World Photo by John Gunther - Bradley Klein, one of the consultants for Old Macdonald, watches his putt role toward the hole on the first green during a round last week.

One hundred years ago, Charles Blair Macdonald opened a golf course that he hoped would introduce America to the best that golf had to offer.

Macdonald, who learned golf course architecture at St. Andrews in Scotland, the birthplace of the game, brought back ideas from many of the great European courses and put them to use at the National Golf Links in Southampton, N.Y.

A century later, a course that pays homage to Macdonald’s vision and ideals opens next week on Oregon’s South Coast.

Old Macdonald, the fourth course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, makes its official debut Tuesday.

Early reviews suggest that course architects Tom Doak and Jim Urbina, working with a consulting group of experts, have hit a figurative hole-in-one.

‘This is Scotland,” said Gary Morrow, who has played enough golf courses to know what he’s talking about. ‘You’ve got the gorse. It’s in bloom. It’s just gorgeous.”

Morrow was at Bandon Dunes recently for the Old Macdonald Cup, a tournament that brought together players from eight of the courses built by C.B. Macdonald.

Each of the courses — National Golf Links, Piping Rock, Sleepy Hollow and The Creek Club in New York; Chicago Golf Club; St. Louis Country Club; The Course at Yale; and Mid-Ocean Club in Bermuda — was invited to send eight members. Most sent many more, with the players eager to see a layout that has been touted by some as having the most anticipated opening of any course in years.

‘It’s a great golf course,” said Jim Rogers, who captained the Yale team. ‘The greens are spectacular. The greens are the most distinctive feature, but the landscape is amazing. It’s so similar to Ireland.

‘I absolutely loved it.”

Morrow, a member at St. Louis Country Club, had the same reaction.

‘I did not play well, but that’s not the course’s fault,” he said after a wind-blown practice round.

Rogers was making his first visit to the resort. Morrow has been to Bandon Dunes several times and compares the resort favorably with the home of Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and several other renowned California courses.

‘In comparison to the Monterey Peninsula, in relation to pure golf, it’s its equal or even better,” he said.

Those are welcome words to Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser, who hopes to hear many similar comments Tuesday when he stands on the first tee, greeting each of the 240 golfers signed up to play Old Macdonald on opening day — just as he did for the opening of the other three courses.

Keiser was delighted with the response he got from the participants at the Old Macdonald Cup.

‘I’ve been actually shocked that people have such positive opinions about it,” he said. ‘My best case was (golfers would say), ‘I like it about like the other three, maybe it’s as good as Pacific Dunes.’ That’s what I hoped would be the result.”

What he heard overwhelmingly is that the course is fun to play.

Old Macdonald is unlike anything else at the resort, or in the United States.

The fairways and greens are huge, a trait shared by St. Andrews, and something Macdonald aimed for in his courses.

‘It’s wide. It’s big. It’s bold. That’s what we imitated,” Keiser said.

Keiser commissioned Doak and Urbina to build the course as Macdonald would have, if he had the same property. The owner added three consultants — Golfweek Magazine architecture editor Bradley Klein, longtime National Golf Links superintendent Karl Olson, and George Bahto, an architect who is a historian of the work of Macdonald and his protaga, Seth Raynor. Bahto wrote a biography on Macdonald titled ‘The Evangelist of Golf,” and also is working on a book on Raynor.

Doak and Urbina designed holes inspired by the great holes that Macdonald frequently imitated, including the Long Hole and Road Hole at St. Andrews, the Alps at Prestwick, Sahara at Royal St. George’s, the Short Hole at Royal West Norfolk and the most imitated hole in golf, the Redan at North Berwick.

‘Macdonald based the holes on similar strategies — all the best holes adopted to local terrain — that’s the secret,” Bahto said, adding that Doak and Urbina followed that mission perfectly.

‘I don’t think any of us would change anything,” Bahto said. ‘It’s exactly as we planned.

‘The ghost of Macdonald will be hanging around here like he does around National.”

When they were designing the course, Doak and Urbina relied on input from all three consultants, as well as Keiser. But Urbina said the key to the project was knowing that he and Doak were trying to use the same inspiration that Macdonald used, not to duplicate his holes.

