This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Bandon Dunes, a golf mecca on the Southern Oregon Coast, is set to get bigger.

That’s the news imparted by the recent on-line edition of Links Magazine.

Here’s how the story by writer Al Lunsford started:

“Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is adding even more golf to a resort already home to five 18-hole courses and a 13-hole par-3.

“Set on an inland dunescape between the first hole of Bandon Trails and the Pacific Ocean, development is proceeding on a second par-3 layout (this one spanning 19 holes) affectionately being referred to as “Course No. 7” by the team behind the design—Rod Whitman, Dave Axland, and Keith Cutten.

“In fact, the trio will finish building and turfing the resort’s newest golf offering this year, with the potential for preview play in Fall 2023 and a formal opening expected sometime in 2024.”

So, more development at Bandon, which already has added much – including economic vitality – to the South Oregon Coast.

Mike Keiser, the golf visionary who started the Bandon Dunes development years ago, says he authorized the 7^th course because of the popularity of the first six.

“…if you’ve tried booking tee times there (at Bandon), you understand that demand is high, and reservations must be booked more than a year in advance.”

So, who is Mike Keiser?

Well, he made his fortune in Chicago, co-founding, of all things, a greeting card company that was sold for nine figures.  Working from offices in Chicago, he then gained fame as a golf course developer, constructing courses in Oregon, Michigan, Canada, and Australia.

The addition of another par-3 course at Bandon — complimenting Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw’s 13-hole short course, The Preserve — made perfect sense to Keiser.

According to Links Magazine:

Keiser turned his attention to the south side of the property and found that nature had already done much of the work for him.

He has a scoring system when he walks a routing for the first time, ranking every hole from 1–10.  When he walked this proposed course, he gave it the highest cumulative score he’s ever given.

“Words don’t really do the site justice. It has so much potential.  There are so many natural pockets for greens.  It’s all chopped up with dunes that when you look at them, especially with Rod’s routing at hand, it’s like God laid them out.  It’s great green site after great green site after great green site.  It’s a much better site than The Preserve, in my opinion.”

Holes on the new course are in the range of 60–160 yards, with the option of getting a few up to 180 yards.  There are numerous teeing areas, including a forward tee where players can use their putter on every hole.

The layout begins and ends steps below a new clubhouse, located on one of the highest points on property.  The structure will be comparable to the existing space at Old Macdonald, but while modest in size, the vistas stretching from Pacific Dunes in the north all the way down to the rocks outside of the town of Bandon will be a great visual for guests, and an unquestionably popular place to enjoy a Bandon sunset.

So, what has Bandon Dunes meant to the South Oregon Coast?

To verify what I thought – economic vitality — I turned to local journalism in a newspaper, Bandon Western World.  I wanted to confirm how Bandon had changed from a forestry and fishing village to an internationally-know golf mecca.

Here are excerpts of what was written:

• Top of Form

Bottom of Form

• When Mike Keiser’s staff applied to the Coos County Planning Department in the 1990s to build a golf resort just north of Bandon, they met with more than just a little push-back.  Some residents testified they were concerned an upscale resort would change the nature of the South Coast area and its residents.
• And it has.  But many agree the area has been changed for the better. 
• In 1999, Bandon was still recovering from the economic hardships of the declining timber, fishing, and cranberry industries.  While other areas around the state had switched economic gears, Bandon was sluggishly behind and had not yet fully embraced the idea of the area being strongly marketed as a tourist destination.  That’s a hard sell when people feel protective of their old way of life.
• But the natural landscape and outdoor recreational opportunities of Bandon were begging to be discovered. 
• Bandon needed the influx of visitors who would spend money and prompt the city’s leaders and business owners to prioritize upgrades.  It wasn’t just Bandon.  The county also needed the revenue.  Despite tax break incentives by building in the county’s Enterprise Zone, Coos County officials knew Bandon Dunes would eventually be on the tax rolls as a direct economic benefit.  Job creation, from construction to services, also boosted the economy. 
• Twenty years later, the resort has been more of a success than anyone, including Keiser himself, anticipated.  The resort has five golf courses: Bandon Dunes, which opened in 1999, Pacific Dunes (2001), Bandon Trails (2005), Old Macdonald (2010), the Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch (2020), and the 13-hole par-3 course Bandon Preserve (2012).
• It is ranked by Golf Digest as the No. 1 Golf Resort in North America.
• Notably, Bandon Dunes is one of the largest employers in the county, employing 560 people, with an additional 350-plus caddies during the summer.  [Seriously, some old loggers or fishermen have learned the caddy art over the years.] 
• For years, after the downturn in the lumbering and fishing industries, when young people graduated from high school, they pretty much had to leave home to find good paying jobs.  That is not the case today.  Many of the brightest graduates have great jobs at Bandon Dunes.  

I have been to Bandon to play golf a few times over the years.  From Salem, Oregon where I live, it is a four-hour drive.  A couple times, I made the trip in the morning, played 18-holes, then drove back home.

I wouldn’t recommend such a trip. 

But, for anyone who has not played Bandon, I would recommend the trip, if you stay for a few days, either at accommodations on-site or in the small town of Bandon.

It’s a great story to see both good golf and solid economic development.