Sheep Ranch Progress Update: Routing & Approximate Yardages
Sheep Ranch treasure map. We hope you find gold! 🙂
Sheep Ranch treasure map. We hope you find gold! 🙂
The agronomy team is working up the fairway on #SheepRanch No. 1, one of the last holes to be seeded. #StaffPic by Sheep Ranch Assistant Superintendent Eric Langford. #SheepWeek
Productive Friday in the books! Hydroseed train is rolling up No. 1 fairway! #links #golf #SheepRanch #greenkeeping pic.twitter.com/egc1z2yKRL
— Eric Langford, Assistant Superintendent at Sheep Ranch (@EricTLangford) October 4, 2019
Sheep Ranch No. 1
Sheep Ranch No. 3
Sheep Ranch No. 16
All of the phases of golf course construction and agronomy are on full display at the Sheep Ranch this summer. As Coore & Crenshaw and the rest of the Sheep Ranch team continue to work their way north, we’ve started to see pure golf links land emerge. Starting in the furthest southwest corner of the property, holes 6-10 were the first to be shaped, irrigated and seeded. Similar to how a painter avoids painting themselves into a corner, the team has since been working north up the western ridge overlooking the Pacific and are now working their way east. Prime growing conditions are providing great progress with multiple green sites and tees now settling in for the upcoming season.
Below is a quick tease of every green with grass growing. It may be tough to imagine yourself amongst the dunes, watching the waves crash against the rocks as you take on Bandon’s 5th 18-hole course, but with each sunny day that passes we get closer to playing the Sheep Ranch. Stay tuned for more progress updates, the routing, opening date announcement and more! Remember to give a big round of applause to the agronomy team as they have been working hard to bring you pure, unbridled links golf.
See you out on the links!
The first of two approaches toward Five Mile Point, Sheep Ranch No. 3, is the first Par-3 on the front nine, providing an early glimpse of the double green. The prevailing summer wind will be coming off your right shoulder from the north.
Recently seeded, Sheep Ranch No. 4 is a Par-4 that moves southeast away from the ocean through many diverse undulations. The location of the green is sure to be a social space where the adjacent greens of Nos. 10 & 14 are located as well as the 5th, 11th, and 15th tees. This gathering point on the course will also be the home to the course’s turnstand.
The next peninsula just south of 5 Mile Point, is home to both the 5th green and 6th tee. Sheep Ranch No. 5 is a Par-3 that runs directly west making for a challenging crosswind when playing your tee shot.
Sheep Ranch No. 6 is a strong par-4 with its fairway running south along the coast, forcing you to determine the best line of flight for your game. The summer wind from the north could push your ball a little further right toward the ocean, so be sure to choose a good target!
No. 7, a short Par-3, playing directly south was featured in our No 7: A Meditation post and will contend for one of the best views on property.
The Par-4, No. 8, is a slight dogleg right that has more room in the fairway than it appears from the tee. The green is turtle-backed and possesses some great hole locations that will challenge even the best links golfers.
No. 9 on the Sheep Ranch is the most southern Par-4 on the property, backing up to the adjacent Whiskey Run Road as well as Old Macdonald in the distance. Playing directly west, the summer winds will help tee shots and approaches work from right to left along the natural terrain of this beautiful hole.
Playing directly north into the prevailing summer breeze, the 10th hole is a short Par-4 with teeth that finishes up in the central section of the course. Also, as stated above it will be located adjacent to the 4th and 14th greens as well as the 5th, 11th and 15th tees.
No. 14 a Par-4 playing south has an elevated green with a steep false edge on the left. Off the tee, it will be essential in finding the right angle into the green to be able to attack the proper hole location. This hole completes the triangle of greens that surround the turnstand.
Recently seeded, the 15th hole is a slight dog-leg right Par-4 that heads directly west and begins a three-hole stretch of links golf beauty right on the bluffs overlooking the mighty Pacific Ocean.
It’s hard to look at Sheep Ranch No. 16, a dynamic Par-3 heading north, and not think about the amount of fun this double green complex contains. Overlooking a beautiful rock formation to the west in the Pacific Ocean, this hole is sure to get your blood boiling, challenging your focus on the shot at hand as well as taking in the beautiful scenery.
It was a conundrum: what to do with a beautiful piece of property that couldn’t be incorporated into Bandon Trails, but seemed simply too remarkable to be left untouched. After all, the property had been considered as part of Bandon Trails, but the challenging nature of its plunging landscape and choppy dunes made it difficult to incorporate into a design. But changing trends at Bandon—and the desire of visitors to play more golf without the challenge of walking 36 holes on a traditional course—led founder Mike Keiser to an epiphany: Why not build a short course?
