In the 25 years since it opened, Bandon Dunes has been a Top 100 fixture and the most played course at the resort that has grown around it. Yet the best measure of its import might not be its ...

and the debut of the first course at Bandon Dunes, where five holes touch the Pacific Ocean cliffs. But the wait was worth it, and the return to the ocean at Bandon is nothing short of spectacular.

a 19-hole par-3 course built by Rod Whitman, Dave Axland and Keith Cutten, also opened this year. For more information on booking a trip to Bandon Dunes, visit the resort's website.

His aversion to playing it safe has been apparent since the 1990s, when he rocketed to renown for his work at Bandon Dunes, on the Oregon coast. If the course was an outlier — a rugged ...