‘Once that barrier was broken down, and Keiser’s willingness to let us go with the flow, was the reason it turned out as good as people think it has,” he said.

The architects took the land and Macdonald’s vision and ‘made it even bigger and bolder than Macdonald might have,” Urbina said.

The result is greens that are, on average, larger than those at St. Andrews, and fairways that are wide and varied. Every hole gives players multiple choices for how to attack the flag.

The players in the Macdonald Cup listed three holes as their favorites — No. 3 (Sahara), No. 7 (Ocean) and No. 16 (Alps).

The Sahara includes a dramatic drive over a dune ridge that features a dead oak snag. During the construction phase, Keiser, Urbina and Doak debated the future of the snag and another, which didn’t have the distinctive branches it has and ultimatey was removed.

‘They loved the tree,” Keiser said. ‘I thought it sort of got in the way of golf, but we left it because it was unique. We’re working on how to make it permanent.”

The Sahara was particularly popular for golfers from National Golf Links, who have their own version of the hole that includes a picturesque windmill.

‘At National, the iconic windmill is on the hole,” Keiser said. ‘Here it’s the tree.”

Ocean is an Old Macdonald original and the hole that takes golfers closest to the beach, with an immense green perched on a cliff and overlooking the water below.

Alps features a hill that blocks views of the green from players who don’t hit their drives far enough down the fairway. It’s Urbina’s favorite hole.

‘That was the first hole I ever saw when I went to Scotland for the first time at Prestwick,” he said. ‘It offers scale. It offers strategy. It offers a style of golf only known to a few people who played No. 17 at Prestwick or the third at National.”

Klein said golfers will find 18 great holes, built at a huge scale compared to most courses.

‘The greens are three times bigger than normal,” he said. ‘There’s a lot of flexibility. You have enormous variations.”

Part of what makes Old Macdonald special, though, is what most golfers won’t notice, he said.

‘The great thing about Tom and Jim, everything is deliberate here — nothing is a mistake or oversight,” Klein said.

In a video promoting the course, Doak said Old Macdonald is a fitting tribute to its namesake.

‘I think in the end, our mission statement here was really the same mission statement that C.B. Macdonald had 100 years ago, when he was building the National Golf Links — to take the best ideas of the best golf courses in Britain and Ireland and bring those back to the states and build a course where every hole had outstanding features to it, there were no weak or indifferent holes,” Doak said. ‘And I think Mike liked that from us, that we weren’t just going to build the safe version, but try to build a great version of those holes.”

Keiser had enough confidence in his architects to forge ahead with the project even when the economy was on a downslide.

‘I could have been very pessimistic about the economy and this remote place, and I was,” he said. ‘But because I was already into the construction, I thought I might as well finish it, even though it was imprudent to go ahead.

‘The worst case is that it will be the least popular course on the resort, but it will still be an homage to Macdonald.

‘It was for the betterment of golf. People will say, so this is what golf is. That was Macdonald’s goal. He wanted to introduce links courses to America. He failed because all of them are private courses.”

Bahto is glad Keiser didn’t delay construction.

‘Mike’s vision was really nice,” he said. ‘Every course that Macdonald and Raynor built was an elite course. Let’s build a public course so people can enjoy this architecture.”

That starts in earnest Tuesday.That starts in earnest Tuesday.

I didn’t need a good and/or lucky omen to know that the new course at Bandon Dunes was going to be special.

I’ve been following the plans for Old Macdonald since the announcement of the course in 2007. I learned about Charles Blair Macdonald, the classic architect the course is named for. I walked holes under construction with resort owner Mike Keiser and course architects Tom Doak and Jim Urbina. I had a chance to play the 10 preview holes last summer.

I knew Old Macdonald was going to be a hit long before I played it last week in preparation for our preview package.

Of course, it didn’t hurt my perception of the course at all when I birdied the first hole, hitting a drive down the center of the fairway and a wedge to 15 feet and then sinking the putt.

And I wasn’t upset when I took three putts on each of the next four holes. A lot of people will do that on the huge, undulating greens.

