Dream 18: Bandon Dunes - podcast episode cover

Dream 18: Bandon Dunes

Nov 30, 20211 hr 18 minEp. 322
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

After a six-day stint at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, a trio of tired Eggs (@the_woke_yolk, @gfordgolf, @willknightsTFE) sit down to hash out their "Dream 18": a composite course consisting of their favorite holes from the five 18-hole courses on the property. For each hole number, they choose a winner and an honorable mention, and some lively debate ensues. This discussion should provide an accessible introduction to our upcoming deep dives into each course.

The Fried Egg’s trip to Bandon Dunes was made possible (and, at times, survivable) by Zero Restriction, makers of fine outerwear.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Restriction. We are out at Bandon. We're in Bandon right now. We won't be there when you're listening to this, but thanks to Zero Restriction, they came in. They sponsored the week us out here and we were kitted out in all Zero Restriction gears. So we got to test drive a lot of the new I guess models.

Speaker 2

I would call them pieces for.

Speaker 1

The upcoming season. So a lot of good outerwear, lots of good layers. I was particularly fond of the vests. You know, they were a excellent piece at Bandon, whether it was you know, we had some really cold weather days, we had some warmer weather days. But you know, they have lightweight vests, they have heavier vests. They work really well and they're a perfect holiday gift because you know, it's winter everywhere and people are gonna use their best.

So if you use the promo code t f E twenty five, you'll get twenty five percent.

Speaker 2

Off your order at zero restriction dot com.

Speaker 3

I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset when I find my ball in the bunker.

Speaker 1

I'm really upset and when I find my ball in.

Speaker 3

A Frida egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, Frida egg, Brian egg, Frida egg Bride egg Lie. I'm about ready to run off of the course.

Speaker 1

We're back another episode of the Friday Podcast. I'm here with Garrett Morrison and Will Knights. We're in Bandon. We're in our little humble abode here at Bandon Dunes. It's not ours, it's the but after a long week, an exhausting week, six days of golf, six days of shooting footage and lots of talk about the golf courses, we played all the golf courses. We didn't play trails or play preserve. My bad on that we did not play preserve.

Speaker 3

We played trails twice.

Speaker 1

We did play trails twice and yeah, so we thought it would be a fun little exercise. We'll do debriefs on every golf course. But we came up with our so called dream eighteen from the properties and we figured this would be a really neat way to go through each course. In general, at a high level is going through some of the best holes. So we're going to do an honorable mention and a winner for the Dream eighteen.

We might be a little light on par threes, it sounds like, which is crazy given how many good par threes there are here. We're gonna have a go at it, you guys, just kick things off. Any general impressions from the week here at Bandon, I.

Speaker 4

Think we should level set on the conditions we were playing. It is November, so the golf courses were a little softer than they could be, just as a note to keep that in mind during this ranking. But I think as we were going through this, we kept in mind how they would play in different conditions too.

Speaker 3

That was Will, by the way, and I will so yes, I mean we and we played in very different conditions on this trip. The first day we played was at Trails and it was essentially a monsoon.

Speaker 1

It was like the worst conditions I've ever played golfing.

Speaker 3

Yeah, these guys were all saying it was the worst conditions. The caddies were a little bit knocked off kilter as well, even though both of them have been here for two decades each.

Speaker 1

And you know, big ups to Brooks and Casey are caddies awesome guys.

Speaker 3

Absolutely fantastic yeaddies, amazing.

Speaker 2

Both been here for like about twenty years each.

Speaker 3

Yeah, just the best guys. So we had a great time with them, and they stuck with us through the really difficult conditions at trails on the first day, and then we just played it today our last day abandon in beautiful weather. So we got a true sample of what this area can throw at you, which is some really unpredictable, contrasting weather.

Speaker 2

All right, so let's kick this off.

Speaker 3

Yeah, Dream eighteen. Whole one should we start with? Will Number one is Sheep Ranch.

Speaker 2

Yeah, this is a christ for me.

Speaker 1

I think that's it's an incredible hole, sweeping kind of dog leg left down the hill, and I mean it just hits you right in the face with what you see all day long. And Sheep Ranch the ocean, and I think, like beyond just the ocean, it's a really fun opening hole.

Speaker 3

There's a great reveal. I mean you do see the ocean and most of the property when you walk into the Sheep Ranch Clubhouse, like there's a big view of the whole course.

Speaker 5

But when you.

Speaker 3

Start one, it's a little bit blind, it's a little bit concealed, and you walk over the crest in the fair way around I don't know what two hundred and fifty yards or so, and you see it all spread before you, and it's just a great dramatic way to open the round. And it's it's an easy hole, right, it's a gentle handshake.

Speaker 1

Things I like about it, like if you go up the left side, you get a big kick, but you've got some danger with the trees there. You could easily hit a ball into them. But if you hit it up that left side, you get really rewarded because your ball is going to go further. And then you get the helping contours at the green, like the green slopes from right to left, and it just is a much easier shot than if you're over on the right side.

Speaker 4

And it does still have some internal contour too, so it's not like it's a gimme birdie. But yeah, it's something that if you hit two good shots, you're setting yourself up for the start year round in a good way.

Speaker 1

What's the honorable mention? Second best first hole? I've got Packed Dunes as mine.

Speaker 3

Yeah, Pacific Dunes is a good choice for that. I think that Old Mac is a good choice as well. The double Plateau hole, Yeah, just such a cold green I mean, you know, the drive is you can hit it pretty much anywhere, but you want to be really in the right position to hit an approach into the green, especially if the pin is up on one of those plateaus, either front left or back right.

Speaker 4

It sounded like from our caddies that the back right plateau isn't used all that much, which is unfortunate because it is, it's pretty small. It would make for a very interesting opening wedshot.

Speaker 1

I think maybe the best ground for a first hole is Packed Dunes because it's in the really like, kind of choppy part of the golf course. That's where the clubhouse kind of sits back on the dune ridge, and that dune ridge has really good land right inside of it. Will you're the deciding vote, which one you got Old Mac.

Speaker 2

Or Packed in?

Speaker 4

It has to be one honorable mention. Yeah, it has to be one cool honorable mention. I also had Pacific on my list.

Speaker 2

Wow, oh man, Garrett loses out.

Speaker 3

It's all right, I love I love one at Packed Dunes. Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna argue that one too much, all right.

Speaker 2

Second hole?

Speaker 3

Yeah, are you going to go first? On the Andes? Andy is it is it Will and I. We've got Will and I have our computers in front of us. Andy. Andy's winging it.

Speaker 4

Andy's the judge, jury, and executioner over there.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I guess so well. For for the second hole of the Dream eighteen, I have Pacific Dunes, just a fantastic part four center line bunker separates the high right side of the fairway from the low left side of the fairway, and depending on the pin position, you'll want to be on either level. In addition to that, from the tee you can see some of the rest of

the course behind the green. There's a nice little reveal that happens when you walk up from the first green to the second tee, and I just think that's that's a cool hole and a fantastic green that you really only you only see the full proportions of the green once you get behind it.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I think I also had Pacific. I think we're all in agreement there. But what I love about the opening two holes there is that they're both.

Speaker 5

Short par fours.

Speaker 4

In general, when with a southern wind you have driver wedge pretty much, but within winds coming out of the north, those short holes play a lot longer and those interesting greens become even more difficult to traverse.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, that's a great hole, I think. You know, I really like sheep Ranch's second hole. I think that's like really clever, but I don't think it's at the same level. It just doesn't have the topographical interests of the second hole at Pacific.

Speaker 5

You know, I think.

Speaker 1

Trail's second hole of the part three downhill is really really a neat hole as well.

Speaker 2

And then Old Mac the eden is I.

Speaker 1

Think that's probably my honorable mention is the second Atuld Mac.

Speaker 2

It's that that is, you know.

