The 10th Holes at Bandon
Let's head to the back nine.
I’ve been breaking down the best hole across Bandon Dunes Resort - the best first hole, the best second, etc. Below is the first installment, where I wrapped up the front nine if you’d like to catch up.
The 1st Holes at Bandon
My first few posts on this Substack were copying The Fried Egg’s conceit of a “Dream 18” at Bandon. That is, taking the best first hole, the best second hole, etc. across the five 18-hole courses. For reference, those are these posts: One of the things that kept sticking out to me was that certain numbered holes were
Additionally, you can just go here to find all my posts about Bandon on this Substack.
When we look at the best, most underrated and “worst” 10th holes at Bandon Dunes Resort, there’s quite a mixture of things. I’d venture that overall, they are the least memorable numbered hole we’ve reached yet, which is curious. Anyhow, let’s dive into it.
BEST 10th Hole:
After my first trip to the resort, I would have certainly given this to Pacific Dunes - the back nine there starts with two par-3’s back to back, and this is the first. That’s likely because on my first trip I played the upper green on 9 (see previous post) and as such, played the upper tee box for the 10th hole.
It’s a world class hole, and one of my absolute favorites. But … when you play it from the lower tees it loses a lot of its magic. (I know many folks love those tees, but it’s not so special for me.) That variability really knocks it out of the top spot, and instead I have to give this to the 10th hole at Bandon Dunes. It’s a short par-4 and the fairway is super lumpy so the green is hidden. Almost everyone will be hitting wedge into the green unless their tee shot goes woefully awry. And that green is super wavy and undulating, surrounded by trees and truly serene.
It’s worth noting that BEFORE you get to the green, there’s a hidden cache under another tree that has bottles of booze and other such things that folks leave behind for future golfers to sample from. Part of the fun is discovering it (or having your caddie direct you to it), so I won’t spoil exactly where it is, but the hole has to get some serious props for that as well.
“WORST” 10th Hole:
Inland holes at Sheep Ranch aren’t doing great in this exercise and once again we have another such instance here. The 10th hole has a sort of interesting green complex, but it’s basically a straight par-4 that’s boxed in the interior of the course. If you can avoid a wipey fade off the tee, you’ll have something like 140 yards to the green. It’s not a bad hole - again, there are very, very few truly bad holes anywhere on property - but it’s not a great one, and it’s fairly forgettable.
Most Underrated 10th Hole:
To some degree, it’s the 10th at Pacific for the reasons I mentioned above, but I’ve covered that (and also, from the lower tee it’s just … fine.) The 10th at Bandon Trails is a very good hole but it’s also not super distinctive. (Don’t worry, we’ll be getting to many quite special holes on Trails soon.) But for me, the 10th at Old Macdonald is truly underrated. It’s right in the middle of the stretch of holes people like to bash, but the 10th is wild. The “Bottle” hole has a HUGE fairway, with very smartly placed bunkers looking to gobble up your tee shots, regardless of where you send it.
The green is propped up and slopes dramatically from left to right. If you - like my buddy Brandon did - hit a strong shot to the correct part of the left green, with a pin on the right, you just might hole out for eagle. Or, your ball can get stuck up on that left side, and you will have a truly terrifying putt. This shot, courtesy of geekedongolf.com, shows the view from the right side of the green. I’m surprised it doesn’t look like a minefield because so many balls funnel down here it’s crazy.
Overall, I would say that the 10th holes in aggregate are on the lower side of what we’ve analyzed thus far, but they’re all really strong golf holes in their own right.
Rounding up what we’ve gotten so far, here’s the count:
Best Holes: Sheep Ranch (2), Bandon Trails (1), Old Macdonald (3), Pacific Dunes (2), Bandon Dunes (2)
Worst Holes: Bandon Dunes (4), Bandon Trails (1), Old Macdonald (2), Sheep Ranch (3)
Most Underrated Holes: Sheep Ranch (2), Bandon Trails (3), Bandon Dunes (1), Pacific Dunes (3), Old Macdonald (1)
What’s your favorite and least favorite 10th hole at Bandon?