As the day wore on, and the clouds threatened — though they only spit a few sprinkles my way — I continued hitting the ball well. The three-putts added up, so did a few lost balls. But I managed pars on a trio of downwind par-4s and bogeys on a few others.

I may never shoot another round like I did last week. I made the turn in 46 and followed that with a 48. My 94 is easily the best score I’ve ever had on any of the resort’s courses.

I know I played well, because Old Macdonald has all the features to induce high scores.

To say that the greens are immense would be an understatement. I’ve said more than once that you could put a Wal-Mart on the eighth green. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but throw in the many slopes and other features of the greens three- and even four-putts will be plentiful.

The wind will wreak havoc on many shots, though I got lucky when I played and the breeze was out of the south instead of the typical prevailing north wind this time of year.

And the bunkers are many and varied — some blowouts, some carefully groomed and some steep enough that the designers used railroad ties to shore up the slope.

The bottom line is that Old Macdonald is a fun course.

It’s easy to find the fairway off the tee.

The huge greens are easier to hit.

And if you ever find yourself in Hell Bunker on No. 6 or the pot bunker on the Road Hole, remember that the game’s best players have faced the same shots at St. Andrews.

Early indications are that Old Macdonald will become the favorite course for visitors to the resort. I’m not ready to make that assessment.

I’ve always had a fond spot in my heart for Bandon Dunes, because it was the initial gamble by owner Mike Keiser that led to the rest of the development and put Bandon on the map for golfers throughout the United States.

I love the uniqueness of Bandon Trails, which has a very different feel from the others because it is away from the ocean. The meadow holes on a summer day remind me of working at Boy Scout camp in the Cascade Mountains for several summers two decades ago.

But my favorite always has been Pacific Dunes, which has a rugged, but beautiful nature. On a calm day, it might play easiest of the four courses because it’s shortest. On a windy day, it might be toughest because the fairways are narrower, which brings more gorse into play — witness my recent 122 on the course.

Like Old Macdonald, Pacific Dunes was designed by Doak, with Urbina serving as his field general, spending about 180 days over two winters working on the course.

Ken Brooke, the resort’s director of caddie services, told me recently that while Bandon Dunes feels like Scotland and Pacific Dunes feels like Ireland, Old Macdonald feels like St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf.

It’s big. It’s bold. And it’s fun.

And even if I never duplicate my score there, I’m going to have a blast trying.

‘The summer looks good for the whole resort,” said Hank Hickox, the general manager at Bandon Dunes.

The hype for the new course has led to strong reservations throughout the summer, with tee times filling up, though Hickox said, ‘We’ll always try to get people on.’”

The new course also has meant an increase in employment at the resort, back toward the peak levels of a few years ago.

‘Obviously, when you have another golf course, you have more holes,” Hickox said. ‘We have additional agronomy people. We’ve added a pro shop team. We have additional shuttle drivers.”

The resort also has needed to add staff for guest services and additional caddies.

‘It’s a significant number of people,” Hickox said.

The resort’s overall employment has increased to about 450 full- and part-time employees. That’s not counting the 250 or so additional caddies who work at Bandon Dunes.

The increased resort activity is welcome news to Mike Keiser, who owns the resort.

‘After a dismal ’09 — 2010, because of Old Macdonald, will be upticking quite significantly,” Keiser said.

‘It will be good for the area. The trickle down should be good.”

– John Gunther

Yardage: 440 yards (par 4)

Description: Two sets of fairway bunkers provide for a narrow driving area, which funnels like the top of a bottle. Golfers must choose to either play well left or navigate through the bunkers to the right. After that comes the challenging approach to the elevated green, which connects on the back side to the top of the green on No. 5 (for a total putting surface of about 20,000 square feet).

Inspiration: Sunningdale (Old) No. 12. Also: National Golf Links No. 8.

No. 11 Road

Yardage: 399 yards (par 4)

Description: The line of the fairway and green is almost identical to the famed Road Hole at St. Andrews, though it is visible at Old Macdonald, but blocked by a hotel at the orginal in Scotland. A drive on the right side, which requires a carry over a few bunkers and gorse, provides the best approach to the green. From the center or left side of the fairway, a pot bunker guards the green.

