Seattle-to-Bandon Loop

The Seattle Loop is the closest thing the Pacific Northwest has to a comprehensive golf road trip: sixteen days, fourteen rounds, and five of the best public courses in the western United States, spread across three distinct landscapes that share almost nothing except remarkable golf. You leave Seattle heading south and do not stop until you have crossed fescue fairways above Puget Sound, five championship courses on the Oregon coast, four high-desert layouts in the shadow of the Cascades, a wheat-field links in wine country, and a riverside sand-belt layout above the Columbia. By the time you drive back through the Cascades, you will have played a wider range of serious public golf than almost any other road trip in the country. The trip opens at Chambers Bay in University Place, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. links built on a former gravel mine with sweeping views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. It hosted the 2015 U.S. Open, plays walking-only on fescue, and rewards low running shots far more than the target game most American golfers default to. Hire a caddie on the first visit: the greens break toward the water on nearly every hole, and the scale of the property plays tricks on yardages. Drive south that evening toward Portland. The second day is a fork. Golfers who want to reach the coast early should route through Warrenton and play the Astoria Golf and Country Club, a hundred-year-old club built on the sand dunes of the North Oregon coast with a routing that runs between the dunes. Those who want a stronger design test should cut inland to Pumpkin Ridge and play Ghost Creek, a Bob Cupp par-71 that sits in the valley west of Portland and consistently ranks among the top public courses in the Pacific Northwest. Either way, the destination is the Oregon coast heading south. Bandon is where the trip earns its title. Plan five nights, play all seven experiences, and let the schedule breathe. Pacific Dunes is the headline: Tom Doak's routing over the coastal cliffs is widely considered the best of the five courses and the most purely linksy of the group. Play it first, when your legs are fresh. Bandon Dunes is the original and one of the most fun courses on the property, generous off the tee with clever ground contours around the greens. Bandon Trails is the forest routing and the most underrated of the five, with a completely different feel from the oceanside courses. Old Macdonald rewards patience and gives you fairways as wide as any you will see in serious golf. Sheep Ranch is the newest and the most dramatic, perched on the cliffs with ocean views on nearly every hole. Start your arrival evening with Shorty's or the Bandon Preserve if you want to loosen up on short courses before the main event. From Bandon, there are two routes east to Bend. The direct drive is about four and a half hours through the Oregon interior. The better option adds a few hours and swings south through Crater Lake, the collapsed volcanic caldera that holds the deepest lake in North America. It is not a golf stop, but it is one of the most remarkable detours on the entire trip. Stay near the park if timing allows, then arrive in Bend the next morning. Bend gives you four courses over two to three days, each representing a different approach to high-desert golf. Crosswater at Sunriver is the one to prioritize: Bob Cupp's routing through river meadows and wetlands along the Deschutes River is on Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Greatest Courses, and it plays at a scale that few resort courses in the country can match. Pronghorn offers a Nicklaus signature course and a Fazio championship course on the same property, with ancient lava outcroppings, juniper forest, and Cascade views framing both layouts. Tetherow is McLay Kidd's fescue links on volcanic soil: demanding, unforgiving around the greens, and unlike anything else in the state. Accept the forecaddie, embrace the ground game, and do not fight the conditions. Wine Valley in Burbank is an easy three-and-a-half-hour drive east from Bend into the Walla Walla Valley. Dan Hixson's layout plays through wheat fields and volcanic basalt on loess soil, with no trees anywhere and greens among the most severely contoured in the Pacific Northwest. Stay in Walla Walla that night: it is one of the best small wine destinations in the country, with restaurants that punch well above the population. The final golf stop is Gamble Sands in Brewster, ninety minutes north through the Columbia River Basin. McLay Kidd's fescue links perched above the river is the design that inspired Mammoth Dunes, built for pure fun and maximum playability. It closes the trip perfectly: wide, fast, and cinematic, with the river below nearly every tee box. Fly in and out of Seattle. Bandon requires advance planning well beyond what most courses demand: the resort now uses a lottery system for future reservations, and peak dates fill more than a year out. Book Bandon first, then build everything else around it. Crosswater access requires a stay at Sunriver Resort. Everything else books online two to three months out.