TRAILS NEVER FAILS
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s first contribution to the site, Bandon Trails, opened in 2005 as a much different experience from Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes. Routed through inland dunes and dense forest with a big sandy spine running through its torso and those trademark blowout bunkers perfectly placed in one landing area after another, it has the feel of a Pinehurst with hints of Pine Valley here and there. In terms of overall shot values, it’s probably the resort’s toughest test.
In fact, some folks consider Trails greatest of the four “big courses,” while Crenshaw and Coore’s second effort, the 13-hole, par 3 Bandon Preserve, is short-game sublime by any measure — strung on what might be the property’s most spectacular piece of dunesland, it’ll put every wedge and short iron to the extreme test, and never let your putter off the hook. It’s become nearly a must to squeeze in an emergency Preserve round after at least one big course trek.
