Oconee. Fazio will use adjacent land distinguished by 100 feet of elevation changes, a creek, large boulders and an existing pond for the new nine holes that will be combined with Bluffs.
“My goal is always to create distinctive, one-of-a-kind golf courses,” Fazio said in a media release announcing the new nine. “There’s a lot of terrain variation – lots of ups and downs, ins and outs, twists and turns – which is great for golf. That’s what makes this such a fine natural setting.”
The media release said the new 18 will use the first five holes of the existing Bluff routing, followed by nine new holes including a new ninth green alongside Lake Oconee, then incorporate the final four holes of The Bluff.
“We are fortunate that Tom Fazio again applied his vision to Reynolds Lake Oconee to create nine new holes and integrate them with the world-class golf course he originally designed. It’s an honor for our community,” said Robert Merck, global head of real estate at MetLife Investment Management, investment manager of Reynolds Lake Oconee. “Our members and their guests are certain to be challenged and energized by his latest design.”
Tiger Woods, Mike Trout partner up to build upscale private course in New Jersey.
Baseball star Mike Trout has partnered with Tiger Woods to build a private golf course in Vineland, New Jersey. Named Trout National – The Reserve, the 18-hole layout will be about 45 minutes south of Philadelphia and is slated to open in 2025.
“I’m so excited to finally officially announce that we’re doing this project, and doing it in a community that means so much to me,” Trout, a three-time American League Most Valuable Player who plays for the Los Angeles Angels, said in a press release. “I was born in Vineland and raised in Millville. I met my wife, Jessica, in Millville, and my parents and siblings and in-laws still live in the area. I could put down roots anywhere in the country, but Jessica and I make South Jersey our offseason home and always cherish the time we get to spend there.”
Construction on Trout National – The Reserve will begin this year.
We promised you all a big announcement and here it is! We are so excited to be able to make a longtime dream of mine a reality, with none other than @tigerwoods and @tgrdesignbytw. We can't wait to share more updates with you as we create Trout National – The Reserve. pic.twitter.com/V8eMGEUYdS
The club, which is being developed with John and Lorie Ruga, owners of Northeast Precast of Vineland, is being constructed between Sheridan Avenue and Route 55.
“I love South Jersey and I love golf, so creating Trout National – The Reserve is a dream come true,” Trout said. “And then to add to that we’ll have a golf course designed by Tiger? It’s just incredible to think that this project has grown to where we’re going to be working with someone many consider the greatest and most influential golfer of all time.”
Woods and his archeticture firm, TGR Design, is also creating a new short course as part of Cobbs Creek Golf Club in Philadelphia.
“I’ve always watched Mike on the diamond, so when an opportunity arose to work with him on Trout National – The Reserve, I couldn’t pass it up,” Woods said in the press release. “It’s a great site for golf, and our team’s looking forward to creating a special course for Mike, Jessica, John and Lorie (Ruga).”
The will also have a “cutting-edge” practice range, short-game area, clubhouse, restaurant, “five-star” lodging, a wedding chapel and more.
“We’re going to be doing some really cool things from a service and offering standpoint,” Trout said. “Although plans aren’t finalized quite yet, I’ll put it to you this way – this will not be your grandparents’ country club.”
The release said the course will leverage the site’s topography, including deciduous and evergreen forest in places and rolling farmland in others. The sandy site was once home to a silica sand mine, so drainage and turf conditions should be excellent, according to the release. As TGR Design becomes more immersed in the project, additional details will be released.
“Mike’s a great guy and we both care deeply about our community,” John Ruga said in the release. “Like Mike, I always dreamed about the possibility of opening a truly one-of-a-kind golf club. When we met and started talking about our individual visions, it became clear that we were on the same page. Trout National – The Reserve is going to be the place where members gather to enjoy an unforgettable club experience. Equally as important, we’re focused on making the club a catalyst for job creation and economic development in our area, while also exploring ways for non-members to enjoy it.”
Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has broken ground on a new par-3 course on incredible terrain between Bandon Trails and the Pacific Ocean.
Bandon Preserve, the 13-hole par-3 course that opened in 2012 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, ushered in a trend of high-end resorts adding short courses that far exceed the experience of many afterthought par-3 layouts that came in preceding decades. Real holes on stunning terrain make for an unforgettable experience that has become a major draw along the southern Oregon coast, and a new breed of par-3 course has evolved around the world.