Speaker 1

I think most American eden holes are are a huge disappointment on Rainer MacDonald courses. I think they're oftentimes the weakest holes at these really great golf courses. And at Old Mac, I think that second hole is one of the strongest holes because of the green. It's no nothing land, but that green is is really wild and fun.

Speaker 2

So I think that's my honorable mention mine as well.

Speaker 3

Yep, I had that one too. Sounds like we're in agreement.

Speaker 2

It was easy third hole.

Speaker 1

Moving on, there's a lot of good third holes out there.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I think three and four or we might even differ in opinion here. I'll start it off with My third is definitely Old Mac. That par four up over the dune is just incredible.

Speaker 1

That's yeah, it's a neat hole, I think, one that you have to consider as well as the third at Trails. Yeah, it's part of it is like just the wow of the t shot when you're walking off of the second hole at at at Trails it is it's just an amazing reveal. And then just the green I really loved the green back there in the in the woods, like kind of back in the trees, and it's got that

back and right side that run off. I think like it's in the shade so much that you sometimes like miss it and you're so wowed by like just the surroundings of that meadow that you don't really pay that much attention to it. But it's a really clever green back there, So I like that whole. I mean three at Pacific Tunes is an amazing hole too, That's one.

Speaker 3

Of the another part five. I mean there's a lot of parallels between three at Pacific Dunes and three at Trails. There are similar part fives in the sense that the big wide fairways and some center line bunkers that that ask you some questions along the way.

Speaker 2

So what are you what's your your number one?

Speaker 3

I'm totally vacillating between three at Trails and three at Old Mac. I mean, just to describe what three at Old McDonald is. You tee off from the inland side of this huge dune ridge and you're literally just hitting right over the dune ridge just to the right of the huge ghost or left or left like if if the t position uh demands that. Yeah, so that is a possibility.

Speaker 1

It's a center line tree dead tree.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Yeah, it's great and and some people would be would be fans of that, I guess I don't think. No, I know JT hates the ghost tree, but uh, but it's just really fun walking up it and then and then seeing the rest of the course unfold in front of you and then finding your ball on the other side. It's pretty forgiving, like there's not too much trouble on the other side except for a bunker always out on the right. And so like, I like, I like that

hole because how dramatic it is. It's got a great green But three at Trails is really a fun strategic hole that you could play a bunch of different ways. You know, you could zig zag your way down that fair way in any number of ways. And I think I just have I have to give it to Trails.

Speaker 1

Wow, I'm the ext I'm the I'm the vote, you're the deciderbreaker, the decider. Well, we already have a par five and uh, I like other par fives and and you know I'm as.

Speaker 2

A I'm gonna go with three at uh at Old.

Speaker 3

Mac overrolled again.

Speaker 2

But my honorable mention is Trails.

Speaker 3

But one of them is the honorable mention.

Speaker 2

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1

I think that three at Old Mac three and Old Mac reminds me a little bit of two at National Golf Links of America. Like it's got a similar thing where you have to hit it uncomfortably left, like you're just like you want to hang it right, but then you run out of space and you tumble down into like kind of a bad spot. And they're both like you can get it up by the green if you're.

Speaker 2

In the right wind.

Speaker 1

With with Old Mac, you can get it, you know, on the green at National Nationally you have to push it up by the windmill. Here you have to push it up by the ghost tree. It's a really and it's got that same massive landforms. All right, So fourth hole, I think most people will be expecting one.

Speaker 2

And I think it's going to go a different direction.

Speaker 3

If I had most people, most people would say Bandon Dune's four.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I just don't think.

Speaker 3

Why not.

Speaker 1

I just you know, you hit it into this one spot and there's like this little neck that you hit it into, and the Yeah, I care about all these things that nobody else cares about. But the containment mounts on the left just make me want to vomit. And then the green site's really cool, but I just can't get over how how bad some of the shaping is around the around the hole.

Speaker 3

The green green itself is it's cool.

Speaker 2

Fun, Yeah, it's a fun.

Speaker 5

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1

I just don't think in comparison to the other fourth holes. I think, like for me, it comes down to abandoned trails and old mac and and I guess Pacific Dunes. You can't not have Pacific Dunes on that list. I mean, that's that's the hard thing. Like I think the ocean is is really alluring and you want but the one of the things with Bandon Dunes, just in general, in the for the most part with it. There's some exceptions, but a lot of the whole, a lot of the

land on the oceans the least interesting. And it just is the ocean creates this huge hazard that you have to avoid, which makes it really easy for strategy. And that's the fourth that at Pacific Dunes is a perfect example of that. Like if you play close to the water, you get a huge reward.

Speaker 2

If if you.

Speaker 1

Find yourself close to the water, you know, don't try and hit it up the right edge.

Speaker 3

You're saying that people shouldn't hit it at the ocean.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Like I just try and hit a cut off the bunkers, Like that's what I do.

Speaker 3

But the the strategy is a sensitive topic.

Speaker 5

These days, exactly.

Speaker 3

But there are a lot of people who get very upset about proclamations about strategy exactly.

Speaker 1

But if you're if you find yourself on the right side there like the green, everything helps you. And then if you the more and more left you go, everything works away where it like will you you could barely hold the green or you didn't hold the green shot off the side.

Speaker 4

Because perfectly struck long iron hit the front left corner and shot all the way off the back.

Speaker 1

So that's like a perfect strategy hole, like, but it is a connector and there's not that much interesting stuff to topographically in the fairway. It's like very very flat, you know, and you play over a dune into the green.

The green site's really good. But then you've got four at Bandon Trails and four at Old Mac that both have these like kind of jarring and breath taking hogs back fairways that cut most importantly diagonally across the fairway, which makes you know, playing over these huge and by what I mean by a hog's back fairway, it's a huge rise and it's like a hump, like a back of a hog as as you would it's a hump that cuts through the fairway.

Speaker 2

And these i'd say that.

Speaker 1

Are like thirty feet tall roughly, yeah, and these divide the fairway and they create like all this interest off the tee where it's blind where you're hitting too and you're having to pick a spot and you're having to really commit to it.

Speaker 2

And they both cut from left to right.

Speaker 5

Now.

Speaker 1

The fourth at Old Mac is a long part four and the fourth Bandit Trails is a shorter part four. Both of them like the hogs back is perfectly placed, like where you have to hit a really good t shot to get over the right side, which is ideal in both cases. For the most part, I think I would lean towards the fourth at Old Mac.

Speaker 3

I'd agree with that. I'm going to go with the fourth at Old Mac, but going back for a second to the fourth hole at Pacific Dunes. The main thing I think working against that hole in this exercise and the Dream eteen exercise is the existence of the thirteenth hole at Pacific Dunes. You know, you compare those two holes and it's just sort of no contest. I mean, both of them occupy cliff side pieces of land, but thirteen has a bit more going for it.

Speaker 2

I'm changing my vote to trails.

Speaker 3

You just got influenced by Cameron, by the silent presence in this room. I saw Cameron give you the stare and wow, Wow, he's not going to be on the podcast, but.

Speaker 1

We talked about We've talked. I was Trails all the way till the moment. Yeah, I'm back on Trails. I'm not laying the spur of the moment decision.

Speaker 3

Okay, will what have you got?

Speaker 4

I also had Old Mac However, I think the after playing Trails again the second time today, Hey, no, and so the first time.

Speaker 3

And does Cameron have something on you guys?

Speaker 5

No?

Speaker 4

No, I love the fourth at Old Mac, but today I had a really squirrely drive on for Trails and I.

Speaker 5

Didn't get over that ridge.

Speaker 4

And seeing the difference on how it played on the left and how it played on the right, it really got to me and how cool and the emphasis on that drive.

Speaker 1

One of the things I think that is an advantage for Trails is that you know, just like in terms of if you get over, you're you're over, and you have a scoring opportunity.

Speaker 2

At Old Mac you.

