Bandon Preserve

Bandon Preserve is a 13-hole par-3 course that begins atop a sand dune and rolls down toward the Pacific Ocean, with stunning coastal views from every hole. Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the layout features holes no longer than 185 yards, creative green contours, and a double green shared between the 4th and 7th holes.

Bandon Preserve is a 13-hole par-3 short course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened on May 1, 2012. The course begins high atop a sand dune and rolls down toward the Pacific Ocean, with the ocean providing the visual backdrop to every hole across a layout of 1,609 yards at par 39. In 2018, Links Magazine named Bandon Preserve the best par-3 course in the United States, a recognition that reflects both the quality of the Coore and Crenshaw design and the extraordinary setting the course occupies on the southern Oregon coast. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are among the most respected golf course designers of the contemporary era, known for minimal-intervention designs that prioritize naturalness of setting and variety of shot-making over engineered difficulty.

Their approach at Bandon Preserve reflects their characteristic philosophy: the course uses the natural dune topography as the primary design element, routing 13 holes through terrain that was shaped by wind and sea rather than machinery. The result is a short course with the feel of a complete golf experience rather than a practice facility — 13 distinct holes, each using the dune landscape in a different way, with shot distances ranging across the full range of short irons and wedges. The course name reflects a significant environmental dimension. During the design process, Coore and Crenshaw identified the Silvery Phacelia, an endangered plant species native to the Oregon dunes, growing on the course site.

Rather than removing the plants to maximize hole count, they routed the course to preserve the habitat, and the name "Bandon Preserve" honors this conservation choice. All net proceeds from the course are donated to the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance, an organization that supports conservation, community, and economy on the southern Oregon coast — making Bandon Preserve not only a design achievement but a model for how golf development can support environmental conservation on the land it occupies. The 13-hole format — unusual in American golf but connected to the history of links courses that added and removed holes over their evolution — gives Bandon Preserve a distinctive character that differentiates it from conventional 9 or 18-hole layouts. Players can complete the loop in approximately two hours, making it accessible as a standalone experience or as a warm-up before a round on one of the resort's full-length courses.

The combination of the Pacific Ocean backdrop, the dune terrain, and the Coore-Crenshaw design sensibility makes Bandon Preserve among the visited short courses in American golf — a destination in its own right within the broader Bandon Dunes experience.