“I remember when Mike called and said he was really serious about building a short course,” says Bill Coore, who designed Bandon Trails with his partner Ben Crenshaw. “He’d seen the trends and, being intuitive, he’d perceived a short course would have some appeal. He told me we both knew where it should go.”
That spot was a triangular piece of land the pair found particularly appealing. Coore thought he might be able to incorporate it into Bandon Trails, but abandoned the idea when he recognized too much earth-moving would be involved.
“The site itself just sat there,” Keiser says. “It plunges towards the ocean, and it was too much of a climb to go back down and come up. But Bill thought you could build some great par threes there. He planted the idea.” That concept meshed with Keiser’s assessment of the market. “We are getting older, and there are a lot of people without the ability to play 36 holes in a day, but want to do something,” he says. “So that led me to think about trying a par-three course because you could play it in two hours—and if no one is in front of you, even less.
The objective of the design was simple—Keiser wanted Coore and Crenshaw to create a short course where length was not the object. In fact, Keiser said he'd prefer the holes being kept relatively short. But there was a catch—every hole had to be able to be lifted onto one of the full-length courses at Bandon and hold its own.
“I asked Mike how many holes he wanted,” Coore says. “He said he didn’t know—just not nine or 18. He wanted it to be fun, and Mike said he didn’t care how short the holes were, but he wasn’t enamoured with long holes. He wanted a quality that if you picked up one of the holes and put it on the big course, it would fit. I thought, ‘Is that all you want?’”
The result is a course where every one of the 13 holes is unique and set on some of the most vibrant, visually stunning property in all of Bandon Dunes.
“Am I surprised it has caught on with golfers? Not at all,” says Coore. “The key was when Mike set the goals. He just wanted quality golf holes you’d be thrilled to play. That set the bar that it would be extremely interesting golf on a smaller scale. That’s exactly what it is.”
Once it was recognized that Bandon Preserve would be one of those special courses that resonated with the public, Keiser began considering what he might do with the profits. Thus the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance was born. The simple idea was to create something that could promote conservation, a concept that is important to the Keiser family.
“There are people who scratch their heads and wonder why we’re giving money away,” Keiser says. “But if you are doing conservation with strong community support, there are no politics. Everyone is in favour.” Keiser recounts something he read from legendary industrialist Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest Americans in the late 19th century.
“Carnegie said, ‘There are three things you can do with your money,’” Keiser recalls. “‘Leave it with your kids, and they will squander it. You can leave it to other people, and they’ll squander it too. Or you can give it away yourself and live to see the results.’”
WRCA has extended its support to numerous causes in its eight-year history, but one of the most notable is surely The Washed Ashore Project.
Washed Ashore was created by Bandon artist and educator Angela Haseltine Pozzi (pictured left with Cosmo the Puffin) in the same year as WRCA. Pozzi saw the amount of plastic being washed ashore on the Pacific beaches and determined she could create art out of the garbage that would open people’s eyes to the damage of marine debris.
“Washed Ashore was one of the first organizations to come to us,” says Seeley.
Through Pozzi’s direction, a global audience has learned the story of the damage wrought on the ocean through powerful artistic sculptures. “Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea,” was the first art exhibit at the Smithsonian National Zoo, where 17 sculptures were displayed in 2016, sponsored by both Bandon Dunes and WRCA.
“It was the idea of an artist who wanted to clean plastic out of the ocean,” says Seeley. “It has gone from this little idea in Bandon to being at the United Nations, The Smithsonian, and The Shedd Aquarium and is now becoming internationally famous. It is an example of what can be done together.”
It was a bold decision, and designer Bill Coore remembers it well.
“We were walking on the site that would become Bandon Preserve and Mike said, ‘I think we’ll give the proceeds from this project away,’” says Coore. “I remember thinking, ‘That’s going to be quite something.’”
It was a benevolent gesture Keiser would complete, creating the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance (WRCA) with the proceeds from Bandon Preserve. Working in partnership with local groups, to date around $4-million has been put to work on triple bottom line causes in Bandon and the surrounding area that are beneficial to the environment, the economy, and that have strong support from the community. WRCA has crafted partnerships to support restoration of salmon habitat, fought against the challenges of the gorse that is ever-present in the area, and worked on an innovative conservation project in the Coquille River basin to increase the productivity of agricultural lands. All of this and more from the proceeds of one par-three golf course. In addition to those grant funds, Bandon Dunes also picks up the operating expenses relating to WRCA.
“We meet people with great ideas that don’t have the resources to put those ideas into play,” says WRCA Executive Director Jim Seeley. “The goal is for the betterment of the entire south coast. We’re a small region with a small population and we can really make a difference in the area.”
