Sheep Ranch is the latest addition to the Bandon Dunes resort complex, joining Bandon Trails, Old MacDonald, Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and The Preserve. In a curious twist, Sheep Ranch has actually been here from the beginning, albeit in a different form. For years patrons in the know could play a mysterious 13 hole ‘wild’ course to the north of Old MacDonald. For $100 someone would meet you at the gate, unlock it to let you in and you had the place to yourself for the full day. Scorecards still exist for the original loose routing. I stupidly never took advantage of the opportunity.
The current version of Sheep Ranch is built upon that original foundation. 12 of those original 13 fairways are in use today (one was retired, as it was deemed too close to the only residential house on the entire property); all 13 of the original greens are reused.
Sheep Ranch is not merely the next course north of Old MacDonald. It is built on “Five Mile Point” a piece of property that juts west into the Pacific Ocean. This geographic features provides the real estate which allows for 9 ocean holes and gives us fantastic panoramic ocean views. It also means the property has a micro-climate and is much more exposed to the wind. We played in sustained winds of 45mph one afternoon. The next morning the winds were “only” 25 mph.
Layout (Grade A-)
Sheep Ranch’s layout is an interesting conundrum. At first blush, several things jump out at us:
Let’s explore this a little further. Consider the 18th hole. This is a slightly uphill par 5 playing 437 yards from the green tees (@6200 yards total). At first blush this is a very short par 5, probably too short. However, consider that the summer wind is blowing very hard left to right. The preferred line requires us to aim directly at a massive row of gorse bushes down the far left side of the fairway. If we somehow hit the ball through the wind we are dead. If we hit the ball on that line and the wind blows it a little right we are in danger of finding one of several grass fairway bunkers. If we bail out or the wind pushes our drive excessively right our approach becomes decidedly longer, to the point that the hole doesn’t play at its advertised distance. I had 2nd shots that were 50 yards different, simply because of the way the course design brings the prevailing wind into play. This happens on every hole.
So on one hand we have the absolute impression that Sheep Ranch is a beautifully designed course which combines the 9 ocean holes with smart links design. But for me something was missing. I have really struggled to put my finger on it, but somehow I did not fall in love with Sheep Ranch the same way I did with Bandon and Pacific. I am clearly the exception, as Sheep Ranch is wildly popular. One day we were on property Sheep Ranch had 258 rounds played. The other five courses commonly see approximately 600 rounds total played between them. A bus driver told me I was literally the only person he’d encountered in the month since the course opened that did not rave about Sheep Ranch. So clearly I am the outlier here – everyone else seems to love Sheep Ranch.
Course Conditions (Grade C+)
Understand that as of the writing of this review the course is a new baby, less than a month old. This shows in two main ways.
First is that the greens are immature. The grass cannot be mowed to normal heights for fear of killing it. Also, the greens are sanded to help promote their development. This means they play slower than usual. Somewhat counter intuitively, the greens are actually extremely firm and do not currently hold approach shots especially well. It is normal to need to land the ball at the very front of the green or short of the green and expect it to roll up. On more than one occasional beautifully struck balls landed front third or middle of the green and ran completely through the green. I look forward to playing the course again next year to see that this has improved.
The second way we see the course is young is in the fairways. As mentioned above, Sheep Ranch was originally built as a 13 hole track back in the early 2000’s, when the resort was first built. At that time sod was laid down over sand to create fairways. From that point until now Sheep Ranch was only moderately maintained, as the facility wasn’t really available to the public for regular play. What we see now is the original fairway grass is often patchy and spotty. I expect this to improve and normalize now that the course is being maintained properly. But for the time being there are sections of fairway that are not pleasing to the eye.
Pace of Play (Grade A)
I played twice, once in the late afternoon and again at 8am. My group had a couple of guys that were slow; we were the trouble group both days. Marshals are placed throughout the course. If you are slow you see them at least 4 times and they give you a polite request to speed things up. If you are on time you probably never know they exist.
