A Seventh Course is Coming to Bandon Dunes, and It Can Be Whatever You Want It To Be

A 19-hole par-3 course is coming to Mike Keiser's golf paradise, with holes from 60 to 185 yards and the ability to be played in any number of loops.

It doesn’t have a name, but that is not stopping golf genius Mike Keiser from adding a seventh course to the Bandon Dunes resort profile.

The new 19-hole par-3 course was on the drawing board for years, first with Tom Doak as architect and then with Dave Axelrod, Ron Whitman and Keith Cutten.

The new short course at Bandon Dunes will be playable in loops with varying numbers of holes / Courtesy Bandon Dunes

“I can’t help myself,” Keiser says when asked about his newest addition. “Most of the holes would fit in with the current Bandon golf courses.”

With holes ranging in length from 60 yards to 185 yards, the new course, like Bandon Preserve, will require a putter and just a few clubs to navigate the dunes, situated between the courses of Bandon Trails and the Preserve.

And also like the Preserve, the new short course will be visually stunning and would fit in nicely on any of the other courses.

Courtesy Bandon Dunes

Keiser believes that all 19 holes are unique, an up-and-down walk through the dunes with a more natural setting than that of the Preserve course, the new par 3 layout will only lack some of the stunning views of the ocean.

The Whitman, Axland & Cutten design team made multiple visits over multiple days to the area, working on a routing that first was 12 holes, then expanded to 18 and finally to 19 after Keiser’s visit at the beginning of March.

The design process was more about identifying the green sites, which Mother Nature had a large hand in creating, and then just picking a place to tee it up.

“They’re just the wonderful corridors in them,” Cutten said. ”And they really are just kind of sitting there.”

One of the unique parts of the new course is how it will have different loops of three, six, 13 or 19 holes depending on your time and desires.

As the sun is setting, the opportunity to play different loops will be a unique part of the new course.

“It really adds a function if somebody's got to catch a flight, but they only want to play six holes,” Cutten said. “Just to maximize the time here, they could do that. Or they could play on in. Or maybe it's about to get dark or they just want to have a three-hole to settle a match on Trails that wasn't over.”

The plan is for the course to be open for some preview play this fall and the full 19 holes open by spring 2024.

What started as an idea of one course in 1999 will end with the new course according to Keiser, since the only land left is in a forest near Highway 101 but doesn’t have a view of the Pacific Ocean and Keiser, who calls himself an "ocean guy," is not inclined to develop anything not on the ocean.

And even though Wild River Dunes, which is south of the town of Bandon, is in the permitting process with designer David McLay Kidd, Keiser has said this is it for Bandon.

“I'm going to say it as long as you don't, don't make me adhere to it,” Keiser jokes about any future development. “From what I know, now, those are the last two.”