The Latest News on the Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch Golf Course

The anticipation level for the Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch course in Bandon, Oregon is over the top. And for good reason. The magnificent piece of land has more than one mile of ocean frontage and there will be 9 coastline greens and ocean views on all 18 holes.

Scheduled to open to the public this summer (2020), the Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw design will measure 7,000 yards and play to par-71. Part of the Bandon Dunes Resort portfolio, the course sits just north of the Old Mac course. Founders of Bandon Dunes Resort, Phil Friedman and Mike Keiser have owned the property for more than 20 years so no additional property was purchased to build the 18 holes.

The dramatic cliffs, panoramas and roller-coaster undulations will dominate the overall experience and golfers will find one thing noticeably missing, bunkers. There won’t be a single bunker on the course.

The unusual name of the course was created with Irish inspiration. On several excursions to Ireland both Friedman and Keiser noticed the Irish people would use “Bally” to mean beautiful and it struck them as charming. As the Sheep Ranch property on the “Beautiful or Bally” South Coast of Oregon came into fruition, the term Bally Bandon was coined.

Interestingly, architects Tom Doak and Jim Urbina did some design work on Sheep Ranch in 2001 while they were working on Pacific Dunes at Bandon Dunes. Reportedly, some of their original green sites are being used on the new design.

Mired in mystery, the Bally Bandon has been around since 2002 operating as a rugged “course” without a definitive routing. It had about 8 to 16 players a day who played the holes anyway they wanted from creating par threes to par twelves. They’d simply pick targets from different points on the property and sort of design their own course along the way. The original layout had 13 greens and no actual holes or bonafide routing.

At present, no preview play date has been set. A grand opening celebration is expected summer 2020.

You can sign up for updates on the project at sheepranch.golf