And Bandon Preserve will soon have a sibling just a few hundred yards south along the coastline.
The resort officially announces today that it is constructing a new, 19-hole par-3 course, yet to be named and built by the WAC Golf team of Rod Whitman, Dave Axland and Keith Cutten. The layout was routed on dunesland between the first hole of the resort’s Bandon Trails course and the Pacific Ocean, and construction is already underway. Plans are for the course to be completed this year, with some preview play possible this fall and a full opening in 2024.
The layout for Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s new par-3 course between the first hole of Bandon Trails and the Pacific Ocean (Courtesy of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort)
“This is just an incredible piece of ground, and we’re super excited about it,” said Cutten, the youngest member of the WAC design team who has worked in various roles with Whitman and Axland for more than a decade, most notably at Cabot Links in Nova Scotia, one of the top-rated public-access courses in Canada. “It’s quite a bit choppier, more severe changes in the dunes than some of the other pieces of ground out there, so it’s just perfect for a short course.”
The layout of Bandon’s new par-3 course has been in consideration for years, and architect Tom Doak had marker flags in the ground for a proposed routing last year. Bandon Dunes founder and owner Mike Keiser said plans changed, and the WAC team was given a chance to create a layout on what Keiser always believed to be a special piece of land.
“We called and said, ‘Why don’t you stop by and see what you can do?’ ” Keiser said. “They came up with, I think, a brilliant routing. I wouldn’t call it short, because our scorecard will have short, medium and long distances. They did a fabulous job and you’ll have to wait and see for yourself.”
Holes will range from just under 60 yards up to nearly 160, depending on the tees selected, Cutten said. Keiser said the plan is for each of the 19 holes to offer a chance to tee off with a putter, at least from the forward tees.
The layout will consist of 16 acres of maintained turf across lumpy, bumpy and sandy dunes, into and out of various natural bowls and across ridges. Cutten said the terrain was perfect for a par-3 course because there was no need to design landing areas for tee shots on par 4s and 5s, allowing the design team to instead focus on finding the most interesting and natural green sites full of interesting bounces and rolls.
“I think all but one of our greens were basically just sitting there” on the ground already, Cutten said. “The one (that’s not) that I’m referring to, the 10th, needs a little bit of sand in the middle but the edges are already there, so it looks like it’s already there. The rest of the greens are just found.”
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The original WAC routing was 12 holes, but Cullen said the team kept finding interesting green sites and possibilities for additional holes. They finally settled on 18, playing down toward the ocean then back up in a series of loops. Keiser then added a 19th hole.
“It was 18 holes, and I was just out there with my son Chris, and we decided the walk from 18 up to the clubhouse was too arduous,” Keiser said of the process with his son, who along with brother Michael operates Sand Valley resort in Wisconsin. “So we put in another par 3 as the 19th hole there to take us back up to the great clubhouse site.”
Keiser said his one mandate is that each hole can stand on its own and would fit well on any of the resort’s five 18-hole layouts that rank among the best modern courses in the world. Cutten said that was no problem on terrain so naturally suited to golf.
Keith Cutten (from left), Dave Axland, Rod Whitman, Chris Keiser and Mike Keiser at the site of the new par-3 course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon (Courtesy of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort)
“It became a running joke as we toured Mr. Keiser around that we should be paying him for the golf course, because all the work was already done,” Cutten said. “It speaks well to the quality of the ground and the kind of golf we were able to put on it. …
“On a short course, you can get a little more bold with the decisions you’re making and the contours you’re using. A lot of the times the short courses can be a little more funky and dynamic and quirky, a lot of the things we try to do with our golf courses from the get-go.”
Keiser said he isn’t sure yet what that clubhouse will look like, possibly a “glorified mobile home.” Don’t be surprised if he decides to include some sort of food truck, a version of which has proved incredibly popular at Sand Valley’s par-3 course named the Sandbox.
Keiser anticipates the new course, which will raise the total number of par 3s at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort to 53, will complement the Preserve, designed by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The resort is also home to Shorty’s, a nine-hole par-3 course at the practice facility that is open only at select times.
“I think most people who have time will play both of them,” he said. “We’ll have to wait to see which they favor, but Preserve is awfully good, as is this new one.”
Keiser said that like the Preserve, the green fee will be $100, with all proceeds benefiting the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance to support communities along the southern coast of Oregon. The resort has contributed $7.3 million to the WRCA, with the Preserve now generating $800,000 a year for the charity.
