54 May 2024 is a special month for Bandon Dunes. Not only will it see the grand opening of Shorty’s, its seventh course, but it also marks 25 years of golf at the Oregon resort. Since the opening of David Kidd’s Bandon Dunes course in 1999, the resort has become the poster child for destination golf, with Kidd’s course being joined by two world’sbest layouts from Tom Doak (one with Jim Urbina) and three from Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Many of Bandon’s architects will return to join developers Mike Keiser and his sons Michael and Chris for the quartercentury celebrations. They will be joined by another team of designers too – Rod Whitman, Dave Axland and Keith Cutten – who have become the first new architects at Bandon for almost twenty years – since Coore & Crenshaw laid out Bandon Trails in 2005. All three principals of the WAC Golf team have spent substantial time on site over the past year to shape the features of the new 19-hole par-three course, with assistance from their design associate Kurtis Lavis. Shorty’s has been built on sand dunes immediately south of Bandon Preserve. Cutten has described the site as “more undulating than elsewhere on the Bandon property” and their goal being “to make the best short course in golf”. “We spent a great deal of time figuring out the sequencing and placement of the holes within the undulating terrain,” says Cutten. “The routing itself evolved over several months, starting with a 12-hole loop – this initial sequence was through WAC Golf’s Keith Cutten described the Shorty’s site as “more undulating than elsewhere on the Bandon property” “ This site was made for a par-three layout, as any longer holes would have required the removal or flattening of the abrupt ground movement” SHORTY’S
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=