Tag: bandon

Bandon Dunes Resort – Travel Tips
Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has been a bucket list golf destination since the day it opened, and I found out for myself last summer what makes it a special place. After spending a week in Bandon in July 2018, I can’t say enough good things about the golf, accommodations, hospitality and the overall experience. Bandon Dunes truly is THE links golf mecca in the United States.

My only complaint was that it was so remote and hard to get to, but that’s just part of the experience. The most dramatic landscapes for golf often are in very remote areas. Developer Mike Keiser was warned about that, but he thought if the golf courses and overall experience were good enough that people wouldn’t care how remote the place is, and he was right.

It has been one year since I walked the fairways of Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Old Macdonald, Bandon Trails and Bandon Preserve with my good buddies John, Tony & Bill. I still think about that trip on a weekly basis and look forward to returning someday. Since many people have yet to discover Bandon Dunes, and because it is such a unique experience, here are some tips to help plan your trip and get the most out of your visit!

Bandon Dunes Travel Tips
- Read Dream Golf: The Making of Bandon Dunes, by Stephen Goodwin which describes the process by which developer Mike Keiser found the land and proceeded to transform it into the most dramatic seaside golf resort in America. It’s a great read that will only help build anticipation for your trip. Plus, once you are there it’s awesome to be able to finally see in person what you read about in the book!
- It pays to be prepared. Golf is walking only at Bandon Dunes, so if you are not in top physical shape you should prepare several months in advance by walking four or five miles a few times a week to get your feet and legs ready for the firm ground and rolling terrain.
- To expand on the last thought – Bring a comfortable pair of shoes, some good socks, and some blister ointment and pads! I walked over 45 miles in 5 days. Take care of your feet!
- The logistics of getting there can be a challenge. For our trip, we flew into Portland (PDX) and drove down in a rental car. It’s 256 miles and took about 4.5 hours. The more expensive but far more convenient option is to fly into Southwest Oregon Regional Airport (OTH) in North Bend which is serviced by United Airlines. From there it’s a much shorter 25-mile drive that takes about 35 minutes.
- If I could do it again, I would have planned to spend more than 5 days in Bandon. Our plan was to get in, play 36 holes a day for 5 days, and get out. In retrospect, I would have loved a few off days to rest my feet and explore the town of Bandon or just relax at the clubhouse and soak in the views.
- To the point above – Arrive early and spend your first afternoon playing the 13-Hole Par 3 Preserve Course, followed by some time after dinner on the massive Punch Bowl putting green. It’ll prepare you for the links experience and help you get used to the greens.
- Speaking of the Preserve, play the 13th hole with a putter only. It’s an unwritten tradition. The hole plays abut 100 yards, straight downhill. Check out our video of the hole here.
- Expanding on the “putter from 100 yards” concept – You need to embrace the ground game at Bandon. Don’t just reach for the 60-degree wedge around the greens. Many times using a putter or chipping with a 7-iron will be more successful. Use your imagination! Take these two shots for example…
- Get Mamma’s Meatloaf in McKee’s Tavern. It’s all about comfort food at Bandon, and if you are walking 36 a day you’ll need the carbs!
- Take advantage of the replay rates to play 36 holes a day for maximum value. Your second round of the day is half price!
- If you plan to play each course more than once, which is recommended, schedule your tee times to play each course both in the morning and in the afternoon. The conditions are often completely different! (wind)
July 15, 2019
Why I Use Ship Sticks

I love traveling, especially for golf. I’ve been very fortunate over the last six years to have experienced some of the best golf resorts in the United States and have traveled all around the globe for golf, with stops in Turkey, Morocco, and Malaysia along the way. My friends and I hope to continue our world tour (#GolfBlogWorldTour) with trips to Canada and the UK in the next few years.

My golf travel bag has logged well over 50,000 miles between four continents in just three years. With layovers and connecting flights, that’s a lot of different people handling (or mishandling) my golf clubs. In 2014, U.S. airlines alone mishandled 24 million bags! While those numbers are going down, it’s still not a statistic any traveler wants to be associated with. Not only that but in 2016, U.S. airlines collected almost .2 billion in baggage fees. Because of their weight, golf clubs are more likely to be hit with excess baggage fees – up to $100 on some airlines.

