BANDON, OREGON | Mike Keiser threw a party at Bandon Dunes last week, in celebration of the resort’s 25th anniversary. There were some 300 attendees, and they included several of the architects who have designed and built courses here (David McLay Kidd, Bill Coore and Jim Urbina, to name but three) and associates who helped this place grow and prosper (such as Josh Lesnik, the first general manager of Bandon back in 1999, and his father, Steve, whose Kemper Sports company has managed the resort from the beginning).
Keiser also asked several dozen golf writers to join in the festivities, in part to thank them for the tales they have told about this spot since its inception. In addition, the guest list featured a number of his best customers, many of whom have made multiple trips to this southwest Oregon Shangri-La.
... this gathering revealed something else about Bandon, and that is what a great community it has become for golfers.
It was, as you can well imagine, quite an affair. And it reminded me of the many reasons I have come to venerate Bandon as a golf destination. The deftly fashioned, links-style courses. The natural beauty and splendid isolation of a locale that runs three miles along the Pacific Ocean and takes golfers on walks across sand dunes and down canopied forest trails. The presence of wildlife, whether a tom turkey gobbling from underneath a cedar tree, a pair of white-tail deer grazing on the side of a fairway or a red-tailed hawk hovering over swathes of field grass in search of prey.
But this gathering revealed something else about Bandon, and that is what a great community it has become for golfers.
It started with my flight into nearby North Bend, Oregon. I must have known 30 travelers on that plane, the vast majority of whom were journalists, and I exchanged hearty hugs with most of them before we embarked. We had been on trips together before, but in small groups and never all at once.
I also found that a couple of sources for a recent story I had written on the resort – the widow and son of Keiser’s longtime partner and permitting maven, Howard McKee – were on the flight, and we had a chance to chat before heading off to the resort. And when I arrived at the Lodge, I ran into my friend Bob Gaspar, aka Shoe, who carries the delightful title of director of outside happiness – and whom I first met in the spring of 2000. He seemed as happy to see me as I was to see him.
It went on that way for several days. Reconnecting with old pals. Making new ones. Bonding with caddies, several of whom had looped for me in the past. Being pampered by the Bandon staff, whether the shuttle drivers, the folks at the front desk, the starters in their huts or the bartenders and waiters in the restaurants. And watching the interaction among members of longtime foursomes back for yet another golf fling as well as that of the people, like the Lesniks and the McKees, who had not seen one another for years and were now able to reminisce in person about the very special thing that they and their friends and family helped create here.
It was a party, to be sure. But it also felt like a family reunion, and one that demonstrated how Bandon is as much about the community the resort has fostered here as its wonderful golf.
I was glad I had made the trip.
John Steinbreder
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Top: The newly-opened Shorty's course gives Bandon yet another attraction.