Speaker 1

Get over or you're on the right, it's still like so frickin' hard.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's still a hard shot from the top of the hogs back, is what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, And and I like that. I think that's all right for me. The fourth at Trails is really dependent on the wind. I don't think it's that great of a hole into the wind, or I don't think it's as great of a hole as it was for us on this trip was did we We played it way up into the wind though, So you.

Speaker 2

Have to adjust the t position wouldn't matter.

Speaker 3

So I think that the fourth hole at Trails, that the strategic question that it asks is very dependent on your ability to hit it far enough to get over the ridge. Because I've played that in a wind where there was really no chance, I don't think so. I think, Old Mac, you can get on top of that hogs back with accuracy. That's really what it's about. It's not about hitting it super far. It's about, you know, hitting your drive accurately and staying on top of the hogs back.

Speaker 4

The interesting part about Ford, Old Mac is when you get up there after hitting your T shirt, you realize how much room is left. And so after I think I played before Garrett and I hit mine, and what I thought was the perfect spot, I was fifteen yards to the left of the hogs back, and our Caddie Brooks says to Gary, He's like, all right, I want you twenty yards left of that point. And when you get up there and you realize I mean you, I mean,

you hit an awesome drive up there too. But there is a good amount of visual intimidation and deception going on there where you think there's not much room up there.

Speaker 1

Absolutely, yeah, the The enormity of Old Mac is on full display on the fourth hole. Like that, that is just a huge golf course.

Speaker 5

Yeah, we might have talked ourselves into Old Mac here.

Speaker 3

And at the same time like that. That second shot I think is pretty fun. You can you can run it up to that green with your second shot. Uh through the left side.

Speaker 2

All right, well, we'll let you have it.

Speaker 3

Well, don't do it out of pity. I'm fine with being over.

Speaker 1

Year old Mac. It helps balance it. We've got some short par fours.

Speaker 3

What do you think, Cameron, it's a tie. He says, how diplomatic to the people. I think. I think it's pretty clear that Cameron likes four trails, which is, by the way, I'm not arguing that that's not an awesome hole. It is.

Speaker 1

No. I like the balance it gives us. It gives us a long part four. We've got a couple of short part fours. It's a good, good added balance in there. All right on to five. Some good options for five mm hmm.

Speaker 5

Really good options for five.

Speaker 3

Yep. We've got the Old Mac shorthole, which has one of the most amazing greens that they'll ever see. You have the fifth at Trails, which has one of the most amazing greens you'll ever see. Both of those are par threes, short par threes, fairly short part threes that you know, big greens with just lots of different sections to them, lots of different places to put the pin. I think those are extremely different on different days because

of the pin position. For me, though, the fifth at Bandon Dunes is an iconic ocean cliff side hole where the cliff side really isn't even the most important part of the whole. It's just about the kind of gradual narrowing of the fair away from a fairly wide landing zone on the drive, and it just gradually kind of chokes and chokes and chokes until you get to a pretty narrow green site with hazards all around. The dunes

are great there. You know that that shaping that you talked about on the fourth hole, the containment mounting along the left side, Suddenly that's absent here. You're in a much more natural looking environment. I'd have a hard time not giving it to that one.

Speaker 4

Uh complete agreement Bandon. I mean we played it dead downwind on a really windy day, and that choke point at the end of the fairway was very much in play. I mean we all tried to lay back and me and Andy still got really close to that choke point.

Speaker 2

On I mean, no, I had mine way right. Oh, that's the fans going.

Speaker 4

But I mean I think into the wind that hole the the center line. I don't know if they're full bunkers or they're just tall grasses, but so intimidating gas. Yeah, and they mean they make you feel like you really need to hit it solid off that tea.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it really entices you to play left too, Like I found myself on that tee just wanting to bust it up the left side because it just like your eye draws there because of those little kind of I don't know exactly, like kind of clumpy mounds of native grass.

Speaker 3

Yeah, they're almost like mini dunes or something in the middle of the fairway. And what what they do is that they they divide the hole into the left and right sides, and the left side is guarded by the ocean. Right, So you have you have those little dunesy things in the middle of the fairway, and you have that left route, then you have the right route. Obviously, it's it's much safer to bust it up the right. It's it's wider

out there, there's plenty of room. But once you get out there, you look at that approach where it kind of narrows down into this into this you know, choked down green site, and you're thinking, I might need to lay back here, that this might not be worth it to push it all the way up to the hole.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and hitting a long iron into that green, if it's into the wind, would just be absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 3

Usually, yeah, usually this hole is playing into the wind. We didn't play it into the wind this week. I think you have different feelings about it when it's into the wind, very very hard.

Speaker 2

What's the honorable mention?

Speaker 5

Somehow?

Speaker 4

I don't think we've mentioned it, at least for me. I think there are so many. We talked about the Old Mac part three and Trails part three, But the Pacific fifth Hole is really good, Yeah, uphill, really good part of green.

Speaker 3

Yeah? Yeah? Is that is that your honor?

Speaker 5

That's my pick for an honorable mention?

Speaker 3

I don't know about you guys, all right, what about you? Andy?

Speaker 1

I'm gonna go with Bandon Trail's fifth I really like that whole. I love just the whole, that whole gathering point there. I love the the greens, kind of like a modified Burrits in a way. It's super fun. The backpins are tough, though the front pins are more gettable. And one of the things, I just love the feel of the whole place right there. It's just really delightful. I could just sit there all day, I think, in that meadow.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I think i'd go. I'd go fifth at Trails too. Maybe doesn't have anything to do with the hole itself. I think as a golf hole. I might be a little more interested in the short hole at Old Mac, but it's just hard to deny the beauty of that place and how fun it is to be in it. Yeah, all right, six six, I would go with Pacific Dunes. I think that's a perfectly representative short par four at

Pacific Dunes. I already chose two at Pacific Dunes, though, so I might be persuaded to go another direction with this. Also have the long hole at Old Mac, I think in contention, because the green is so great, And then six at Trails is a really cool part. Four back into the woods a little bit, or getting into the woods. So I'm not sure what do you guys think.

Speaker 4

I think this is another one that has a lot of strong options. I mean, six at Cheap Ranch has that drive up over the cliff too, if you're playing the right tea and.

Speaker 3

Six Abandoned Dunes is Andy's favorite hole.

Speaker 1

Oh, come on, why you got why you have to bring that in?

Speaker 3

Okay, I'm sorry. Six Abandoned Dunes is not in contention for this, I don't think.

Speaker 5

Yeah, no, I think I think six a Pacific.

Speaker 1

For anybody this wonder I did make berdie there? You know, it's not that has nothing to do with how I played the hole. It's just a bad golf hole. It's a bad golf hole in a beautiful place. But it's it's a but yeah.

Speaker 4

Back to the good golf hole in a beautiful place. Sixth at Pacific. I think it's just, oh, it's so cool. I mean, when you that fairway must be close to one hundred yards wide, and when you're on the left side of it, your webshot is it must be like hitting onto a table from over there. Luckily I was on the right side, and I think most of our group was. But from the right side, even you got to hit a really good shot.

Speaker 5

In there to hold that green.

Speaker 1

It's the smallest green on property, I believe that, one of our caddies said. And the way it angles back is just it sets up everything and you have to carry the bunker on the right, which if you're playing into the wind, isn't necessarily a foregone conclusion. So six it six at a pack dunes, Six at Old Mac honorable mention.

Speaker 2

Absolutely on seven.

Speaker 3

Yeah, you're you're you're on board with that, well, yep. Cool.

Speaker 2

Seven for me is Old Mac. Uh.

Speaker 1

It is a wonderful kind of drive wedge hole.

Speaker 3

Not a template. This hole is called Ocean. It is just an original.

Speaker 1

Hole and this is where you play up to the dune ridge at the back of the property and this is where you get your first look at the ocean at Old Mac.

Speaker 2

So you play up to this.

Speaker 1

It's a great green and off the tee, you know, you want to play it up the left side if possible. They're scarded by bunkers, and then you've got a gorse bush over there and.

Speaker 2

From there you get a really nice angle into the green.