The course takes pace of play extremely seriously. The marshals have ipads with software that tracks the times for every group. The info is shared with other courses on property. If you are designated a slow group you may get a quick talk before your next round starts. Or you may have your tee time adjusted – as we did on day 2 – so that a 3some moved in front of us and 2 open times were left behind us.
Bandon can’t control everything, such as a guy in our group who moved at a truly glacial pace, never played ready golf and often paused on tee boxes to take numerous photos. But they have a system in place to do everything humanly possible to keep thing moving. I give them credit for taking those efforts.
Amenities (Grade A)
The other courses at Bandon Dunes Resort do not offer cart girls. Instead, courses at the resort have fixed facilities at strategic locations. Sheep Ranch is no exception, with two facilities that you access from the course. The clubhouse has the pro shop and a small grill. It is accessible off the 1st tee and 11th green. There is another snack shack type facility that - from memory - is centrally located to the tees/greens off of 4, 5, 10, 11, 14 and 15.
Notably, Sheep Ranch is the only course that has its own driving range. The range is a short walk of maybe a hundred yards beyond the first tee. The range is extremely deep and very nice. My only complaint was that it orients into the morning sun and I couldn’t see my ball. A minor quibble.
Price (Grade A+)
It costs more to play Sheep Ranch than your local course. But it also costs way less to play this world class resort course than nearly any other course of comparable quality. Add in the possibility of playing the course as a discounted second round of the day or the free third round of the day and we must conclude that the price is a bargain.
Overall (Grade B+)
It is very easy to understand why Sheep Ranch is so wildly popular. It features 9 beautiful ocean holes and an overall minimal number of hazards. This sets up to be a course that most people should have fun playing, and which should be very scenic. But I have my suspicions that the wind is going to take a toll on the courses’ overall popularity. Even with sunny weather, the wind can wear you down and can decrease the fun one has during a round. It will be interesting to see if the beauty and playability of Sheep Ranch has long term staying power and continues to make people overlook the challenges of playing in the wind. Time will tell.
The current version of Sheep Ranch is built upon that original foundation. 12 of those original 13 fairways are in use today (one was retired, as it was deemed too close to the only residential house on the entire property); all 13 of the original greens are reused.
Sheep Ranch is not merely the next course north of Old MacDonald. It is built on “Five Mile Point” a piece of property that juts west into the Pacific Ocean. This geographic features provides the real estate which allows for 9 ocean holes and gives us fantastic panoramic ocean views. It also means the property has a micro-climate and is much more exposed to the wind. We played in sustained winds of 45mph one afternoon. The next morning the winds were “only” 25 mph.
Layout (Grade A-)
Sheep Ranch’s layout is an interesting conundrum. At first blush, several things jump out at us:
- 9 holes with ocean front greens, tees or fairways (the most ocean frontage on the property)
- A wide open expansive look and feel, almost like Old Mac
- Large greens, again a bit like Old Mac
- Not a single sand bunker on the property
- No internal water
Let’s explore this a little further. Consider the 18th hole. This is a slightly uphill par 5 playing 437 yards from the green tees (@6200 yards total). At first blush this is a very short par 5, probably too short. However, consider that the summer wind is blowing very hard left to right. The preferred line requires us to aim directly at a massive row of gorse bushes down the far left side of the fairway. If we somehow hit the ball through the wind we are dead. If we hit the ball on that line and the wind blows it a little right we are in danger of finding one of several grass fairway bunkers. If we bail out or the wind pushes our drive excessively right our approach becomes decidedly longer, to the point that the hole doesn’t play at its advertised distance. I had 2nd shots that were 50 yards different, simply because of the way the course design brings the prevailing wind into play. This happens on every hole.