Inspiration: St. Andrews No. 17. Also: National Golf Links No. 7.

No. 12 Redan

Yardage: 205 yards (par 3)

Description: The most frequently imitated hole in the world is the 15th at North Berwick in Scotland. C.B. McDonald loved to use Redan greens, with the distinctive feature being the green that slopes away from the tee box, angling from the front right to the back left. The nature of the green makes it difficult to hit and hold, though a fade can be effective. This is the only par 3 on the back nine.

Inspiration: North Berwick No. 15. Also: National Golf Links No. 4.

No. 13 Leven

Yardage: 319 (par 4)

Description: One of C.B. Macdonald’s favorite short par-4 holes was at the original Leven Golf Club, but now is part of the Lundin Links in Scotland. When the wind is calm, long hitters might be able to drive the green, but the best drive is to the right side of the fairway and short because the green slopes sharply down from a hill on the left and the safest play is to hit the approach shot back up into the slope.

Inspiration: Lundin Links No. 16. National Golf Links No. 17.

No. 14 Maiden

Yardage: 297 yards (par 4)

Description: This is another Old Macdonald originial and another short par 4, but it plays uphill to an elevated green. The hole is named after the famed Maiden hole at Royal St. George’s, a par-3 played over the largest dune on any of the courses in the regular British Open rotation. Two large dunes with islands of beach grass are left of the fairway, while the smart approach is from farther right, giving the best view of the green.

Inspiration: None.

No. 15 Westward Ho!

Yardage: 482 yards (par 5)

Description: The long hole brings golfers back toward the beach for a final time. The key shot is the second, which must either get over a deep bunker or be played short and left on the contoured fairway. A longer third shot is even more difficult because it comes to an elevated green that has two distinct tiers. A putt from the wrong level can be very difficult. The green isn’t close to the cliff like No. 7, but does include a good view of the rocks on the beach to the north.

Inspiration: National Golf Links No. 18

No. 16 Alps

Yardage: 433 yards (par 4)

Description: The distinguishing feature is a hill that blocks the green from the tee and all but the longest drives down the right side of the fairway. The original Alps hole at Prestwick has a blind approach shot over the dune. But at National Golf Links and Old Macdonald, the right side of the green is visible for long hitters. Two bunkers guard the green, on the right front and directly behind the hill.

Inspiration: Prestwick No. 17. Also: National Golf Links No. 3.

No. 17 Littlestone

Yardage: 515 yards (par 5)

Description: C.B. Macdonald drew inspiration for this hole from the 16th hole at Littlestone in England, a long par-4, but built his as a par-5 at Lido, a course on Long Island that closed during the Great Depression. Golfers can play safe by hitting their drive to the left and making this a three-shot par-5. Long hitters can try to carry a wetland with their drive and reach the green in two.

Inspiration: Littlestone No. 16. Also: Lido No. 4.

No. 18 Punchbowl

Yardage: 426 yards (par 4)

Description: A common Scottish links theme is greens hidden in natural bowls between dunes. C.B. Macdonald also used this concept, with greens surrounded by small hills. The closing hole at Old Macdonald is like that, with gaps between the hills that allow golfers to run the ball up and to a green that slopes greatly from left to right. Like the 17th, the hole plays downwind during the summer.

Inspiration: Chicago Golf Club No. 12. Also: The Creek No. 6.

Photo by Benjamin Brayfield - Golfers can see most of the course from the 15th green. (inset) It isn't uncommon to find some of the local whitetail deer browsing the course.

By John Gunther

BANDON — Excitement has been building at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort for more than three years. This spring, it’s reaching a crescendo.

The resort, already renowned as one of America’s top golf destinations, will open its fourth 18-hole golf course in June. All indications are that Old Macdonald, a tribute to the legendary American golf course architect Charles Blair Macdonald, will be the best of the Bandon Dunes bunch.

‘I don’t think there’s been more excitement about a golf course opening maybe ever, certainly in the last decade,” said Hank Hickox, the resort’s general manager.

The resort’s first three courses — Bandon Dunes (1999), Pacific Dunes (2001) and Bandon Trails (2005) — all have received rave reviews from multiple golf publications over the past decade.