Speaker 1

But it's a really hard approach shot because you're hitting significantly uphill. You can't really tell where the pin is, and like you don't know where the green edges are because it's so uphill, and then you're also contending with if you're at Old Mac, likely a pretty big wind. So it is a golf hole that demands good shots into the green and.

Speaker 2

It's one of just my favorite holes out there.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I think I agree with that. We saw what can happen when you go long.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you've found out.

Speaker 3

I had a little adventure back there that there's a huge drop off, big bunker back there, and it's.

Speaker 2

Just you don't want to come up short.

Speaker 3

That's the place to be. Yeah, you can see what upshort is, but long is.

Speaker 4

You know, from what I nderstand that putting the green all the way up there wasn't a foregone conclusion, right. They kind of thought about that for a while, and I mean, I think everyone who's played that hole now is very grateful that they put it up there.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it's a cool hole. I think that there are other good seventh holes. I really like Bandon seventh hole. I think that's one of the strongest holes on the abandoned rumbold Land. Yeah, I also really like the seventh that Bandon Trails. I think that's a really good golf hole too.

Speaker 3

Uphill par four seventh and seventh and Pacific Dunes is a great I think. I think that's probably my honorable mention. I'm deciding between that one and and Bandon Dunes because I agree that that Bandon Dunes hole, just the land is is great, the green side is great, It's a it's a stronghole, and a nice follow up to the to the relative disappointment that is six there. But you know seven at Pacific Dunes pretty long, difficult par four.

Speaker 1

Five to seven, and you get rid of the one hundred and fifty yard walk back to the seventh. T you could walk right off the fifth green abandoned dunes and gone to seven, which is a great hole, and all of a sudden four five, six, seven, eight. It would have been like a really good and you could have found a par three somewhere else.

Speaker 3

Because eight is a really good hole. Tao, Yeah, what do you think? Well for honorable mention? Seventh hole? I think I'm undecided on this one.

Speaker 5

No, I mean, I think you could sway me either way. I think was really.

Speaker 4

Cool about all these holes though, is that they all well, at least the three were talking about Old Mac Trails, abandoned and then Pacific. Even if you come up short, I mean it's a demanding shot in all three of them, or all four of them, really, I mean, you just have to either hit the shot or you were really scrambling for par I don't honestly have a strong feeling. I think you could put honorable mention on any of them.

Speaker 1

Well, you got to make a decision one to one, all right, Well, then my honorable mention goes to Bandon.

Speaker 5

I think that's a fun shot.

Speaker 1

In No, we haven't even brought up Sheep Ranches par threes that are all play to infinity edges on the ocean. And I think there's a reason that we haven't brought them up is that there are three six consecutive par threes, you know, close together in the routing three five and seven, three five and seven that are all feel extremely similar. And I think that's probably one of the weakest parts of Sheep Ranches. And I think it was very intentional

to play these par threes to the ocean. I think that is something that you know, is a big thing for the retail golfer, you know, is getting these par threes facing the ocean, and I think it works against Sheep Ranch in terms of like it doesn't they all feel the same And to eight and eight is for me Sheep Ranch. This is a hole that plays. It's one of the pieces of pizza, as Bill core would say,

but explain that well, it plays from the edge. Everything narrows as you get to the edge, right, So it's either par three's or the green sites of par four's or tea boxes. So it's a tea box that fans out. It's a wide area, so it's like a piece of pizza coming up.

Speaker 3

It's the routing. It's the routing principle that they use to get people to the ocean and back inland. At Sheep Ranch. A lot of the holes make these triangles that Bill Corry referred to on a video that we do in the podcast, and it was on the on the podcast and the video as a piece of pizza. And as you can tell, it tickles Andy and.

Speaker 4

So to visualize it for people, so seven plays into this point, eight plays out, nine plays back in, and then ten comes back out. And I mean you really could walk from both greens and Tea's in a matter of thirty seconds. They're all very close to each other.

Speaker 3

So eight you're going with sheranch.

Speaker 1

So it plays away from the ocean and plays back into this wooded you know, behind the green is this these woods, and the whole bends very severely. It might be the most And I noticed this when I was flying the drone even more than playing it really like it almost horseshoes. The thing turned so hard and you don't really you can't really tell because the t shots blind.

But it adds this huge variability in wind, like you can be on one side of the fairway and then you can be on the other and the wind hits so much different. And then the other thing about it is the green. The green is absolutely incredible. Cameron, who's not on this podcast, compared it, you know, to like the road hole road Hole Green at Augusta National five. Like it's got those two huge mounds in the front of it that are like this big kind of false front.

If you play up the left off the fairway, it's a much easier approach in because you don't have to contend with those mounds as much. You're hitting kind of diagonally over them as opposed to right into them.

Speaker 2

If you're up the right.

Speaker 1

Now, the right yields a lot shorter of an approach, so you know, from there you can get you a shorter approach, but it's not necessarily an easier one to get to certain pins because those huge mounds just eat golf balls and divert them over to the front right of the green or off the front of the green. And then the behind the mounds is this channel that kind of cuts across the green as well. It's just it's one of my favorite greens on the property, and I just I really like the golf hole.

Speaker 4

Yeah, and when you consider I mean even the left pins that we didn't play on this trip, but with the predominant winds coming out of the north, this hole is playing. It starts north and bends northeast, and so when the winds coming out of the north, you're it's off your left as the golfer, and getting it to the left side of that green, there's a back shelf. I mean, it's it is really a difficult shot to get up there, and it makes it a very interesting approach.

Speaker 3

Is that your choice as well?

Speaker 2

Well?

Speaker 5

Absolutely?

Speaker 3

Eight cheap ranch, oh man, I'd go with eight abandoned trails. I love that. I mean, I think that you could play that in any number of different ways. It's a short part four. It drifts slightly to the left. There's a good amount of room out to the right from certain tees and for certain players it could be drivable. You could get your drive on the front edge of the green, but it's very uncomfortable to do that because along the left side is a lot of nastiness that

you just don't want to get involved in. But the right side and the right side, if you it's too far to the right side, if you're gone, you're you're Yeah, the hole's over. But there is there is some room out there.

Speaker 1

You know, you're you're a drawer of the ball. So you didn't even see the right side, that's all.

Speaker 3

I was thinking a shorter hitter than you guys, so I didn't have to worry, right.

Speaker 1

Yeah, one of the times I played it, I just parked it in there a couple of years ago.

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, so there. Yeah, you don't want to miss on either side really, but there is some room out to the right. If you want to take a long iron off the tee or a hybrid or whatever, then you know you aren't going to get in too much trouble on the right. But that web shot to the green is pretty dicey because from the right the green is running away from you, and if you go a little bit long, you're running into the bunkers or the

short grass on the other side. And that shot from over there below the green is just no fun at all. And so it's a It's a great little at part four that can be drivable sometimes if you if you push your drive toward the left and get up on the kind of front edge of the green, then you have a fairly easy kind of bump and run up

to most of the pins. But if you're you know, if you miss to the left, or if you aren't so courageous and go out to the right, then I can things can start moving quickly on that hole.

Speaker 1

Eight might be one of the strongest all round holes across the resort, because I really think you could make a case for any of the eighth holes.

Speaker 5

Yeah, the beer it's part three.

Speaker 4

Coming down the hill at Old Mac is jaw dropping in difficult.

Speaker 1

Yeah, now that I think about it, Old Mac eight, it's fun.

Speaker 2

I only go eight as at Old Mac is my honorable mention, I'd like to know.

Speaker 3

I'm not totally sure how the wind is on that hole usually, but I I don't think it's ever downwind. Now that I actually actually brought that up with Casey, I asked him one of our cast.

Speaker 2

Pr right to left helping.

