Update On The Sheep Ranch And Bandon's Punchbowl Course
/Thanks to reader John for alerting me to Ron Bellamy's story on Bandon's Sheep Ranch course that is now twelve years old and still offers one of the more amusing processes to get on a golf course. But also, it's just a fantastic story of imagination and cleverness by the developers to create something so mysterious and old school. 
You have to know about this place to arrange to play it. You phone Bandon Golf Supply, where they put you in touch with the course superintendent, Greg Harless. Scheduling is generally for weekdays, from November through June; there’s no irrigation on the fairways, so the course closes in the hot summer months. At the appointed date and time, Harless meets you at the course, collects a check for $100 per player, gives you a scorecard with a suggested routing for 18 holes, with a daunting par of 71, and shows you where to begin.
And then, literally, you’re on your own, for as long as you can play. Most days, your group, whether just two of you or 20, is the only group. You can follow the suggested routing to the greens that are lettered, not numbered, or create your own holes. You can bring a cooler, even a grill, and stop back at your car for lunch, and play some more; there’s no group pushing you at the turn, because there is no turn.
Certainly, you can practice your putting on The Punchbowl, the 3.5-acre putting course designed by Tom Doak, with Jim Urbina, the same duo who created Pacific Dunes and Old Macdonald.
There are mounds and slants, dips and drops, uphills, sidehills, downhills.
“You will find every kind of putt that you can imagine out there,” Doak has said, “and probably a few that you’ve never dreamed of.”
And the vibe already sounds entirely appropriate. If golf courses only had more of these kinds of fun places to hang out.
That’s evidenced by drink-holders by every “tee box” and hole, to hold your beverage of choice while you putt. Unlike the large putting green at the resort’s driving range, where golfers practice in near-silence before rounds — or stubbornly try to fix their strokes after rounds — golfers on The Punchbowl played in groups of two and more, and certainly not quietly.
And so this recent scene is likely to be repeated during the warm months next summer: A golfer, walking from the nearby restaurant at Pacific Dunes, crossing The Punchbowl to rejoin his buddies there, carrying a pitcher of beer to refill their cups.