Most recently, Golfweek Magazine ranked Pacific Dunes at No. 2, Bandon Dunes at No. 4 and Bandon Trails at No. 28 among modern courses. (‘Modern” means anything built after 1950.) The magazine also ranked them Oregon’s top three public courses.

‘The Golfweek rankings were pretty cool,” Hickox said.

Photo by Benjamin Brayfield - The fourth fairway is framed by a large dune.

The staff at Bandon Dunes takes the critical acclaim as a challenge to continue providing outstanding service to the customers, Hickox said.

‘You’ve got to earn it every day,” Hickox said. ‘We’ll do everything to meet the expectations that go up every time these come out.”

The resort staff will have plenty of opportunities to impress guests this summer. With the opening of Old Macdonald, reservations have been brisk, especially considering the economy, Hickox said. The guests coming from outside the area often are planning to stay for up to three nights.

The golfers who make the trek to Old Macdonald will find a course that is receiving high praise even before it opens.

When Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser approved the project, he asked Tom Doak and Jim Urbina, who had partnered on the design of Pacific Dunes, to build the course as C.B. Macdonald might have designed it. Macdonald, who died in 1939, was known for taking ideas from many of the great courses in Europe and putting them to use on the courses he built.

Photo by Benjamin Brayfield - Workers groom the bunkers on the 14th hole.

Doak and Urbina worked with input from a three-person committee that included Macdonald historian George Bahto. They built a number of the holes with inspiration from great courses around the world, including the famed St. Andrews in Scotland.

Like the other courses at Bandon Dunes, Old Macdonald is a links-style layout. It favors low running shots in the wind and requires golfers to put thought into how they will play each hole.

‘There’s an unrestricted feel out there,” said Ken Nice, the superintendent for Old Macdonald. ‘You have freedom to golf the holes at various attack angles.

‘From a strategic standpoint, so many of the holes are inspired by the greatest strategic holes in the world.”

Ken Brooke, the director of caddie services at Bandon Dunes, has had the privilege of playing many of the world’s best courses. He said Old Macdonald compares favorably with the great links courses of the United Kingdom.

‘It feels to me like Scotland,” Brooke said. ‘Bandon (Dunes) and Pacific (Dunes) are like Scotland and Ireland, but Old Mac feels more that way.

‘As much as everything else here is not like anything else in the U.S., Old Macdonald is one step further than that in terms of being incredibly unique.”

The fairways are generous and many of the greens are huge. The bunkers are varied and in strategic locations.

The best golfers will be challenged by the course, Brooke said, adding that average golfers should enjoy themselves.

‘The mid- to high-handicapper is going to have a good day,” he said. ‘They’re going to hit greens. They’re not going to lose balls. They’re going to have a lot of putts, but they’re going to feel good.”

The reports from caddies who carried bags for golfers playing the 10-hole preview rounds at Old Macdonald last summer were favorable, Brooke said.

Jon Dodson, co-owner of Bandon Golf Supply, the area’s largest golf retailer, said people visiting the store can’t wait for the new course to open.

‘Everybody that we know that’s played it believes it is going to be the premier course out there,” Dodson said. ‘From what we understand, if it doesn’t win every major accolade for a public golf course in America, we don’t know what would.”

C.B. Macdonald’s best-known golf course in the United States, The National Golf Links, opened in 1910. Old Macdonald comes a century later, on June 1.

It’s a day that has been highly anticipated since Keiser announced the course more than three-and-a-half years ago.

‘The buzz has already started,” Nice said. ‘Everybody at the resort, all the way up to the management company and our owner, want to share it with people.”

Photo by Steve McCassland - Dense temperate rain forest canopies creates a soft trail of fir needles and moss to hike on. This trail leads to Chrome Lake.

By Amy Moss Strong

Bandon Dunes isn’t just for tourists, and it isn’t just about golf.

‘Our biggest challenge is making sure everyone understands this is a public facility,” said Assistant General Manager Michael Carbiener. ‘We invite people to come out and explore.”

Non-golfers can find plenty to do on the resort’s expansive acreage.

