| Photo by Wood Sabold |
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Bandon Dunes' 16th hole draws raves and razzes
for its unconventional design.
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The 16th hole at Bandon Dunes Resort’s namesake course was the most controversial during the construction phase and it continues to be a lightning rod for debate for those on a Bandon Dunes golf vacation.
Set along beach-side cliffs, this 363-yard par four requires a heroic drive across a deep, gorse-filled chasm to a fairway that is split transversely into upper and lower levels by a grassy dune.
When the wind is swirling, landing the ball in the preferred upper portion can seem more like a stroke of luck than skill, but the hole, whose green seems to perch on the edge of space and time, could hardly be more beautiful or dramatic. Love it or hate it, you certainly won’t forget it.
Course architect David McLay Kidd admits that he took the hole in an entirely different direction from what he and owner Mike Keiser had originally discussed. But what could have cost him his job proved to be one of the defining moments in the course’s creation.
“It gave me the confidence to push design ideas; to go with my instincts and not the convention of what’s fair and unfair," he says. "A lot of that has been dreamed up in the last two or three generations and it’s often the ruination of good design.”
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