So on one hand we have the absolute impression that Sheep Ranch is a beautifully designed course which combines the 9 ocean holes with smart links design. But for me something was missing. I have really struggled to put my finger on it, but somehow I did not fall in love with Sheep Ranch the same way I did with Bandon and Pacific. I am clearly the exception, as Sheep Ranch is wildly popular. One day we were on property Sheep Ranch had 258 rounds played. The other five courses commonly see approximately 600 rounds total played between them. A bus driver told me I was literally the only person he’d encountered in the month since the course opened that did not rave about Sheep Ranch. So clearly I am the outlier here – everyone else seems to love Sheep Ranch.
Course Conditions (Grade C+)
Understand that as of the writing of this review the course is a new baby, less than a month old. This shows in two main ways.
First is that the greens are immature. The grass cannot be mowed to normal heights for fear of killing it. Also, the greens are sanded to help promote their development. This means they play slower than usual. Somewhat counter intuitively, the greens are actually extremely firm and do not currently hold approach shots especially well. It is normal to need to land the ball at the very front of the green or short of the green and expect it to roll up. On more than one occasional beautifully struck balls landed front third or middle of the green and ran completely through the green. I look forward to playing the course again next year to see that this has improved.
The second way we see the course is young is in the fairways. As mentioned above, Sheep Ranch was originally built as a 13 hole track back in the early 2000’s, when the resort was first built. At that time sod was laid down over sand to create fairways. From that point until now Sheep Ranch was only moderately maintained, as the facility wasn’t really available to the public for regular play. What we see now is the original fairway grass is often patchy and spotty. I expect this to improve and normalize now that the course is being maintained properly. But for the time being there are sections of fairway that are not pleasing to the eye.
Pace of Play (Grade A)
I played twice, once in the late afternoon and again at 8am. My group had a couple of guys that were slow; we were the trouble group both days. Marshals are placed throughout the course. If you are slow you see them at least 4 times and they give you a polite request to speed things up. If you are on time you probably never know they exist.
The course takes pace of play extremely seriously. The marshals have ipads with software that tracks the times for every group. The info is shared with other courses on property. If you are designated a slow group you may get a quick talk before your next round starts. Or you may have your tee time adjusted – as we did on day 2 – so that a 3some moved in front of us and 2 open times were left behind us.
Bandon can’t control everything, such as a guy in our group who moved at a truly glacial pace, never played ready golf and often paused on tee boxes to take numerous photos. But they have a system in place to do everything humanly possible to keep thing moving. I give them credit for taking those efforts.
Amenities (Grade A)
The other courses at Bandon Dunes Resort do not offer cart girls. Instead, courses at the resort have fixed facilities at strategic locations. Sheep Ranch is no exception, with two facilities that you access from the course. The clubhouse has the pro shop and a small grill. It is accessible off the 1st tee and 11th green. There is another snack shack type facility that - from memory - is centrally located to the tees/greens off of 4, 5, 10, 11, 14 and 15.
Notably, Sheep Ranch is the only course that has its own driving range. The range is a short walk of maybe a hundred yards beyond the first tee. The range is extremely deep and very nice. My only complaint was that it orients into the morning sun and I couldn’t see my ball. A minor quibble.
Price (Grade A+)
It costs more to play Sheep Ranch than your local course. But it also costs way less to play this world class resort course than nearly any other course of comparable quality. Add in the possibility of playing the course as a discounted second round of the day or the free third round of the day and we must conclude that the price is a bargain.
Overall (Grade B+)
It is very easy to understand why Sheep Ranch is so wildly popular. It features 9 beautiful ocean holes and an overall minimal number of hazards. This sets up to be a course that most people should have fun playing, and which should be very scenic. But I have my suspicions that the wind is going to take a toll on the courses’ overall popularity. Even with sunny weather, the wind can wear you down and can decrease the fun one has during a round. It will be interesting to see if the beauty and playability of Sheep Ranch has long term staying power and continues to make people overlook the challenges of playing in the wind. Time will tell.
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