Bandon Dunes receives praise from publications

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort again earned high praise from a pair of national golf publications recently.

Golfweek listed all five of the resort’s 18-hole courses high on its ranking of the top 100 public courses in the United States.

Pacific Dunes ranked second behind just Pebble Beach while Old Macdonald was fourth, Bandon Trails sixth, Bandon Dunes seventh and Sheep Ranch 13th. Sheep Ranch was tied with Spyglass Hill, which is also part of the Pebble Beach resort.

Three courses from Sand Valley, a sister resort to Bandon Dunes, were between No. 15 and No. 18 with the Lido course at 15, Mammoth Dunes at 17 and Sand Valley at 18.

Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who designed both Bandon Trails and Sheep Ranch, as well as the 13-hole Bandon Preserve, at Bandon Dunes, had three other courses in the top 20 — San Valley, Streamsong Red (No. 18) and the Plantation Course at Kapalua (No. 20).

Meanwhile, Golf Digest released its ranking of the top 100 individual holes in the United States and nine of them were from Bandon Dunes. The last time Golf Digest put out a top 100-hole ranking was 25 years ago, when the resort only had the original Bandon Dunes course.

Golf Digest compiled a list of 1,200 candidate holes and asked its course-ranking panelists to judge the holes on a scale of 1 to 10 in four categories: aesthetics, challenge, uniqueness and overall quality.

Pacific Dunes had five of the holes and Bandon Dunes and Sheep Ranch two each, and each had at least one hole in the top 20.

The Pacific Dunes holes were the fourth hole at No. 10, the 13th (No. 14), the 11th hole (No. 36), the sixth hole (No. 81) and the third hole (No. 93).

The Bandon Dunes holes were the 16th hole (at No. 12) and the fourth hole (No. 56).

The Sheep Ranch holes were its sixth hole at No. 19 and the 11th hole (No. 77)