Based on a three-pronged approach—to undertake projects that have strong community support, are environmentally positive, and economically sustainable—Seeley feels the WRCA is just getting started. “Our goal is to help put good thinking to work to make a difference,” he says. “It is about bringing funding to the table when it is needed.”
An initial thought. That is how Bill Coore describes his hand-drawn sketches of potential hole designs at the Sheep Ranch. While the illustration above and others to follow aren’t necessarily how the holes at the Sheep Ranch will be polished up, it is these initial thoughts that lay the foundation for his team’s artistry to evolve. And evolution is all about creative freedom. As Coore has described to his associates in the field, “feel absolutely free to deviate from the design at any point you think you see something better.”
How do you think the initial thought sketched on the back of a Bandon Dunes notepad evolved into the hole you’ll soon play? Check the video below for how Hole No. 7 has been shaping up from initial thought to a sandy construction site, to the beautiful par-3 with fescue covering it today.
In Charles Schwab’s golf series “The Challengers,” Bill Coore speaks about his process as a designer and features his initial sketch in this post. Click the image below to watch the director’s cut at SchwabGolf.com!
Planning a trip to Bandon Dunes for the first time can be overwhelming. Our reservations team are experts and always available to help answer any questions you might have, but crawling into the mind of someone who has experienced the process from the guest perspective gives us all an insider's look at what you might be wondering. With that, Matt Saternus from Plugged In Golf offered to help shine a light on that moment you've booked a trip and started the countdown to arrival. This is the first in a series of shared guests and media friends posts so let us know if you'd like to read more of them in the comments section below!
AUTHORED BY MATT SATERNUS
You've finally done it: you've booked your trip to Bandon Dunes. After weeks (or months or years) of thinking about it, and hours poring over all the combinations of traveling partners, lodging options, and golf, you've locked down your plans. You know how you're getting there. You know where you're staying. You know what courses you're playing and in what order. And now you feel... deflated.
The same thing happened to me. I'd thought about Bandon Dunes for years and when I finally got the trip booked, I was initially excited but then let down. The trip was so far away. What was I going to do for the next six months?
Thankfully I was able to put together a plan that allowed me to enjoy the run up to my trip almost as much as I enjoyed the trip itself. Follow these steps and you'll arrive at Bandon Dunes prepared and exhilarated.
Pace Yourself
If you've just booked your trip, you're going to want to rip through all these suggestions in the next week. Don't. Allow yourself one or two activities each week. Take your time to enjoy each one, and soak it in the way you will each day on the links.
Your Media Diet
There is no shortage of media about Bandon Dunes. From course reviews to podcasts to travelogues, virtually every golf outlet has done something on Bandon. I'd suggest taking a look at Plugged In Golf (naturally) and the podcasts that Talking Golf Getaways has done as a starting point.
Bandon Dunes also does a great job creating their own content. This blog is loaded with gems, and they also have Bandon Dunes Magazine which you can read online.
Finally, Dream Golf is an absolute must-read. You will gain a much greater appreciation of Bandon Dunes if you understand how it came to be and the difficulties that have been overcome. While Bandon is now one of the most revered destinations in golf, that wasn't always the case.
Mine Your Golfing Friends
As much as I enjoyed reading about Bandon, I liked listening to my friends talk about it even more. If you have golfing buddies who have made the journey in the past, ask them about it. Where did they stay? What did they eat? What course was their favorite? What were the most memorable holes or moments? Golf media is great, but I found that more personal connection drove my anticipation much more.
Preview the Courses
One of the things that I enjoyed most in the run-up to my trip was learning about each course. I ordered the yardage books and spent hours on the Bandon Dunes website looking at the flyovers. The technology Bandon uses to show you their courses is unparalleled, and you should definitely take advantage of it.
All that said, you need to realize that all this planning will not prepare you for the real thing. The scale, elevation, and, most importantly, wind, cannot be captured in drawings, descriptions, or video. Enjoy learning about each hole, but don't think you know the course until you play it.
Lock Down the Logistics
You won't want to deal with logistics in the middle of a golf trip, and you certainly don't want your journey derailed by a travel snafu. Take advantage of your long lead time to make sure every detail is locked down.
A few things to consider:
Do you have a plan to get from the airport to the resort?
Are you shipping your clubs in advance?
Have you put together a packing list? (Click HERE for a few things to consider)
If you have a big group, have you made a dinner reservation?
Prepare Your Game
With very few exceptions, playing golf at Bandon Dunes is going to be 180 degrees from your normal rounds at home. Use the time to prepare your game for the challenge of heavy, sustained wind and firm, fast turf.
