It really comes back to that that opening day that really capsualized everything. A golf course we think of as a recreational playground, but I think of it in addition as a consumer product. So when you spill your heart heart out and you spend a lot of money on a product, let's say, you don't know if if it's any good until people are offered it to buy and use. So that first day in the bookings for the first year all told me that America was ready for Links golf, even though it was in a banded Oregon It's truly remote place. And that that made me feel that I had done a product, architectural, structural design that the American golfer, which and you we number in the millions, really appreciated. That feels good. Another law nobody here is get in time. Welcome to the fire Pit with Matt Joneller. So I'm just back from my twenty five trip to Bandon Dunes, which just happened to fall in between two episodes of this podcast. On the building of Bandon, we refer to the old course as the home of golf. Some say Pinehurst is the cradle of American golf, and the book written about the building of Bandon Dunes is dream golf. Mike Kaiser's dream has become a nightmare for his competition. In twenty plus years of development of sand based minimalism, the remote destination on the southwest coast of Oregon has quickly become what some might say is the best pure golf destination in the world, which is why I dedicated two parts to this story. As you recall from Part one, in the mid nineties, with acres of course choked dunes land, Mike Kaiser started looking for an architect who would do anything but what was being done in the United States. He stumbled upon David McClay kid who was in his mid twenties, and his father, Jimmy, who was the agronomist at Glenn Eagles in Scotland. I gave what would be today a power point presentation, but I did it with poster boards and a sharpie pains and I wrote down on these poster boards, you know, like no car paths and make you know they would walk, and that the fairways would be uneven and there'd be pop bunkers, and the clubhouse shouldn't be on the water's edge, it should you know, the best green should be on the water's edge. I said to David, if we deviate any any time from offering make anything more than a true and I mean a true Links experience, Irish Links experience. Here, you will look hire us as architects. He will go elsewhere. Kaiser hired the kids to build it, and he hired Kemper Sports to manage it. He tapped Josh Lesnik, also in his twenties, to be the first general manager. Lesnik explains why Bandon was so unique in the US. Golf courses were being built close to people, you know, close to cities. People didn't necessarily care about the site for golf, and you could have mud and clay and rock under the soil. But if we were close to people and you could put houses around it. That's the kind of golf courses people were building in the nineties, eighties and nineties in America. This was close to nobody. This is going back to the golden age when you look for the best site for golf and you know, no bank would finance it. No, no, everybody thought it was crazy. Mike's friends thought it was crazy. Mike thought it was crazy against all odds, and swimming into the current of trends. Kaiser kept going one whole at a time, and on May one, on the eve of opening day, he reflected on what if all the doubters were right and he was wrong? You know, Josh and I discussed, you know, what it happens if no one comes, or what happens if we break even? Because we all had bets the first year how many rounds we would do, and twelve thousand rounds is break even. And most of our bats about how many rounds we would do were less than twelve thousand rounds, so in my group, no one thought we would break even. And the discussion I remembered probably then in the night before, well, if it doesn't work, I'll give it three years for it to catch on, and if it doesn't, will turn into a sheep ranche. The Sheep Branch opened on June one, fifth eighteen whole golf course abandoned dunes. Plus there's the Preserve, a thirteen whole Part three course shorties, another version of a Part three course at the back of the range, and the punch Bowl, a two and a half acre putting course which you can play for free. Needless to say, I'm not even sure Kaiser could have dreamed something as big as what Bandon has become. But for now, let's go back to the beginning. We're back in Bandon. It's and word is out in the town of three thousand that there might be a golf course coming. Meet Mick Peters, a recreational golfer who has been barbering and bandoned for fifty four years. In the shop, we said, oh yeah, they're gonna build a world class golf course in band And who's gonna come to Bandon to play golf? That was That was the talk right off the bat. Bob Gasbar, also known as Shoe because he looks like Jackie Bill Shoemaker, was a customer a mixed hair surgeons. As a story went on, Shoe came in and he was getting a haircut. He said, I'm going to go out. They're looking for a candy master. He says, I'm going to go out and apply for that. It's a cool so he did, and course, as a story went on again he got it. He was in my shop again. I've got a new Sereny says man that for day is really filling up. I said, wow, I said, is the first tea taken yet. He's I don't know, but I'm going back out there and i'll check and i'll call you. So he dad and he called me, said no, it's open. I Nick, how would you like to be the first flowing off? I said yes, And he said you will have to have a bar. So I said, that's cool. I can do that. Mike Peters, Mick's oldest son, is in. Dad Collins said, I got the first tea time for Bandon Dunes. He says, you want to play. I'm like sure. He's like, we need to find two more people. I'm like, okay, we'll see if we can find two more people. Um. A friend of mine and his falling law joined us, and we showed up that morning and it was a typical Bandon day. It was raining cats and dogs. We showed up in our golf attire and they handed us gortex golf rain