Speaker 3

Yeah, maybe maybe he just said it's really He says, the rarest wind is the one that comes from the ocean, and and that's that hole is facing directly away from the ocean. I think it would be a somewhat more fun hole if it were downwind, because then you would really be running the ball through the green. You would be running it, you know, from the front of the beer it's through the trough to the other side. When we were playing it into the wind on one of

the days, I'm not saying that's a common wind. Then, I don't know, it's it loses a little something.

Speaker 4

It did say that the pin is in the back almost always, which is great, which is where it should be.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Absolutely, And then I think you.

Speaker 4

Started to say this chart, but Ada Pacific is really cool too. That green site the bunker pushed into it in the punch bowl effect in the backside is it's makes for such a fun approach.

Speaker 1

And the vicious false front in the front. Like the front pins really cool because it has this really severe false front that it kind of blends in.

Speaker 2

It's such a beautiful place for a green there.

Speaker 1

I also like the t shot because like, if you're playing a downwind and you hit it up the left, you can get blocked out by those trees and it's just a sneaky thing. You don't want to play up the right, but you kind of need to when it's downwind.

Speaker 3

There's a ton of room out to the left. But yeah, it gets worse and worse as you get over there. And I do like a whole like eight at Pacific Dunes where you can get in a really nasty looking green side bunker. There's this little pot bunker right in front of the green. You get in there and you're like, okay, I'm dead. But for a lot of pins, you have a backstop that you could play off of, and so you very well could get in that bunker and say the person you're playing against is on the green and

they're like, oh, I'm set. But you could bank it off of that backboard and get it pretty close to the hole out of that bunker. So I think that's there's a cool opportunity for sort of reverse.

Speaker 1

In a match between two people, hold nine, hold nine, lots of choices, lots of choices, five choices on every single one of these.

Speaker 3

And we're talking about just about all of them on every hole. Maybe maybe we should go quicker.

Speaker 4

Maybe I think I think this one. I think we're all on board with nine at Pacific. Yes, I don't know.

Speaker 3

I might go a different direction with it. But let's talk about nine at Pacific.

Speaker 2

He won't be going nine at Old Mac. We know that.

Speaker 3

No, I'm not. I'm not a huge fan of Night at Old Mac, though the people in this room are bigger fans of it than I am. But go go ahead. Let's talk about nine at Old Mac first.

Speaker 2

No, not at nine at all.

Speaker 4

Manea Pacific par four up the hill really blind t shot two greens as well. The upper green is the one we played too, But there's a lower green, but at least thirty yards I mean it is way down there. That's off to the left. The upper green is on the right side. To the right green, I think is just a remarkable hole. Even if you have wedge into

that green, everything cascades away from you. If you're on the left hand side of the fairway, and I mean the fairway is one hundred yards wide, it's almost impossible to miss it.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you can miss it right if you're trying to push it up the right, which you have to do for the right green, the top green, which is on the right side. You you really need to be up on the right. It's so so difficult from the left.

Speaker 3

Yeah. So, I mean that's a great hole. But what do you think about the lower Did you get a good look at the lower green?

Speaker 4

Well, I got to look at it, but I know, I guess so I haven't played down there. I would be interested to hear what you guys have to say about that one.

Speaker 1

I'm taking as the best. We're making our best holes on property. I don't even have to talk about the lower hole.

Speaker 3

So you're just going to deny the existence of that lower green. That's my holes to the upper It's not your hole. It's the hole that's at the course. We're judging the holes at the course.

Speaker 4

My hole.

Speaker 3

The pin is on the People often play Pacific Dunes once in their lives, and frequently the pin is down on the left.

Speaker 2

It's fine it's fun down there.

Speaker 3

It is fun down there. It's not as good of a hole though, right.

Speaker 2

No, it isn't.

Speaker 5

What is weaker when the pins down there?

Speaker 1

Well, there's just less strategy, like you you don't there's not really there's a preferred like you'd rather be left then, but it's not anyway. You do not pay the sharp penalty you pay if you're left when you want to be right to the upper green.

Speaker 3

And the upper green is so cool too, by the way, there's.

Speaker 1

This little bins really cool too, but the upper green is just like better.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so that Yeah, this would be my issue with putting this hole over the one that maybe you guys will give honorable mention to it. I don't know, But what is it? Sheep Ranch? Yeah, I love ninep Branch. I think that's a.

Speaker 2

Great golf We have no par threes on our front nine Yeah, I know.

Speaker 5

So well, So what do you like about nine and sheep Branch so much?

Speaker 3

Okay? So nine and sheep Ranch Part four that plays from inland out to the cliffs. And what I really like about that hole is that there's plenty of room in the fair way, but it's still a pretty intimidating drive because uh, you know, it really does kind of narrow down, and so it's it's a lot safer if you decide to lay back, But if you really want to push it up like Andy did today, he had a bomb on this hole if you want to. If you want a nice little wedge into this green.

Speaker 2

It's not a nice wedge though, it's not like you don't like it.

Speaker 3

If you want a wedge into the screen. And but it's important that you have that you have a shorter club into this green because it's it's very very hard to hold this greens, especially in its back set section it runs away. There's there's sort of great creative rounds to the green, like little hazards that you can get into.

There are obviously no sand bunkers at Cheap Branch. I think most people know this at this point, and that means that there's this great variety of green side hazards that are there instead, and this green is a great example of that. I just think it's a really simple golf hole on a fantastic piece of land, and you know, I could play it over and over. But the upper Green hole at Pacific Dunes is overall that one is I would admit stronger.

Speaker 2

Oh okay, so we're.

Speaker 3

But there's two. But but there are two greens at Pacific Dunes. Ninth ball.

Speaker 2

We're only playing. That's we're only playing.

Speaker 3

I don't think you can just say that because I don't think that's I don't think that's the reality.

Speaker 2

That's my reality. Okay, okay, Now for a quick word from our sponsors. The USGA is best.

Speaker 1

Known for their championships and with Banded Dunes. They are coming back here soon. They're coming back this year. They've got the US Junior this year, in twenty twenty five, they've got the US Women's Am. Twenty twenty nine, they've got the Walker Cup. A big thing that the USBA does is support the game of golf. They are deep in sustainability and making sure that we have golf courses in years to come. They are proactive with many initiatives to grow the game, both with people that are diehards

as well as new golfers. And also they're very big in promoting diversity. And how they do all this, all these non revenue you know, generating activities where they spend money is through their USGA membership. So become a USGA members It's a great gig. You know, you get member benefits. You get a Frida Egg benefit, you get twenty percent off in their USGA shop. On top of that, you get a rule book, you get a us open hat, you get a subscription to the Original Golf Journal, off Journal,

some great writing in there. And then you also get the bag tag so you can show off your membership. If you go to USGA dot org backslash Friday, you will get twenty percent off in the usgashop dot com with your membership purchase.

Speaker 2

So check it out.

Speaker 1

It's not expensive, it's a great way to support the game of golf. It's obviously given back to all of us a lot, so go support the USGA with a membership. Also, as we mentioned at the top, this week was brought to you by ZR, So this week out Abandon, we have a ton of content. They came in and supported us. They kitted us out with a lot.

Speaker 2

Of new gear.

Speaker 1

We were testing new gear for twenty twenty two that will be available in the spring. But in the meantime it's the holidays, so this is a great time to stock up on some cold weather gear.

Speaker 2

Some layers.

Speaker 1

The pullover that they make in particular, the Champoodie is probably my favorite piece that they make. You know, it's an awesome pieces, versatile. You can wear it on the golf course, you can wear it lounging around the house, and it's pretty warm. So use the promo code TFE twenty five and you will get twenty five percent off your purchase. And if you order now, you'll you'll get your champootie by Holidays for you or a loved one.

Thank you to Zero Restriction for sponsoring this week, and now back to the Dream eighteen podcast.

Speaker 5

I think any should start with this one.

Speaker 2

I just started.

Speaker 3

Ten. It's a tough one.

Speaker 5

Ten is a very strong did you straight?