You'll be able to putt from almost anywhere, so skip the flop shots and work on lagging 50, 80, or 100-foot putts close to the hole. Also, practice hitting iron shots at less than 100%. Rather than hitting an 8I from 150 yards, hit a 7I or 6I. This shot will hold up much better in the wind.
You can also think about gearing up your equipment for the links. Are there clubs you can leave home (all the courses are walking only)? Do you have an old long iron that could be useful in the wind? Make sure that you're bringing only the clubs that you're confident in because the wind will have no mercy on shots hit without integrity.
Get more tips from Bandon Dunes' Director of Instruction, Grant Rogers, HERE.
Share the Experience
If you're traveling with friends (and I hope you are), share your preparation with them. Set up a monthly dinner where you can compare notes and discuss your plans. Make Dream Golf a must-read and discuss it over beers. Start a group email or text where you can pass around the best articles you've read about Bandon. Talk trash about how many balls Joey is going to hit into the Pacific on #16 at Bandon Dunes. As much as anything, Bandon Dunes offers an opportunity to spend time with the people you care about. There's no reason to limit that to the few days you spend in Oregon.
Start practicing your short game, we now have grass on the south end of the #SheepRanch!
Check out these images from last week’s drone flight.
Teamwork at its finest! Seeding has begun on the south end of the Sheep Ranch.
Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks/months!
More than 15 years in the making, the Sheep Ranch is excited to announce it will be opening to the golfing public in 2020.
Co-founded by Phil Friedmann and Mike Keiser, the Sheep Ranch has for many years been a mysterious golf landscape on the ocean just north of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. Originally designed by Tom Doak in 2001 while he worked on Pacific Dunes, the property featured 13 greens without a set routing, allowing golfers to choose the next green after each hole. The concept was long thought of as a fun placeholder and will finally be renovated for full public use as a complete 18-hole course complimenting the adjacent Bandon Dunes Resort.
"It has been wonderful to have this incredibly special golf experience for so many years but now is the time to share this truly magical place with lovers of the game," stated Friedmann. "The tradition of golf as it was meant to be will continue. It will blow your mind."
Hired to design the 18-hole layout was the trusted world-class team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Bill and Ben have a long history of working with Keiser dating back to 2005 at Bandon Trails, Bandon Preserve (2012), Cabot Cliffs (2016), Sand Valley (2017), and The Sandbox, the latest par-3 design at Sand Valley Resort in 2018. What is it that keeps Mike coming back to them?
"They are great listeners," said Keiser. "Their design of the Sheep Ranch is truly brilliant."
"Coore and Crenshaw solved the riddle of the perfect routing. There are nine greens that will be perched atop the cliffs along the Pacific coastline and all 18-holes have stunning ocean views," shared Friedmann.
A Par-71, 7000-yard layout with over a mile of ocean frontage will meld the perfect balance of stunning views, playability, and links golf challenges.
"We are incredibly honored to have been chosen for this project by Phil and Mike," said Bill Coore. "The property has some of the most magnificent natural contours for golf that I have ever seen."
Centered around 5-Mile Point, the Sheep Ranch is absolutely ideal for links golf.
“The movement of the coastline as it bends its way toward the point will tease golfers with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, dramatic sea stacks to the west, and the challenge of choosing your line of flight,” said Coore.
When asked how the Sheep Ranch will compare to its neighboring courses Phil responded, “the Sheep Ranch sits on incredibly special coastal linksland, and as Mike said the design is brilliant. With all of the ocean views, I would say it will soon be judged the best course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort."
David McLay Kidd and Bandon Dunes will always be inseparable. Perhaps that is why the famed architect seems to find his way back to the Oregon Coast so often ... mostly for pleasure, but sometimes for work. David has been a fixture this year at Bandon Dunes, commuting via his Piper M500 from his home in Bend, Ore., for the one-hour flight to Bandon to oversee a second round of changes that strive to restore the original strategic intent of each golf hole.
Flew over to @BandonDunesGolf today. Trying to sneak in while the weather is benign to work with @JoeytheKnows on the bunker rehab project pic.twitter.com/PnkhU3CilH
— David McLay-Kidd (@DavidMcLayKidd) January 15, 2019
Last year, David made adjustments to the 11th, 15th, and 17th holes. This year, he has been hard at work making improvements to the second, eighth, ninth and sixteenth holes. This in addition to rehabbing every bunker — all 70 or so — on Bandon Dunes. We once again caught up with David, along with his longtime DMK Golf Design associate, Nick Schaan, in a Bend restaurant a few steps from DMK headquarters. As always, he had much to say:
Last year, you made some pretty significant changes to the back nine. What are the most significant changes this year?