stuff because it was pouring down rain. Josh Lesnick on him memorable day. Yeah, we opened on May second. It was rainy and I'd say fifties, maybe high fort these low fifties. And we were booked from the first tea time to the last tea time. Um, you know, mostly Oregonians. It was kind of a regular day. We didn't do a big v I P invitational and invite. We just did whoever's going to make tea times or let him play an opening day. Mike Kaiser's plan was to be there and hand out the opening day coins to each player. David Kidd wasn't at Opening Day, but his father Jimmy, who was in town collaborating with the maintenance team, stood next to Mike Kaiser and helped pass out coins to everyone who played that day. Opening Day was the most surprising thing I've been at the few opening days, and they were pretty big and pretty grand. A field as well. The opening Day abandoned was anything but grand anything. But it was a wet, miserable day if I remember rightly. It was a typical Scottish linked day shoe again with more details. It was a full ticket once again I believed to hearty people and we didn't have any rooms, so everybody had to stay in town there, stay in town, or just drive home again. Local golf, local golf for us as Eugene in Portland, Nobody around here, particularly except for our golf club members, play golf here. I had made it up bag tags for everybody. This a big stack of bag tags and I thought this would be cool. We're gonna tag the bags once again. We didn't know what we're doing. Cars pulled up, but it wasn't just one car to time. Was like everybody pulled up. The tags went by the window. You know. Uh it was porn rain. Mike's up on the tee. Uh, it's He's huddled down. Everybody's trying to smile. All these people here to play golf pouring. Mick, the local barber, was the first player at Bandon Dunes that day. Mick Peters and his sons were the first ones to play, and they since have been the first ones to play every single opening, including the preserve of every golf course abandoned. We're going to have a lot more on Mick Peters and his sons and their legacy abandoned in episode ten of The fire Pit, but for now, Mick stays focused on his first tea shot of the first course. It was just it was bigger than I expect that I didn't I don't think there would be that many people they're watching, and I was so nervous I couldn't already put the ball on the TV. Mike Peters has been second off on every new course abandoned. Dudes. It was a lot of fun. It was like what are we doing? Why are we doing this? You know until we walked up onto the tea and then you saw it over the first tea and the whole course. It was like you couldn't get me out of here. I mean just bandon weather. Yeah, a big deal. And it was an absolute gorgeous golf course. Um, and I, like I said, I've never seen it. I had no idea what I was getting into until I stepped on that first tea and and it really was on inspiring as first off. Mixed tradition is to tee up a ball and with his first swing he only hits the ball a few feet. I do that, and then I have Mr Kaiser sign it and I put it away and I grabbing at the ball and I hit it again. But I am at I'm the first guy that hits the ball. Um. There was only there. I'm not going to say the name, although I have in the past. There was one person that didn't show up the first day was one of my friends in town and he decided it was too rainy and cold to show up. Every other person shut up. Was just one person that didn't show up. It was rainy and called no doubt, I'll give him a break, But everybody else played. Um, who is this guy? He's a local, he's a friend, he's a uh, he was a friend until he didn't show up. Shoe showed up. Of course, what would Bandon be without Shoe. There was a big traggler. One of our local cranberry growers brought a barbecue trailer, backed it up back here, right back to where the the pubs at. He was calling hamburgers and hot dogs for everybody. The rain finally stopped, sun came out. It turned beautiful. The cranberry growers name was Jack, and by the end of the day, because he had a bottle of Jack, hamburgers and hot dogs were flying everywhere. I swear man he was. You wouldn't know a boom, you're a ghost. It was great. It was the greatest experience because it was just it was banded, nothing fancy. You know. The hot dogs and hamburgers were free. Everybody had a great time. What's the rain stop? It was extremely rewarding. It was it was really it was a really neat day, and it was fun to see the staff altogether and really have the customers out there. Is great fun day. Jimmy Kidd on watching Mike Kaiser as his dream unfolded in front of them. Mike was relatively quiet. He was basically listening to to what everyone was saying, and everyone seemed to be happy to be there, even before they had even before they had shot, they were delated to be there. Maybe it was there just the the atmosphere of an opening day in a golf course. But when they came back in my goodness, the comments and the club posts and the atmosphere in the club post was just this world. It was an incredible day. You could always even today, I could you can feel it here in the back of your next standing up because you knew that something had happened to you and in a place which was in the middle of nowhere. So everything until opening day was rough. And then from then and the golfers took over. Guys like you, Matt said, this is fun links golf, what we like even a bad We weren't sure kind of what it would become. Um by that point though we were quite sure. Our rounds were gonna, you know, exceed what our expectations were the first year, because there was an article written in December of nine seven by Bob Robinson, and he was a he was a well known golf writer, and he wrote a story about Bannon Dunes, you know, almost six months before we opened. Came out in December. We were set to start taking teak times January one. The article comes out in December. The phone started ringing that day. Shoe was in there answering him. The phone has not stopped ringing