There’s a better option for golfers than dragging their heavy golf club travel bag through airports and having to upgrade rental cars just to make them fit. The company is called Ship Sticks, and they offer a very simple service – Let somebody else take your golf clubs to your final destination and they’ll be waiting for you when you arrive!

I used Ship Sticks for the first time on my recent trip to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in southwest Oregon. One of the many reasons why Bandon Dunes is the number one golf destination in North America is because they do everything well. The remoteness of the property adds to the pure golf experience but makes logistics more challenging. The nearest major airport is Portland, about 250 miles away, so instead of incurring the added cost of flying into the small airport in North Bend or renting a huge SUV or van to fit 4 golf bags and luggage, my friends and I decided to enlist the services of Ship Sticks instead.

Ship Sticks has formed partnerships with and operates at more than 3,000 facilities worldwide, including over 80% of GolfWeek’s Top 400 Golf Courses, Country Clubs, and Resorts. Using services like UPS and FedEx ensures your clubs will be insured and tracked from origin to destination. The whole process is easy. Just create an account at shipsticks.com, create your shipment, print out barcode labels and attach to your travel bag, and drop off or schedule a pickup at your nearest UPS/FedEx location. You’ll automatically get emails with tracking updates along the way, and your clubs will be waiting for you when you arrive wherever you are going.

I packed my Sun Mountain carry bag in my bullet-proof, lockable SKB hard case and affixed the shipping label just as FedEx arrived at my door to pick it up. I got the email a few days later that my clubs had arrived at Bandon Dunes, and when we pulled in to the resort and drove up to the practice facility to warm up, our clubs were delivered by the resort staff. Brilliant!

The return trip was just as simple. Pack my clubs in the case, lock it and slap on the shipping label. My bag stood there among the dozen or so other golf bags packed in travel bags or Ship Sticks boxes, ready to go back to their owners. The only drawback to the process is if you might need your clubs on one of the days before or after your travels while they are still in transit, as my friend Tony did. In that case, you have four options: Have a backup set of clubs to use, plan your travels to allow for the shipping time, pay extra to have your clubs shipped 2nd-Day air or overnight, or travel the old-fashioned way.

The cost to ship your golf clubs varies greatly based on where you are going and where you are coming from, but in general, the cost is slightly more than you would pay in regular weight baggage fees ($25-$75) on most airlines. With four of us driving together from Portland on the trip to Bandon, we needed to rent an SUV to fit everybody and their luggage, but adding four golf bags to that would never have worked. We filled the back of our Volvo XC90 just with luggage and supplies alone! Upgrading rental cars to something that would fit all our golf bags, or flying into a small regional airport with shuttle service to Bandon would have been much more expensive than simply using Ship Sticks to handle our clubs for us.

In the end, using Ship Sticks was easy, stress-free and very convenient. I was able to travel with just a carry-on and skip having to check the bag and wait at the baggage carousel upon arrival at the airport, and I didn’t have to drag my clubs around with me everywhere I went. Having my clubs waiting for me at the resort was so nice, I don’t know why I never used Ship Sticks before. You can be sure I’ll think of Ship Sticks first when traveling for golf going forward. In fact, now you can also ship your luggage and even your skis in the winter time!

August 13, 2018
Destination: Bandon Dunes – By The Numbers

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of spending 5 days walking the fairways of the greatest golf resort in North America with some good friends and fellow golf media types. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is located in southwest Oregon along the Pacific Ocean, about 250 miles south of Portland and 500 miles north San Francisco. It’s quite remote, but that’s all part of the Bandon experience.

We’ll be talking about this American golf mecca much more in the coming weeks, but for now, let’s have some fun with some of the numbers from my recent trip:

Bandon Dunes – By The Numbers

Miles Flown: 10,308 (Orlando to Portland, Portland to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Orlando)

Courses Played: 5 – Bandon Dunes, Bandon Trails, Bandon Preserve (Par 3 course), Pacific Dunes & Old Macdonald. Each course has its own unique character and feel, and they are all among the best layouts in the country.