On No. 2, there was a little bunker in the front and one middle-left, and a big slope on the front. Most players hit up short of the green, and it rolls 30 yards away. It’s so early in the round that they don’t think to putt it or bump-and-run it. So they try to get their flop wedges out, take a giant divot and knock it 20 feet in front of them where it typically rolls back to their feet.
So we took the opportunity to lift the front so the front-right-hand corner is raised. Now when the ball rolls back it doesn’t roll as far away, and you can see the bottom of the pin. And that makes it much easier to imagine yourself putting it. In addition, we added a bunker on the left-hand side, and both little bunkers are now gone.
*Changes were still in progress when this photo was taken.
What will Bandonistas notice most about the changes on No. 2?
It’s making the hole visually dramatic, which it had kind of lost over the last 20 years. And then we’re making changes around the green to encourage options. You can still flop it if you want. But probably now you will think more about putting it, bump-and-running it, or using a rescue club.
The bunker work is extensive, impacting all 70 or so bunkers on the course. What had happened?
A lot of them had grown in and had gotten deeper. The sand had blown out. So the grass had encroached in but the wind had scoured them out, the worst of all combinations. If they had gotten bigger and shallower I might have been willing to live with that.
It’s the Oregon Coast. The erosion is ongoing, so this is necessary from time to time. St. Andrews is constantly defending itself from nature and it’s been there for 600 years. Bandon has been here for 20 years, but I’d say an Oregon winter is every bit as severe, if not more.
What is the difference between designing a course from scratch, as you did with Bandon Dunes 20 years ago, and returning to the course to make strategic changes?
Over 20 years, the course is so popular that you can see trends. I can see 20 years worth of play and see that what I thought was going to happen didn’t really happen. And the equipment has changed.
Is this what led to the changes you are making on the eighth hole?
The eighth hole would be another example. There was a ridgeline of bunkers in front of you from the tee and that was a hazard on opening day in 1999. Now it’s not a hazard at all, except for the slower swing speed golfers. So I took out half of the bunkers in that ridge and left a gap in it so the slower swing speeds could get through. And I moved one of the bunkers to a spot where most of the divots were in the approach.
So what’s going to happen now?
The cool thing is there is no debate when you can see all the divots and you stick a bunker right there. You know that you just tighten Position A for the vast majority of reasonably good players. The hole was relatively benign off the tee. Players were all hitting it to the same spot, and then they were hitting a wedge into the green with no real defense. So now there is a bunker there, and that bunker you can roll into it, you could fly into it, or you can bounce into it. Now you have to make a decision: Over it, short of it, left or right of it. You’ve got to do something.
Are there any more changes coming that will have a similar effect? We’re about to start No. 9, and we are doing a similar change there. The bunkers that are in the fairway have been severely weathered and they’re not terribly effective strategically. So we’re going to adjust them and make them more visual and more strategic.
Is making them more strategic and visually dramatic a general theme of the bunker changes across the course, too? A lot of the bunker rehabbing is about making them playable and making them visually interesting. More appealing. More ooh and ah.
Where else on the course are you trying to bring back your original strategic intent? The best example out there is the 16th hole, which is probably the best-known hole at the Resort. There is a gulch in front of you and then a ridge. That ridge on opening day was almost all open sand. And now that ridge is almost all grass, the entire thing. So it’s not really much of a hazard. You can probably bounce through it a lot of the time if you hit into it. So we’re going to go back and scab that out and create some randomness, so it looks intimidating and beautiful — beautifully mean — and is again a real hazard if you hit into it.
Would you characterize the changes this year any differently than last year? The changes we made last year were about allowing recovery. On the holes we’re addressing this year, they’re about challenging a score and forcing a decision. But everywhere we are taking something away, we’re giving something to someone who misses a shot.
Number 8 is a good example. We’re creating an avenue through the ridge that was previously blocked off, but we’re taking Position A out of play. If you want to play short and hit a 7-iron into that green, it’s easy. If you want to try to drive the green, which people were doing, there is something in the way now.
Why do this now? Change is inevitable. It is going to occur whether I do it, somebody else does it, or nature does it. I would rather make those changes while Mike Keiser and I are still relatively fit and healthy, and we can make those changes together. Those days won’t last forever. Bandon is coming to an end of its embryonic stage. The people who gave birth to it won’t be around in another 20 years, which is a blink of an eye in the life of a classic golf course. So I saw it as a really important thing to be able to make these alterations while Mike and I could collaborate on it and do it together.
Do you see any more adjustments after these are complete? I can’t imagine we would be doing a lot more.