Sheep Ranch - 2nd Hole
I cannot get the second hole at Sheep Ranch out of my head. The newest course on the Bandon Dunes property, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, is as minimalist as it gets, even for those two. For one, this course features no traditional sand bunkers, something Bill Coore has said is a nod to a photo from Robert Hunter’s The Links, of Addington Golf Club in England, which states in the caption, “[t]hese undulations indicate the possibility of having one day a golf course so moulded that sand bunkers may be dispensed.”
At Sheep Ranch, features include scalloped-out thumbprints with tufts of grass on their highest point, bunker lips devoid of sand below, and 60,000 square-foot sized holes of knotted rough. While this may sound like the course is less penal than, say, Pacific Dunes, it plays nearly as penal.
The second is great for many reasons. It holds many of the same concepts as the Cape template hole, at least off the tee. Holes rooted in one of C.B. MacDonald’s template holes create interest for the player, along with some familiarity, even if they do not recognize it as a template.
Like all Cape holes, the player’s line is diagonal across a hazard and allows for the decision of how much to bite off. But different from MacDonald’s original, this shot plays over heather and gorse. Compared to its counterpart on Old MacDonald and the original Cape hole, the 14th at National Golf Links of America, this hole at Sheep Ranch plays significantly shorter. While those first two are both longer than 390 from the tips, #2 at Sheep Ranch is 318 at its longest. By playing shorter than famous Cape holes, this hole asks the player a slightly different question, and adds to its interest.
While the question is the same, “how much do you want to bite off from the tee?”, the distance to carry allows for taking it all, especially considering the prevailing wind. Therefore, the reward is that much greater. And because the penalty is not water and there are no sand bunkers anywhere, the player has a greater sense of optimism on the tee that they have less risk to take on. However, if in the gorse on the right, a shot back out to the fairway is likely the only play.
With gorse and heather serving as the hazard on the right side of the hole, it is a large, sandless bunker that guards the left side of this green. These sandless features are interesting in that good players tend to prefer sand while worse players do not. However, these knots of minimally maintained rough can make for a difficult up-and-down.
If the pin is back and left, the ideal line of play from anywhere on the left half of the fairway will require covering this hazard. That said, there is plenty of green to work with.
The green on the second is quite large and has one particularly interesting feature within it. A large bank on the right side of the green funnels most balls back towards the center and helps to hold shots that are slightly long.
From both the tee box and approach area, the green is elevated from the rest of the hole. This makes the approach shot more difficult as the player knows they must carry the slope, otherwise a difficult pitch shot awaits. While this green site lacks the traditional features of a Cape hole, bunkers or water surrounding all sides, the elevation makes the green appear as if it were hovering above the penal run-off areas.
To put two at Sheep Ranch into context of the course, it follows the only par-5 on the front, one which Mike Keiser pronounced “the best opening hole in the world”. The hole crests a ridge and runs down to an infinity green perched high above the Pacific. This is the fastest one gets to the ocean on the entire Bandon Dunes property.
Following two, the third is a flip wedge par-3 to another infinity green that looks like the profile of a saddle framed by the ocean. But compared to the second, there are not as many subtleties or decisions for the player to make.
To me, the second enhances both the hole that precedes it and the hole that follows. So, while one might be the best opening hole in golf, and three gives you the views, and four demands a tee shot over a cliff, it is the second that sticks out in my mind.