Speaker 1

I'll go ten with bandoned Dunes ten abandoned Dunes. I really like this hole. You play away from the clubhouse, and it's like a mini little alpshole. It's it's a wide fairway, it's a rumpled fair away, lots of contours. If you hit it right down the middle, you're you're blind to everything, which is a feature I always love.

If you want to build a hole that I love, make the center of the fairway the worst place you can be and from there the green has got a neat green is kind of like shallow and wide, which is another thing I like a lot. And depending on where the pin is, you want to be on the left or the right side of the fairway because that'll give you an actual look into the green. And if

it's windy, it's just really a difficult hole. If it's down wind, you know, or you know, kind of coming across and down, it's gonna be.

Speaker 2

Hard to hold the green.

Speaker 1

If it's coming the other way, it's just like hard to keep the spin off the ball and get it far enough to get onto the green.

Speaker 4

And the blind approach, I mean really adds to like the left side of the tenth green like falls off so hard, and unless you've played the hole before, you might not know that, so you need a caddy to tell you or you could be just chipping for five really.

Speaker 1

So there's uncertainty in the heavy winds that you get at the resort, Like that really is an added thing that makes the shot very difficult.

Speaker 3

Yeah, and it's a what I like about the tenth hole. One of the things I like about it is that it's a hole where big hitters can get into more trouble than shorter hitters, you know, because if you're a shorter hitter, you just play out to the left, like as far out left as you can get, and you might get a little peek at the green and it's very safe out there and you can hit a nice

little approach in there. But if you are an aggressive player, if you hit the ball a long way, you're looking up the right and thinking, I want to go straight at the screen. I want to get as close as close as I can. I don't want to take the long route around. I think I can carry this bunker that bunker, and you really can get in a lot of trouble out there. It's not a very good angle into the green. You can't see anything on your second shot. So I like that little dynamic.

Speaker 4

Other tenth holes that are strong, I mean Old Mac. The bottle hole is really that. That green is incredible.

Speaker 3

Bottle Hole might be might be the one.

Speaker 4

Tent, but I mean Andy started anyone with band I think I think Bandon and Old Mac are one two for me. I mean Pacific's part three down the Hill is incredible to first of two really good back to back holes. I don't know, Garrett what we were thinking.

Speaker 3

I like too, Yeah, that that green with a big bank up on the right, and uh, there's lots of lots of cool possibilities there. It's a good drive with uh, you know, a high side and some and and a low side and that that's a really fun hole too. But I think that I would give it to I would give it to old Mac the honorable mention. All right, eleven, are we gonna swerve here?

Speaker 4

I think so, I mean, I like, it sounds ridicul to not pick eleven at Pacific, but I think, I.

Speaker 3

Mean, we're still not going to pick up Heart three.

Speaker 4

Maybe I and we maybe who knows, Maybe I'll be just decided here. But I mean eleven at Trails is just so fantastic.

Speaker 5

Yeah, I don't know what you guys think.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I love eleven and Trails up and over a part four bending to the right, little uh water feature along the right side of the green, unusual site, abandoned dunes, but a very natural looking little pond next thing and next to what's really a fantastic green. I think I'd still have to give it to eleven at Pacific Dunes.

Speaker 1

So that's just one of the great Pacific Dud I talked about in my mind made out that I'm going to do eleven Trails. I love eleven in Trails is so awesome. I love that hole. It'd be hard for me to not pick that hole against so but I am going to pick Pacific Dunes eleventh hole.

Speaker 3

Yeah, eleven of trails. Anything more say about that For people who don't know the hole very well, I.

Speaker 1

Just I think it's such a neat hole. I really like when it plays into the wind. Yeah, because you have this big downhill approach and there's a bunker that's set thirty yards off the green. If you carry the bunker, it just shoots the ball right into the green.

Speaker 2

It's a neat green.

Speaker 1

The green's always in shade, so you don't the features don't like pop off the page at you. But it's got the left side of the greens really got some nice contour. And I think, just to me, I meant to bring this up when we were talking about nine, but like nine and eleven at Bandoned Trails or two moments like in that forest setting where I just like am like And it might be because I'm from Chicago and I haven't played much golf.

Speaker 2

In the Pacific Northwest.

Speaker 1

You know, I never went to Reno as a kid, but I get back and I'm just like, God, this is amazing with those those huge trees. I don't know exactly what kind of trees they.

Speaker 5

Are, but well, so back to eleven a Pacific. Then what makes it such a good Part three?

Speaker 1

I mean, it's just you're right on the ocean and just the naturalness of it. And one of the things about it is like everybody gets I think, really freaked out on that tea but there's a lot of space right and the right kind of banks you in so you don't have to necessarily take it on. And I think it's just one of those moments. It's a moment

in the round that really demands your attention. Like you stand on that tea box and you're uneasy no matter what, because you've got your the ocean on the left, these massive bunkers in front, like front pins, back pins. Any pin is a challenging shot there, like where you really like, you know, when you stand up, you have to hit a very good shot.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's it's all about the visual deception because it looks like a small grain from the tea but you're often hitting a pretty long club there because it is frequently into the wind and they can get those teas back pretty far. And so you're sitting there looking at this what looks like a pretty small green from the tea and you have a five iron in your hand or you know, or something longer, and it can be

really intimidating. But as Andy said, there is some room short right to leave your ball that that is pretty safe there.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the eleventhil Cheap Ranch.

Speaker 2

That's a great, great par five.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that green site is incredible. I don't even know how to describe what it's in. It's like in this saddle and there's rocks and sand and I mean it's just spectacular.

Speaker 4

It's not clay, but it's like a really dark sand.

Speaker 3

It's almost like a sandstone. Yeah, I'm not sure, but it's it looks like, you know, like this green is set into a monument or something.

Speaker 1

A great green too, with those rolls that kind of knobs in the high leftier and then the knobs in the middle of the cut through the middle of the green really neat green.

Speaker 2

So my honorable mention would go to Trails.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it has to be Trails. That's a great hole. Who's going to take on the twelfth hole first? This is this is a tough one.

Speaker 5

I think.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I mean it's a tough one in the sense that, unlike some of the past decisions we've had to make, this one doesn't have one that jumps out.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there's no good one. Really. This is the weak are.

Speaker 3

Some of the weaker holes of course, all the courses.

Speaker 1

Banded Dune's weak point is that there aren't any great twelfth holes.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean Pacific Dunes Part five, you know whatever, it's not one of the best holes of the course.

Speaker 2

It's a great hole, but it's just twelve Trails is a.

Speaker 3

Old mac twe twelve is the Red Dan, which is not one of the more successful templates at.

Speaker 2

The old eleven had the road hole too, road sheep ran eleven stacked.

Speaker 1

Any of the eleven holes outside of maybe Bandons would win the twelfth hole.

Speaker 5

I think you're right.

Speaker 3

I agree. Maybe.

Speaker 1

I think probably Bandon's eleventh would win the twelfth.

Speaker 3

To Bandon's eleventh.

Speaker 2

Yeah, really maybe.

Speaker 3

I don't know if Bandon's eleventh is better than Bandon's twelfth. Because that's what's probably winning the.

Speaker 2

Twelfth A Bandon's twelfth it is.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's what we're left with. One of the most famous holes in America. Yeah, Abandon's twelfth hole, part three plays out to the ocean. It was on the cover of every magazine in nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 1

I like the green side. I like how it's pressed up against the dune, and I like how that back wing on the right kind of serves as a natural extension to the dune.

Speaker 2

I think this is a neat hole.

Speaker 4

I think the twelfth Green and Sheep Ranch is pretty interesting too. The drive is really nothing to marvel at. You just kind of hit it out there. But then, as I found out, if you get long at all, it really falls away back there too.

Speaker 1

All right, thirteen, this is right back into the gauntlet. You know wherever the twelfth shortcomings are are made up on the eleventh and the thirteenth holes across the resort.

Speaker 2

Yeah, to me, you know.

