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.

Remember that “pin of the head” analogy I have used in the past.

Well, if not, it applies to the subject of “golf course architecture,” which I write about in this blog.

What I know about the subject would fit on head of a pin.  Still, it is an interesting topic for me if only because I have had the privilege of playing more than 200 golf courses in my life with a variety of architectural styles.

One, a so-called “parkland style” is characteristic of where I play most of my golf, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in the town where I live, Salem, Oregon.  It also applies to the course I play in La Quinta, California, The Palms.

Then, for a difference, I have had the privilege of playing golf in Scotland, the “home of golf,” on five different occasions.  There, you encounter “links-style” golf which means you play the ball much closer to the ground, with few trees in your way, close by the ocean.

The idea to write just a bit about this came when I read an article in Links Magazine about two top-level golf course architects who usually work together – Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.  The article listed great “public” courses they had designed.

Crenshaw’s name will ring bells because, besides getting into architecture, he also played professionally, winning two Master’s tournaments, among others.

Here’s what the website says about the Coore-Crenshaw firm:

“Timeless By Design/Admiration and respect for the classic golf courses of the “Golden Age of Architecture” inspired Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore to establish the firm of Coore and Crenshaw Inc. in 1985.  

“Theirs is an architectural firm based upon the shared philosophy that traditional, strategic golf is the most rewarding, and the creation of courses that present this concept with the greatest artistry is the ultimate goal.  They have blended their personal experience and admiration for the classical courses of Ross, MacKenzie, Macdonald, Maxwell, and Tillinghast to create a style uniquely their own.”

Coore and Crenshaw designed two courses at Bandon Dunes, the area on the South Oregon Coast that, due to the inspiration of businessman Michael Keyser, has become a mecca for golfers worldwide.

In 2005, the duo had tough acts to follow in designing the third course at Bandon, Bandon Trails, one of the public courses mentioned in the Links article.

Trails differs significantly from its two oceanside predecessors, Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes, starting, as it does, atop a massive sand dune, working its way into a sprawling meadow, and then climbing into a coastal forest before returning to finish in the dunes.

Some guests who yearn for waterfront holes say Trails is their least favorite, while others consider it the finest routing of an exceedingly strong bunch.

Coore and Crenshaw later built another gem at Bandon, the 13-hole par-3 Preserve Course, in 2012.

And, then, they collaborated on the latest edition to the Bandon courses, the Sheep Ranch built in 2020.

The new course occupies a phenomenal piece of property just north of the main resort that was long shrouded in an air of mystery.

Coore and Crenshaw returned again to the Oregon coast to continue the “golf as it was meant to be” legacy of the Sheep Ranch, building nine green sites along the cliffs and eschewing traditional bunkering on the rough, windswept site marked by old, dead trees (or snags) overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

I had the privilege of playing the Sheep Ranch before it became an actual golf course.

That was due to the course superintendent at Illahe Hills at the time, Bill Swancutt.  He knew staff at Bandon and got four of us an opportunity to play the Sheep Ranch before it became an official course.

We arrived at the site, essentially a promontory overlooking the land out to the ocean.  The staff there talked briefly to the four of us, using a small piece of paper to suggest a routing for us to play 15 of the 18 green flags we could see.

The staff said just to make up the final holes. 

I also asked where to tee off after playing a green – and was told, well, just find a place of flat ground, put your tee in the ground, and go ahead.

So, we did.

It was a great experience.  And, to put a point on it, I have not yet had a chance to play the official course, so am looking forward to it.

To talk about Coore and Crenshaw at Bandon without mentioning two other major architects there would be inappropriate, so I go ahead.

In 1999 when Bandon Dunes opened, the first course there – it’s called, simply, “Bandon Dunes” — was designed by Scotsman David McLay Kidd, who has designed many other courses around the world from his home in Bend, Oregon.

Bandon Dunes, the course, is perched on a bluff high above the Pacific Ocean where Mother Mature’s ever presence had already laid the blueprint for what would become one of golf’s most iconic courses.

The next course, Pacific Dunes, was designed by Michigan architect Tom Doak, and sculpted by his design firm, Renaissance Design, Inc.  Like Kidd, he has gone on to design many other courses around the world.

Why do I choose to write about this?

Well, just because I love golf and this is another way express my enchantment.  Including with “links-style” golf and, if you want to experience, go to Bandon where the courses are an accurate impression of “links-style” golf in Scotland.

So, soon, I’ll head back to Bandon to play the Sheep Ranch in its renowned new role as the sixth official course there.