Coos Bay , Ore ., September 7, 2009 - Following the Portland Invitational, a band of Dragons took a side trip to the magnificent Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, a few miles south of the Oregon coast.  Lawrence Ma, Bobby Chang, Carol Lee, and Cathy Cai took a morning commuter flight out of PDX and headed to Coos Bay.  Following a short shuttle ride (what a spiffy shuttle it was) and lunch at the Tufted Puffin, overlooking the first tee at Bandon Dunes, the group teed it up on Pacific Dunes, among the top 3 golf courses on the planet on any list.  

We enjoyed sunny weather during our stay, but the usual winds of Bandon was up and it made the experience on Pacific Dunes as authentic and challenging as it can be for the newcomers.  But rounds on places like Pacific Dunes isn't about the score -- it's about taking in the views and having fun playing a true links, where you don't need a pitch fork (because you never make a ball mark) and where you can hit a 4-iron 250 yards one way, and hit it 150 coming back the other way.  We were grateful to the senior caddies assigned to us, who not only guided us through the links and away from the gorse and p otbunkers (as much as they could), but also entertained us with many a story (some of which shall never be repeated away from Bandon).  

The group stayed at the resort and dined at the various restaurants on campus.  McKee's Pub was a casual dining option we took on the first night, and following a dinner of beers, burgers and fish-and-chips, Bobby and Lawrence shot a few rack of pool down in the Bunker at the main lodge.  On Tuesday, the group played Bandon Dunes in the morning.  In the afternoon, Bobby headed back to Pacific Dunes again, while Cathy played Bandon Trails, the Crenshaw-Coore creation that winds inland, in contrast to the Pac and Dunes, which are on the coast.  Dinner was at the Gallery, the fine dining restaurant on the resort, where the group had a surprisingly good spring roll and enjoyed fresh local seafood, with a bottle of Alsace white wine.

On Wednesday morning, Lawrence and Bobby received a couple of coveted tee times on the Old Macdonald, the fourth course under construction at Bandon Dunes.  The gentlemen continued their matches on the 10-hole preview loop and called the matches a spirited tie.  We quickly cleaned up back at the Lodge, joined Carol and Cathy for a quick lunch, and headed for the airport, where a direct flight back to San Francisco took us home.  

We hope to make this a tradition in the years to come, especially when the Labor Day Invitational returns to Portland in 2013!