Oregon Magazine

Cover
What Airline Woes?
Oregon Breaks Trend

          By Fred Delkin

     While all the nation's usual airline destinations face service 
  cutbacks, the rise of golf investment in lil ol' Bandon on the 
southern Oregon coast has sparked renewal of service to
Southwest regional airport in North Bend.  SkyWest, operating under 
the United Express banner, announced two direct flights per day 
between North Bend and San Francisco just days after Horizon cut 
its services from Portland to the Coos Bay area's only commercial 
airport on the Oregon coast.  This facility had just opened a 
new terminal, but the sudden nationwide cutback of air service 
threatened to make the new building an anachronism.


   (photo from airport web page: http://www.cooscountyairportdistrict.com/)

What has sparked this reversal?  Bandon, just 26 miles south of 
North Bend, has been drawing golfers from literally around the 
world since debuting the Bandon Dunes Resort in 1999.  Now
the 65% of links devotees from beyond the Pacific Northwest 
currently playing Bandon courses can connect with the major 
international hub of San Francisco.  

Bandon currently boasts three world-class links layouts...Bandon 
Dunes, Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails built on dunes 100 feet 
above the Pacific shore.  All three walking-only European 
links-style courses are ranked among Golf Digest's 100 greatest 
public courses.  In 2006 and 2007 the Bandon resort complex 
hosted back-to-back USGA championships, the Curtis Cup and
U.S. Amateur.  There are 54 holes of golf and a 32-acre practice 
center at the resort, with the courses designed to provide "a 
world-reknowned experience that is true to the spirit of Scotland's
ancient links," boasts resort literature.

       
        (Photo from http://www.bandondunesgolf.com/golf.cfm)

Internationally known designers fashioned the current Bandon 
courses: Dunes by David McLay Kidd, Pacific by Tom Doak and 
Trails by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.  A fourth course, Old
Macdonald, is scheduled to open in 2010.  A variety of 
accommodations are available, plus three restaurants and 
lounges, a golf shop, locker rooms and a fitness facility.  

We remember Bandon as a quiet village on highway 101 
previously known for the roadside Bandon artisan cheese 
factory (since acquired by Tillamook).  Now this town of some 
2,500 residents, founded as a fishing port at the mouth of the 
Coquille River, bids to become North America's equivalent to 
St. Andrews as a golfing mecca.