Speaker 1

Pacific Dunes is you have to pick this hole. This is one of the greatest holes in the world. This golf hole is just tremendous. You have these massive dunes on the right side, you have the ocean, on the left side, you have a wide fairway that narrows as.

Speaker 2

You move forward.

Speaker 1

But also I think what makes the hole is the feature in the middle of the fairway. There's a feature it's almost like a hog's back where you know, it's kind of rounded and it kicks balls left or right. If if it kicks you right, you're not not gonna be happy with your next shot. It's a delayed penalty. That would be you're playing away from the ocean, like you know, you stand on the tea box and you need to hit it left.

Speaker 4

You really need It sounds crazy to say yeah, because there's not much room up there visually, and we.

Speaker 3

Should mention the more obvious thing about the thirteenth Hole, aside from, you know, the strategic aspects of it, I think are somewhat underappreciated, partly because you have, of course, the spectacular cliffs to the left and some of the biggest dunes anywhere on this entire property to the right, and if you look at pictures of where this hole

is from before construction, it was basically just there. This is a natural hole that just fit beautifully in between these massive dunes in the ocean, and it's just such a cool place. Anything to add to that, will or do you have a honorable mention?

Speaker 5

No, I was gonna yeah.

Speaker 4

Andy said that what the twelve flax? The thirteenth really brings it. So I was curious about what is other strong thirteen holes were.

Speaker 3

Oh wow, yeah, great Part five that yeah, that has a great rumpley Part five.

Speaker 1

That fairway feature on Bandoned Dunes is unbelievable, like the rumbles and everything.

Speaker 2

It's a really neat Part five.

Speaker 1

I would say I'm gonna go with with Bandoned Trails though. Yeah, I love the green, I love the green site sitting up in the in the dunes there, that's a really really great hole.

Speaker 2

Fourteen.

Speaker 1

Lots of options on fourteen, Will what are you taking?

Speaker 4

There are a lot and yeah, I mean lots of we I think this has been a common theme throughout this but I gotta go with the fourteenth at Sheep Ranch that hogs back fairway. I mean we played it downwind. I think into the wind that would be an absolute bear of a hole. But as we played it, and as I think a lot of people would see it with the wind out of the north, that it's a par four that goes over this huge fairway mound and then once you cross it you get to see the

ocean again. There's a really great green lying in the distance. I mean, it is just very dramatic.

Speaker 1

I mean, the feature in the fairways is huge. You have to hit it over like almost the peak of it too. It's not like a uniform mound per se. It kind of like goes up and it gets to the top, and then from the top it kind of has this like spine that runs down that you can ride this like, you know, it's like fifteen yards wide's spine down, but then on either side it kind of like cascades down to the right and to the left. It creates these blind approaches from side hill downhill lies

semi blind approaches, and then it's to the screen. One of the neat things. This is a subtle thing. It's just the green is tilted from right to left. It really rewards those who take on the girth of the hill.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Absolutely fantastic hole, but really close to it, maybe surpassing it would be the fourteenth hole at Old Mac the Maiden Hole, though it's not really the Maiden Hole as you would understand it from Royal Saint George's.

Speaker 2

Well, this maiden Green just got the Maiden Green.

Speaker 3

So could you describe a maiden green.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it's almost like a double plateau. Oh my god, our a raccoon is back.

Speaker 3

Oh, a raccoon friend is back. So we're staying in a cottage here at Bandon Dunes, and last night a raccoon came and visited us and he's not scared of us at all back.

Speaker 5

In fact, I think he wants to be our friend.

Speaker 3

He doesn't look friendly to me.

Speaker 2

Well, yeah, he doesn't at all.

Speaker 5

Well we don't know that, Karen.

Speaker 3

He looks like he wants to fight.

Speaker 2

Anyways.

Speaker 1

The maiden hall, the main it's like a double plateau, but there's almost like a slit in the middle, and then it's like a low front with two high backside back parts.

Speaker 3

Well, what's your honorable mention? Well old Mac for sure, okay, but but you oh so yeah. Actually the discussion is over the winner here, so you'd say Sheep Ranch winner. I think, yes, I'll go with that. I'll go with a flow on that. I think the fourteenth that sheep Ranches is really fantastic. Yeah, but I could easily be

convinced to flip those two. The fourteenth the trails we should mention is that that's one of the most discussed holes at the Bandon Dunes Resort, Big Downhill short part four, where if you don't stay up to the left, you're basically dead for the rest of the hole. Yeah. Yeah, that.

Speaker 2

Hole got me full time.

Speaker 3

Very difficult to stay left on that hole, but you have to do it or you're just.

Speaker 1

Well it left, you're not out of the woods. That's where I made a mess of it last time. Was the perfect spot. You can still miss the green with a thirty yard pitch.

Speaker 3

That green is incredibly hard to hit.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, it's uh so fifteen I'm going with abandoned trails. It's got this center line bunker. It's a huge bunker that you have to play short of or play left of, and then it opens up to probably the best, one of the best green sites on property. Sending into this hill. This wildly undulating green has got these bunkers on the right, and for some reason, the ball just goes right there. It just like it's like a gravitational pull, like you just hit the ball into the right gunk.

Speaker 2

Every time.

Speaker 1

I just feel like the ball just goes right there. You know certain holes, you know, you just hit it there. But that green site, it just sits up in this like kind of little pocket right before this big kind of hill.

Speaker 4

The orientation of it is kind of like five at Pacific too. Just imp squeeze in between those dunes and narrows in the back.

Speaker 5

I mean, it is a really cool place for a green.

Speaker 3

Honorable mention.

Speaker 1

I think sheep Ranch short part four of the place straight to the ocean.

Speaker 3

That's what I have too. Are there are there any other convincing options?

Speaker 4

I don't think any other ones are as strong as those two. I mean the part as for as short as it is when the wind is into you, it plays rather long. I mean, even if you bust a drive out there, you're gonna have at least a half wedge in there, and that green you don't necessarily want to have a half wedge into the wind because you're gonna spin it all the way down that hill.

Speaker 3

The green itself is just delightful.

Speaker 5

You know.

Speaker 3

It has those back two back plateaus that you're talking about, and then in the front section of the green, it just has this little spine that runs right through the

middle of it. Yeah, it's it's a big spine. It's a little compared to the to the shelves at the back, but it's it's substantial and you can put a pin on either side of that, and if you're putting over it, it's it's a tough, tough lag putt, but just a really cool green to look at, one of those ones that you just want to walk around and kind of smile at for a few minutes. It makes you want to put sixteen. I'm going, I'm going, I have to go abandon. I have to. It's a it's a completely

iconic golf hole and it holds up. It's wonderful to play par four running along the ocean in the most common wind. It's it's downwind and you just have this this huge kind of scab running across the fairway. Now, bunkers used to be more gorsy, running diagonally up to a green that's perched on the edge of the cliff.

Speaker 4

When you're on that green, like you have to pay it to the wind there and it just throws a whole wrench into you. Think you've hit a good webshot or even if you're fifteen feet away like you now need to execute and get this.

Speaker 5

Ball in the hole.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I think I go, I lean towards sixteen. I think sixteen at Old Mac deserves some mention here. It is a incredible alpshole. I mean that is a jaw dropping hole. The golf hole is a big par four plays downhill off the tee. The left side is completely blind, the right side can't is bunkered, but it can give you a look at certain pins and you don't know where the pin is on the tee. And the right side of the hole is set on the dune ridge

that cuts across the entire property, really abandoned. And then the left side is the dune ridge that sits along the ocean, and it's just an that's an amazing hole.

Speaker 2

It's an amazing green and the.

Speaker 1

Enormity of the of the hill that you have to hit over, it's just incredible.

Speaker 2

That hole is a world class hole.

Speaker 1

And I mean the sixteenth it's sheep ranch is an incredible Part three. I mean, how can you not love that hole. I mean, the waves are crashing, it's a it's a one of you know, like just a absolute incredible I love that green too.

Speaker 2

The simplicity is kind of like a.