since that day. And I gave a huge amount of credit to making that a reality to Josh. You know, he was the one that got the message out there and go people to pay attention and come and look. And it was those first few people. I remember Brian Callen coming who was with Golf magazine at the time, and Josh and I played the back nine, I think with him and his reaction was my first experience of an American golf journalist seeing this and saying, wow, this is different. And that was all as I remember it. That was old Josh. He was the one bringing these people and had those connections and we were seeing that reaction happened because of his skills delivering the message. What Josh got to do was be fun and fun to be with and hire people and find Kaddy's when everyone said you'll never find Kaddy's, and go to the Portland Golf Show and convince people that is only four and a half hour drive. So Josh was great and publicity. David was great on building the golf course, and Howard McKee was the magical architect guy. So all systems are go. Abandoned Dunes was open for business, and we learned in part one of this podcast Kaiser had already bought the land that would become the second course on property. So I asked Mike how soon after opening day of Bandoned did he commit the Pacific Dunes a tom dope design? Almost immediately, I mean it was within within days. It was overwhelming, And let's give Josh credit for we we opened in May, early May, and when we then the opening day, we knew that we had bookings. Whether people and actually show up, we didn't know. But as the days ticked by, we realized that all the bookings we had, we're going to become real rounds that people would drive and fly from who knows where. You made it, make it a success. So I'd say within the first two months, if not the first couple of weeks, Josh and I and Howard all said yeah, let's go. Because we opened open Pacific Dunes in two thousand one, two years later, so that tells you that we didn't like it is split and the second golfers. Last year, on May second, two thousand nineteen, David Kidd was on the first he for the twentieth anniversary of Bandoned Dunes. You know, it's amazing to think that in twenty years, with fifty thousand approximately visitors per year, we're looking at a million individuals have now visited Bandon Dunes. Sure some of them visit every year, but the number I use as a million people million golfers have visited Bandoned Dunes now over the first twenty years. That's pretty amazing. I think it awakened in American golfers willingness to accept nature, that golf through nature is what golf is truly meant to be. That's why we've seen golf move away from being ornate and overly manicured and become far more natural. It speaks to our current ethos that we want things to be sustainable and have less inputs, less chemicals, less, less of everything so that nature can take a hold. And Abandoned Dunes was the a ground zero for that in America twenty years ago. But as Shoe explains, the impact of this resort goes a lot deeper than some of the natural sand bunkers throughout the property. And you know, it's really basically made the town come alive. Uh. And not only Banndoned, but cous County actually the entire state of Oregon. Uh almost Well, now it's true. It's true because look how many there's so many people that would never venture west of the Mississippi River that are coming here, and they've never been to Pacific Northwest. I mean, this place is this place is beautiful. I mean it just is um And so this has brought people here that heretofore would never have come this way. But almost almost everybody in town in the county gets a check from band and Dunes UM for one thing or another. Newspapers, flowers, coffee, you know, uh, me, you name it, and they get a check. Uh. And that doesn't even take into consideration a payroll for six D forty and staffers. And then an additional uh fifty caddies that goes out into the community. I think Matt, you know, for for Mike and I, the one thing we always say to each other is we look at each other and like, can you believe this? You know, because we it's hard to say, you know, like we didn't look at Bandon Dunes as a business every day. We didn't, but we knew we were opening a business and you can't do things stupid and we're doing it for the love of the game, but it was still a business. And you know, to to budget to do ten thousand rounds the first year and end up doing close to thirty thousand, and now, you know, multiply those numbers by the five courses now and it's like, we still can't believe it. I can't believe it. Mike can't believe it. I mean, there's no way you could have imagined that it would become what it's become. It's you know, thankfully to the work the architects did and and the site selection, and it's uh, I still have to pinch myself. Some final reflections from several key players who have helped make Bandon so special. We'll start with Josh Lesnick, followed by David Kidd. I've been involved with a number of other places, and but Bandon is is uh Yeah, it's home. It's my home away from home. It's my happy place. I love you know, the second you step foot on that property and breathing that air and then get to play of those golf courses um and bandoned doones being my favorite golf course anywhere in the world. Yeah, there's I don't know that anything could ever take over bannon D's my favorite place in the world. I never tire of talking about Bannondon's. I never tire of every visit I make. I especially love it when I get to take bandoned virgins there who are not banned in East as yet to experience the place with a newbie is still a huge kick. And I know it's the same for you guys to make taking I probably take at least one or two eate somes to band in a year, and in that eights I might try and make sure there's at least one or two virgins, uh and introduced them to the place and know that it's just blowing their minds and that's such fun to be part of. To see that wonder again and experience it through