‘We have a lookout with panoramic views of the resort and miles of trails that include paths through old growth, beach trails and all kinds of transitions with views of the courses,” Carbiener said.

The resort’s newest addition is the Labyrinth, built as a tribute to Howard McKee. A land use and urban design expert, McKee was one of Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser’s most trusted advisers in designing and developing the resort. McKee died in 2007 after a long battle with cancer.

The Labyrinth, located behind the Chrome Lake units, is designed as an area of contemplation and reflection.

‘It’s very spiritual,” Carbiener said.

Photo by Steve McCassland - The Labyrinth is a tribute to Howard McKee. Park at the main lodge and take the path to Chrome Lake for a contemplative visit.

To get to the Labyrinth, park at the resort’s main area near the lodge. Then follow the path to the Chrome Lake units for about a quarter-mile.

Guests and the public also are welcome at all seven of Bandon Dunes’ diverse restaurants, where choices range from elegant to casual. In the lodge, The Gallery restaurant offers fine Pacific Northwest cuisine. Next door is the Tufted Puffin Lounge, serving a full menu and drinks.

Downstairs, the Bunker Bar offers a light menu to complement a game of pool. It’s also one of Oregon’s few certified cigar bars.

Immediately north of the lodge is McKee’s Pub. Its Scottish-style setting is a suitable venue for traditional pub fare, local microbrews and classic single-malt scotches.

Trails End at the Bandon Trails clubhouse offers casual dining. The Pacific Grill in the new Pacific Dunes clubhouse is a casual spot for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with stunning views of golf and the ocean. Also in the clubhouse is a new library lounge with high-definition TV.

Shopping options include four retail outlets. The Pavilion, which also serves as the Bandon Dunes pro shop; the Lodge shop in the main lodge, which includes Brighton jewelry, handbags and women’s accessories; and shops at the Bandon Trails clubhouse and the Pacific Dunes clubhouse.

Photo by Steve McCassland - Dining outside is an option at some of the seven dining locations.

For golfers who don’t want to play an entire 18 holes, the practice facility is open to the public for a minimal day-use fee of $10. That includes all-day access to Shorty’s, a 9-hole, par 3 course. Day-use passes are available at the Bandon Dunes pro shop.

For free maps of the trails system and more information about the resort, call 541-347-4380, or visit the Web site at www.bandondunesgolf.com.

‘We want everyone to feel welcome here,” Carbiener said.

BANDON — Ken Nice has been at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort since it opened. The current resort greens superintendent arrived during the tail end of construction on Bandon Dunes and has been directly involved in the grass growing portion of development for Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails and, now, Old Macdonald.

He’s got some authority when he says Old Macdonald might be the best example of links golf on the resort, and perhaps in the United States.

“Of the four, it is the closest thing to St. Andrews and a true links golf experience,” Nice said of the resort’s courses. “It’s probably as close to a true links golf course that you can find in the U.S.”

Nice said the combination of the terrain and the contouring around the greens link Old Macdonald to the oldest courses in Scotland.

“It has big open spaces, but you still have to plot your line of attack accordingly,” Nice said.

The course, which was built by Tom Doak and Jim Urbina as a tribute to Charles Blair Macdonald, often referred to as the father of golf in America, will open to the public next June. But resort visitors have been able to play the first 10 holes that were built this summer in preview rounds.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“People are thrilled,” Nice said, echoing thoughts of others around the resort. “That’s what you want to hear.”

Nice said Doak and Urbina have done a masterful job following the plan to build a course as Macdonald might have done if he had the same piece of property.

“The template holes were inspired by C.B. Macdonald, and all his holes were inspired by the best links courses in the United Kingdom,” Nice said.

What golfers are finding at Old Macdonald are often large, wide-open fairways, with many bunkers and monstrous greens. Several of those greens have great contours.

“There’s a lot of big contouring, but a lot of big square footage, too,” Nice said. “You’re talking about half an acre on some of those greens.

“There are, within those greens, a lot of flat areas. They’re still quite fair. You just have to pick the right club and get to the right areas.”

