‘A perfect story’: Famed Bend golf course designer David McLay-Kidd may cap Bandon Dunes with 6th course
(Update: Adding video, interview)
New River Dunes still years away, architect says, but the site intrigues him
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Hundreds of thousands of golfers head to Bandon Dunes each year to find a Scottish feel on the Oregon coast.
But the Scotsman who designed the first course there actually lives on the High Desert, in Bend.
Most of David McLay-Kidd's projects begin and end at the Bend Municipal airport even. He flies his own Cirrus SR22 around the Western U.S., designing golf courses.
"I groused around saying how challenging it was to get anywhere out of Bend if you wanted to just hop a few hundred miles,” McLay-Kidd told NewsChannel 21 recently. “So one of my friends said, ‘Go learn how to be a pilot.’ I said, 'Don't be silly -- that's got to be super-difficult!'"
But after just one flying lesson, he was hooked. Now, it's the backbone of his business.
"I'm usually flying out here early in the week and bouncing all over the West Coast, and coming back in on a Friday night,” McLay-Kidd, 53, said. “I could do more in a week with this (plane) then I could in a month without it."
Flying out of Bend, Bandon Dunes, on the Southern Oregon coast, his first major design, is just a 45-minute flight away. When he first got the project, at just 26 in the mid 90s, he had no idea it would become the golfing mecca that it did.
"Literally hundreds of thousands, maybe even into the millions of people have visited the south Oregon coast -- and they've all come away with the same feeling, how beautiful it is," McLay-Kidd said.
At Bandon, he said he sought to capture the natural beauty of the property, instead of manufacturing it.
The beauty was put on a national stage last year, when Bandon hosted the U.S. Amateur.
"The type of golf that's played at Bandon Dunes, this natural rolling bouncing game, is so unnatural to today's elite players that I am positive, any of the final eight (in the U.S. Am), if I had caddied for them, I probably could have handed them the trophy at the end," he said.
McLay-Kidd has a design in Central Oregon, at Tetherow Golf Resort. There, he tried to make the High Desert version of a Scottish links.
"As close as you could get to a Scottish links experience, I think this is it," he said, standing near the 18th hole at Tetherow.
But there's a major difference between Bend and Bandon -- or Scotland.
"What drew me to Central Oregon was the lack of rain," McLay-Kidd said.
He first came to the region in 2001, and fell in love.
"I always had it in my head, if I could figure out a way to actually live here,” McLay-Kidd said. “Then in 2006, I was asked to come here and design Tetherow -- and I used that as an excuse to come and live here. And I've been here ever since."
At his office in the middle of NorthWest Crossing, the walls are covered in plans, photos, memorabilia -- and maybe the most realistic CGI renderings you've ever seen.
And with Bandon Dunes announcing plans for a sixth and maybe final course, there's more coming.
"At least for the moment, I am the golf course designer for that course," McLay-Kidd said.
There's a long way to go before the course becomes a reality, but he’s exited for the opportunity.
"It would make for a perfect story,” he said. “I was the one that built the very first course at Bandon, and maybe I get to be the one that builds the very last golf course at Bandon."
He said the sixth golf course at Bandon, known at least for now as New River Dunes, is still years away. But he's seen the property, and while the design is not finished, it could provide for another unique experience.
