Gorse and the beach at Bandon

It’s like the gorse. The thorny bush with the pretty yellow flowers grows everywhere around Bandon. Imported from Ireland by the town founders as an ornamental shrub, it spread like wildfire and soon started wild fires on the southern Oregon Coast, rooting itself in Bandon’s history.  From a distance, gorse is beautiful and inviting. But up close, unless you’re very careful, it draws blood. The golf greens in Bandon are also an import, and they’re tough enough to do the same thing to your golf psyche. Two of the top ten courses in America hug the Pacific coast just five hours south of Portland.

Before Bandon Dunes Golf Resort opened, most golfers would’ve been as likely to find Brigadoon as Bandon on a map. A slowly growing retirement community popular with Californians for years, the area was best known for it’s cranberry bogs. If your Thanksgiving dinner list is in the thousands, perhaps that’s a draw. But everything else the area has to offer… beautiful beaches and lighthouses, sandstone sea cliffs, the formal garden at Shore Acres State Park that seems transplanted from a French palace…were largely a secret to anyone living north of Roseburg, OR. When Bandon Dunes first opened, most of the new visitors – golfers – stayed at the Resort and hardly if at all ventured into town. But that’s changing, and there are several unique and character-laced places to stay in Bandon.

Bandon Sea Stacks

My first visit to Bandon-By-The Sea, as it’s still sometimes called, was in 1986 while working for KDRV-TV in Medford, Oregon. I made the three-hour drive after getting off the 11 pm news, my assignment to report on a storm-watching cruise out of nearby Charleston. I had an early morning rendezvous with my Bandon Storm Watcher contact in the parking lot of the local grocery store. I slept in my car for what was left of that night, but I’ve been returning to Bandon ever since.  To much better accommodations, thankfully.

One of the more interesting options is the historic Bandon River House. Built in 1905 as a “Boots, Shoes, and Gents’ Furnishings Store, it was converted into a 5 bedroom vacation house 10 years ago. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and sits on Coquille Bay right next to the old Coast Guard Station. Having survived both of the great Bandon fires of 1914 and 1936 (which were fueled by the oily-burning gorse), it’s an edifice of Bandon’s history. The house sleeps up to 18 and has ocean and lighthouse views throughout.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

About 20 mile south of town, next to the old Cape Blanco Airport, is a trailhead for the Oregon Coast Trail. A short mile walk or mountain bike ride westward and suddenly you’re stunned by coastal views few visit and none will forget. The photo-fetching Cape Blanco lighthouse, Oregon’s southernmost and westernmost ocean beacon, is just a few miles farther south.

Good restaurants seem to come and go almost as frequently as the tide in Bandon, but one that has endured is Wild Rose. It’s small and cozy with consistently good meals, specializing in of course, seafood. Two new eating options are McFarlin’s Bar and Grill and Alloro Wine Bar. Alloro describes its fare as “Italian Coastal Cuisine”. We ate there over Thanksgiving and were impressed by not just the selection of great wines, but the quality of the meal. McFarlin’s is a typical pub with typical pub fare: burgers, chicken sandwiches and beer on tap. As common as that sounds, it was a missing link in Bandon’s Old Town establishments and seems to be a favorite with caddies who head into town from the Resort. We’ve also made a tradition out of feasting on fresh local Dungeness crab that you can buy right off Bandon’s friendly if not quite bustling waterfront.

Back to golf: Bandon Trails, which opened in 2005, added another link in the golden chain of courses that has transformed the Oregon golfscape and made our cool south coast a hot destination for golfers from across the country. The fourth course, Old MacDonald, is scheduled to open in June of this year.

Mentioning any of these tracks to Oregonians with golf coursing through their veins is like telling an Elvis fan you just got back from Graceland.  And while the Bandon Dunes courses have yet to gain the prestige nationally of hallowed golf ground like Pebble Beach, CA, 600 miles down the coast, they’re already being mentioned in the same conversation.

While Pebble Beach has more tradition and history, an argument can be made that Bandon’s coast-hugging holes are as spectacular in scenery and as riveting in play.

Both of the first two Bandon courses can exact a heavy toll on a golfer’s handicap. The sand traps, many of which were simply there when the courses were designed, and the impenetrable gorse that guards every hole are two of the biggest challenges.

Wind and waves at Bandon

And then there’s the wind. As much as I’m tempted to describe the meteorology of the south Coast, suffice it to say during the summer, north winds of 30 to 40 mph are not uncommon. That can change a pitching wedge shot into a 5-iron shot. It can change the course of mighty tee shots; bend putts on Bandon’s bare greens. It’s always a topic of conversation at the Oregon Coast, but there aren’t many courses on this continent where the wind comes into play as heavily as it does at Bandon. While wind is perhaps the most challenging aspect of Bandon golf, wind is also one of the big differences between the Bandon Trails course and its two beachfront predecessors. Bandon Trails is named after an 8-mile series of hiking and walking trails that winds through area, offering a non-golf activity for guests. The course carves it’s way inland through a native forest and is draped over a ridge that offers further protection from the ocean’s elements. The views from the 14th tee near the top of the ridge are as dramatic as the hole is daunting.  At it’s farthest reach the course stretches maybe a mile and a half inland. But that’s enough to offer golfers, if not their golf shots, relief from the ongoing gales of the Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes courses.

Though inland, Bandon Trails is still built on sand, much like the first golf courses ever built in Scotland and Ireland. While all three courses have a sandy foundation, they differ greatly in character. Bandon Dunes, though rated the more difficult of the first two courses, has always had a more inviting presence Pacific Dunes, which for all its beauty still imparts on many golfers a sense of foreboding with it’s “are-you-tough-enough?” attitude. Bandon Trails feels more relaxed and peaceful, like going for a run down your favorite road as opposed to 18 rounds with a heavyweight fighter.

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has several options for the 19^th hole: that’s “golfese” for the bar. McKee’s brewpub feels almost as Scottish as the name sounds, offering standard pub fare and a good selection of Northwest micro-brews and single malt scotches. The Gallery Restaurant in the main lodge is more upscale and has always left me feeling fat, happy, and ready to take on the golf course again.

There’s also the Puffin Lounge with a great view of Bandon’s 18 green for light fare and after golf beverages.  Hunkered down under the main lodge is the Bunker Bar. This sports bar stays open until 1 a.m. and features a billiard table for those who just have to be hitting a ball with a stick even if it’s dark outside. The restaurant at Bandon Trails offers Asian cuisine, warps and sandwiches, along with an outside fire pit where you’ll be able to watch golfers get torched by one of the toughest finishing holes in the state. Unless you think hitting up hill into the raging wind and over sand dunes from a blind tee shot across a road is an easy way to finish 18 holes.

With the Old MacDonald course opening in June, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort will likely again be aglow in national golf media attention. But even with all the accolades and attention, Bandon still feels like Hood River, OR did when the windsurfing boom was beginning, or Bend, OR just before it’s big growth spurt in the 1980s.  In an ironic twist of history, the growth in Bandon is now fueled by a game that has its roots in the British Isles. Just like the gorse.

Matt Zaffino