Destination Golf - November 2016 * | Page 53

A call to arms is sounded on the very first hole, where a gentle drive is met with a hard right turn to a well-elevated but reachable green. As if that wasn’t enough to stir the blood, the technique is repeated on the par-three second. Having dispensed with the difficult, high ground of the tract, the golfer descends to the flats of Bandon Dunes, free to roam this way and that, amid natural hillocks and sandy wastes. The Pacific is spied on numerous occasions on both nines, and is met with full force on the wonderful 4th through 6th holes, and later on the incomparable 16th, perhaps the finest golf hole in existence. The original course at Bandon Dunes was never fated to be recognized as the best, or the toughest, or the mo