Speaker 1

Maxwell roll right in the middle of it and it just sits there right on that point.

Speaker 2

Seventeen.

Speaker 3

Are we to seventeenth? I think every single seventeenth hole is good, very strong.

Speaker 1

Yeah, this is a very very difficult one to pick from.

Speaker 4

Where would you go, Well, I mean it's cheap ranch for me, Like, despite how strong, really all five of them are the T shot depending I guess there's a tea right off the sixteenth green, a cheap ranch that really forces you to take that cliff on you have no choice. Yeah, the hitting over the cliff, I mean, and you're hitting up the cliff, that's the other thing. I mean six also hits over the cliff, but you're

not going up as severely. But from the other te'es, I think you have a little gentler of a shot, but you still have I mean literally the continent of the United States of North America to your right, and then there's just the ocean left.

Speaker 5

But it is a remarkable shot.

Speaker 4

And then the second shot into that green, like you can bail as far right on the T shot as you want. But then kind of similar to thirteen oh Pacific, now the ocean is very much on play again.

Speaker 2

The trees.

Speaker 1

The dead trees are so cool in that hole in the green where it sits like with the dead trees around it, and then the green has this like kind of channel that runs through diagonally across it. It's it's a really brilliant hole. And one of the things that's underrated about it is like there are some really subtle, little neat fairway contours in the fairway.

Speaker 2

It's not a flat fairway. It's not like a pancake.

Speaker 1

I would go with the seventeenth a sheep ranch too, And then you know, for an honorable mention, there are a lot of choices here, and I think I would go with bandon seventeenth. I like that whole lot. I love that it incorporates the canyon. I wish the eighteenth incorporated the canyon more. I think that was definitely Yeah. I think the seventeenth. That green is really neat. It's a long, narrow green that's set right on the canyon.

If you play your t shot up the right side, do you have a really nice shot into there.

Speaker 2

But if you play up the left, just like the what we.

Speaker 1

Talked about with the thirteenth at Pacific Dunes, you have to take on kind of the canyon and in your shot pattern.

Speaker 3

Yeah, you know, I think i'd I have to go with the seventeenth a sheep ranch too, but I'm not totally happy about it. I do think the seventeen that Bandon is sensational, maybe underrated, you know, because it comes right after the sixteenth, which is iconic.

Speaker 2

It's the best hole on the Bandon property. It's it's so good, and I think it would be sixteen or that it's.

Speaker 3

It's maybe maybe you can say it's like the best design hole at Bandon Dunes, because it might be. It just uses the ravine to perfection and the green is fantastic. So the other reason I'm unhappy with with having to choose one hole is that there are two great options

for a par three seventeenth. The seventeenth Abandoned Trails, which is just absolutely gorgeous in the same way that five is, but maybe more so, and then the seventeenth at Pacific Dunes, which is suddenly revealed to you as you go up from the sixteenth green and is a Redan like but not really a Radan whole. It's its own thing, but beautiful. Part three. Are we on to eighteen. Yeah, so the opposite.

Speaker 1

Yeah again, week week choices. I don't I really don't know what to do here. I don't think that there's a great one.

Speaker 3

It's a it's a it's Old Mac.

Speaker 2

Yeah, oh yeah, it is Old Mac.

Speaker 3

That's a really good hole.

Speaker 1

Yeah yeah, Old Mac is without a doubt, the best fall best eighteenth hole.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's a it's an absolute trouncing.

Speaker 2

Yeah, long par four. Hey, look at that.

Speaker 1

We're we're part thirty five. We're seventy two parseeventy two.

Speaker 3

With like two par three's.

Speaker 5

No, like Saint Andrews one, there's no part fives in the back?

Speaker 3

Wait?

Speaker 2

Were there only one par part three?

Speaker 3

There was only one Part three one.

Speaker 2

Part three one part five?

Speaker 3

No, no, no, no no. We did eleven at Pacific Dunes, right, yeah, then we did twelve Abandoned. Oh yeah, so we have three we have back to back.

Speaker 2

For three par seventy one.

Speaker 4

Well, if we use the Sheep Ranch model, then eighteen at Old Mac is a part five.

Speaker 1

Yeah, eighteen eighteen and Old Mac punch Bowl Awesome.

Speaker 2

It's almost a double punching ball.

Speaker 3

Yeah. It's like this little room with three different doors that go into it. One of the doors goes out toward the clubhouse, but there is a right gap between the mounds that surround the green, and there's a left gap, and I think you really could run it up through that left gap and down the slope toward a right pin. Now,

I've only seen the pin on the right. I honestly don't know if they regularly put pins up on the left or if they even can, but it seems like the main thing is to have the pin down to the right and to offer that opportunity to kind of sling it around the right entrance down to those right pin locations, which are really cool.

Speaker 4

Yeah, And I mean that gap that you're talking about in the mounds is just such a cool little window as your water. You're say, you hit the ball on the left edge of the green and it's cutting, and you just it goes behind that mound and you're just waiting for it to come into the window to that right pin, and if it doesn't come, then you know, you got a really tough two putt. But if it does, then all of a sudden you're looking at Birdie on what's a very long, difficult part for.

Speaker 3

Yeah, Yeah, for sure, it's a great hole, but we're mentioning the other ones. You know, in general, the eighteenth holes that at abandoned Dunes are not up to the level of the rest of them.

Speaker 2

Honorable mention.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's the that's the difficulty. I think.

Speaker 2

I go trails trails, Yeah.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I don't know. You know, the drives kind of end up in similar spots. I guess it's great ground. It's really great ground.

Speaker 1

Eighteen packed Dunes is on great ground. I'm not a big huge fan of the green.

Speaker 4

I think we were talking about it earlier. I think if that bunker on the left off the tee at pac Dunes was more carriable and you got like a distinct advantage, that would make it a really cool Part five.

Speaker 3

Is sheep ranch? Should you know?

Speaker 1

No?

Speaker 3

Decent? You don't. You don't like it's a part four five? Yeah, I mean, is that the main problem with it?

Speaker 2

It's a cool hole.

Speaker 1

I feel like there's a big advantage for going up the left there. I think that's a neat hole. The greens really interesting.

Speaker 3

So this is these are not really honorable mentions.

Speaker 4

They are mentions there, so they're mentioned dishonorable mentions.

Speaker 3

We're mentioning we're mentioning the eighteenth of Sheep Ranch. Yeah, okay, eighteenth eighteenth the trails I can be convinced of that. We have mostly just to complete the dream eighteen, which we've just done.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's over.

Speaker 1

I think one thing I wanted to talk about just in general, that I should have talked about at the top. The green speeds abandoned dunes are delightful. They are not fast, they're the right speed. I saw pins in places that I hadn't seen them like all year because the speeds were right, Like on slopes that I had never seen. You know, I had putch just ripping across holes that made putting really really difficult. The green speeds at bandoned dunes is what every club should be striving for.

Speaker 2

Yeah, all right, Well they'll wrap it up.

Speaker 1

We'll be back with we'll have debriefs on every course in the coming weeks. And it's been just a delightful week here, really fun.

Speaker 2

Today's podcast was edited by Meg Atkins. Thank you Meg.

Speaker 1

This was probably a heavier lift than normal because we babbled for a long time about these golf holes. As a quick reminder, the FRIDAYGG Shop is having a Black Friday Sale. Today is the last day of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Today's Tuesday. Today's the last day. It's automatic twenty percent off, So if you're still here and you want to get something, We've got a great selection of prints, We've got a lot of merchandise in the shop. It's

pro shop dot Thefrida Egg dot com. This is a great way to support us and also give somebody a great gift.

Speaker 2

We have we have sixty courses up in the.

Speaker 1

Pro shop, so check it out at proshop dot, Thefrida Egg dot com.

Speaker 2

It's twenty percent off today. Tuesday after that is full price, but it's still a good deal.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and we will be back later this week with a fresh episode of Frida Egg Stories.

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android