The biggest of the greens, on what eventually will be No. 8, measures about 20,000 square feet with a huge swale in the middle of it. For comparison, the previous largest green at the resort, the monstrous 17th at Bandon Dunes, measures about 13,000 square feet, Nice said.

“No. 8 can be the difference between a wedge and a 4-iron,” Nice said of tee shots depending on the location of the pin. “It’s pretty dramatic with club selection.”

The 10 holes now open include tributes to a number of classic courses and architects, as well as two originals by Doak and Urbina, both uphill par 4s. The first of those, No. 7, is one of two greens overlooking the beach and ocean — the only two to come near the bluff.

The first 10 holes were planted early in 2008. The final eight were seeded earlier this year.

Nice is pleased with the growth of all 18.

“The 10 holes are really starting to play good,” he said. “The final eight holes are on pace to be in really great shape before opening day.”

The 10 preview holes come with a total yardage ranging from 3,152 to 3,853 yards. The final yardage will be up to 7,100 yards from the tips.

The preview round rate is $110 and golfers also are required to take a caddie, which is $50 plus a tip.

BANDON — When Bandon Crossings opened south of town two summers ago, owners Carla and Rex Smith hoped it would be a nice alternative to the famed Bandon Dunes Golf Resort to the north.

The course has more than lived up to that goal, earning praise as one of the best new golf facilities in the state.

Drawn to the scenic setting and quality design, golfers have visited — and often revisited — Bandon Crossings, to the delight of head pro Chris Young.

“People love it,” Young said. “It’s a great layout and a great complement to Bandon Dunes.”

One of the big draws for Bandon Crossings is that carts are available for golfers, while Bandon Dunes is strictly a walking facility. Another draw is a cheaper price tag for a round of golf.

“It’s nice to come down here, hop in a golf cart and pay a third of the price to still play a great golf course,” he said.

Bandon Crossings also sees a lot of golfers who stop in while passing by on U.S. Highway 101 and has become a favorite for many area residents — nearly 75 bought yearly passes when they first were offered this year.

“In the winter months, a lot of people like to travel from Washington or the Willamette Valley because the course drains so well,” Young said. “The playability of the course is so good in the winter.”

Drainage isn’t a concern this time of the year, when the green fairways stand out among the taller grasses that separate the holes. The opening and closing holes play out in the area of a former sheep ranch, while the middle holes are in a more forested setting.

Bandon Crossings was the first course fully designed by Dan Hixson, and he did a great job working with the land that was available, Young said.

“It’s a fun course to play,” he said.

The course offers four sets of tees, ranging from 6,855 yards to 5,030. No matter the length, golfers will find a challenge from more than 60 bunkers, as well as greens that can provide tough slopes, but also are consistently pure.

“We have some of the best greens in Oregon,” Young said, crediting course superintendent Brant Hathorn and his staff. “The maintenance crew — they’ve done such a great job here.”

The course’s slogan is 18 unique experiences, referring to holes that are visually very different. The most dramatic, in terms of terrain, are the fifth and 14th holes, which both end on greens in the valley that separates the two parts of the course.

The fifth is a par 5 that measures just over 500 yards from the blue tees. But to reach the green in two, players must have a big drive and then get their second shot to carry a hillside of shrubs as it descends to the green.

After eight holes in the forest, the 14th is a downhill par 3 back into the valley, the green protected by a pond.

Hills come into play on several other holes, including the par-4 10th, which includes a blind second shot to a green protected on three sides by sand traps.

Hixson designed several holes with dramatic doglegs, and others with either sloped greens or liberal bunkers and small bumps surrounding the putting surfaces. Some holes require shots that cross either a creek or a wetland area.

The entire course is set far enough back from Highway 101 that there is little noise from traffic, and the area has become a haven for various wildlife. More important to Young, though, it has become a haven for golfers.

“We get a lot of return customers,” Young said. “That’s always a good thing.”

And though the course doesn’t have the reputation of its famous neighbor resort 10 miles to the north, it also is getting some recognition.

Golf Magazine ranked it among the top 10 best new courses in the United States in 2007 and Golfweek ranked it seventh among Oregon’s courses in 2008.

“Things are going great,” Young said.