Rounds Played: 6 – We were scheduled to play 36 a day, plus 18 on the first and last day of our trip, but my blister issues forced me to sit out a couple of rounds. In fact, we all decided to skip the Saturday morning round to sleep in a bit and enjoy a hearty breakfast in the main lodge.

Total Shots Hit: About 450 – To be honest, I didn’t keep score most of the time. I had a good idea of where I stood relative to par, but there’s something about walking some of the most breathtaking scenery you’ll ever see on a golf course that makes people stop caring about their score.

Golf Balls Lost: 7 – Not bad considering the myriad ways to lose golf balls at Bandon Dunes.

Miles Driven: Just over 550 – Our rental car was a sweet fully loaded Volvo XC90.

Footsteps Taken: Just under 108,000 – Thanks to the orthotic insoles I bought, my plantar fasciitis didn’t act up too much.

Miles Walked: 45.5 – I haven’t walked that much since my early twenties when I spent many a weekend backpacking in the mountains of New Hampshire.

Pictures Taken: 124 – As a group, the four of us took over 1400 photos. I was shooting on my iPhone so I didn’t take as many as the others and instead decided to focus on quality over quantity. I would like to purchase a good quality point-and-shoot camera that uses the RAW format and can shoot HD video for future trips.

Longest Drive: 391 yards – 7th hole, Pacific Dunes. Yes, it was downwind! I crushed it with the new Cobra F8+ driver, and with the help of a strong tailwind it rolled out to the end of the fairway on the 464-yard par 4. I was left with just a lob wedge to the green.

Shortest Drive: About 188 Yards – 7th Hole, Old Macdonald Course into a 40 mph wind. I smoked it too, but Mother Nature doesn’t play games.

Longest Putt: 103 Yards – Tee shot to 12 feet on the Par Three 13th hole of the Bandon Preserve Course. This downhill par-3 was designed to be playable on the ground, and it’s sort of an unwritten rule that you are supposed to play the hole with a putter. Mission accomplished.

Strongest Wind Speed: 40 mph – We played Old MacDonald in the biggest winds of the week. The starter said it had been the windiest day of the summer so far, as evidenced by that 188-yard drive on the 7th hole!

Average Wind Speed: 22-28 mph – The wind always blows at Bandon, especially in the afternoon. The ability to hit a knockdown shot or “stinger” is critical if you want to score well at Bandon Dunes. Playing early in the morning helps, but it’s only a matter of time before the wind starts blowing.

Number of Holes: 85 – There are actually 94 holes if you count Shorty’s, the par 3 course attached to the practice facility.

Number of Bunkers: Too many to count! Several bunkers are so severe that they even have stairs to enter and exit.

Grandma’s Meatloaf Eaten: 2 – Don’t look for health foods here. Bandon is a meat & potatoes kind of place where weary golfers load up on carbs and protein in order to summon the energy to walk 36 holes a day.

Number of Times I Said Wow: At least a dozen times – Every course offers unforgettable views and scenic vistas.

Number of Blisters Treated: 1 – I was lucky. It’s almost unavoidable when walking this much. Take care of your feet!

Driver Shafts Broken: 1 – The bad news is it was the fantastic TPT Golf 15 LKP-MT-SW shaft that’s in my gamer Ping G400 driver. The good news is, I brought a pretty darn good backup driver – The Cobra King F8+

Pairs of Shoes Worn: 2 – I started on the first day wearing my new Puma Ignite PWRADAPT leather shoes. They look really sharp and have a good blend of style, traction, and comfort. For the rest of the trip, I switched to my FootJoy Superlites XP because they seemed to fit a bit better with the bulky orthotic insoles I had to wear.

Memories Made: Countless. Bandon Dunes is a special place, and spending a week there is a privilege I’ll not soon forget. Returning to Florida after five days of spectacular links golf on the shores of southwest Oregon is a big letdown for sure, but I’ll have great memories of time spent with good buddies playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Maybe someday I’ll get to return and make some new memories, and maybe I’ll finally figure out how to hit that hybrid-chip shot from around the greens.

July 26, 2018