someone else's eyes, seeing it for the first time. I'll never ever tire of that kid and Lesnik again on what they learned from working with Mike Kiser. You know, he is the master of cutting through the b s and getting to the heart of the matter. He simplifies things to their absolute core really really quickly, better than anybody I've ever made before. I could be doing mental gymnastics trying to figure something out, and I could call Mike and it'd be like he could figure it out in a second and get to the get to the mottom of it. And it's he keeps things really really simple and accomplishes amazing things. Um yeah, I mean that would you know, everything nothing. He never wanted to see anything that was more than one page. If you sent him anything more than one page, it was too much, too complex, Just don't do it, don't send it to him. So I mean working with him, you know, as I said earlier, I think one of his many legacies. Um and it's all you know, its opinion and people can look back. But I feel like he's with each architect, He's worth worked with each golf course architect, they may have built their best golf course with working with Mike Kaiser. I think that's part of his his brilliance is just working with people and working with the artists UM David and Tom Doak and Bill Core and um, you know, and keeping it simple and just achieving incredible things. It's amazing, amazing to work with them. I asked them both, what if there was no Mike Kaiser in your life? I would still like to think that I would have uh found my way in golf course design. But I wouldn't have the you know, the bandoned Dudes logo on my shirt, and that would have made it much much harder, and uh, the road would have been a lot longer. But I would still want to believe that I would have h managed to be a force irrelevance in golf course architecture. Uh. You know, there were a number of other projects that I managed to get in and around. You know, I was on numerous sites that are now world beater golf courses. You know. I was at Friar's Head that Kuru Crenshaw did two years before they got there. I was on numerous others, the Preserve and Carmel, I was on that site before Fasio did it. So there were lots of other projects that I was managing to to squeeze myself into one way or another. So I would like to think that I would have made a break somehow, some way, And I think Josh would have too. I think we both were full of piss and vinegar, and one way or another we would have made it. I've never I'm afraid to think about that. Um, you know, I think, uh, I think I I'm not sure I would have found what I truly love about the game of golf, um and the business of golf without Mike. I don't know. It would have taken a long time. I didn't I didn't go play golf in Scotland. Thought I was forty years old. Um, and it would have taken me a lot longer to find out what I loved about the game. Uh. If it weren't for Mike Eiser, I mean it's uh. I think he's done that for a lot of Americans probably who have now gotten abandoned and and got on to play Sand Valley and and kind of seen um dream golf and what makes the game of golf so lovable. So I don't want to think about what it would be like with no Mike Keiser and no bandon Dunes. Bill Core and Ben Cruncha just opened their third course from Mike e are Abandoned Dunes. They've built seven courses for what's referred to as the Dream Golf Portfolio, and are under construction on their eighth, Cabot St. Lucia. That accounts for almost a third of what cor and Crenshaw have built from Scratch, Core and then Crenshaw on the overall impact of Mike Kaiser. We've gotten so far and away more than our fair share the very special sites, and a great number of those have come from Mike Kaiser. Uh. He's been He is simply the most incredible and should be the most highly acclaimed golf developer in the world. And he the products that he puts out there and the care that he puts into them is just beyond comparison. And he finds these sites, he goes back to that that nucleus of playing golf on sandy firm ground, and in Mike's case, at least until Sand Valley, it was always about somewhere near the sea ums. He just finds it to be It's a it's a connection to five years of golf history. And he he just I think he believed in before he started doing these golf developments that that was a connection that would resonate with American golfers as well as European and other other nationality golfers. And he brought it to us. He gave us the opportunity to experience it, and he was right. I mean, it's a it's a It may be the oldest form of golf in the world, but I think it's still the most appreciated. Maybe it was his first trips over the British Isles, and you know, people make a journey to go see those golf courses and the way they are in the in their natural state. Uh. But Mike was after some sandy ground and picturesque ground, no matter where it was, and he was gonna tap into that golfer who wants to travel, much like you know, a a surfer or a sailor that would go to remote places around the world to enjoy their advocation. Uh. You know, you've heard the surfers going, you know, to Tierra del Fuego too, you know who who knows where and in the Pacific to go find that wave and and and that experience. And that's golfers have a way of you know, if they if they're one or two groups that travel together and get to a place and enjoy golf. That's that's who he's after. And he's really done a great job uh with that. It's the repeat customer uh uh in places that eat, sleep, and drink golf. Uh. And Bill and I are just a recipient of of his outreach. We we can't thank Mike enough. And and Mike, you know, extends to all the other architects that we know, and they've done a great job. Two. So it it it's it's pretty unique, and we're very honored to be part of that. I get two kinds of letters from men, in particular, ladies are are beginning to go up there, but there's still in a small minority of people who play man. So the letters I see go into two categories. The buddy strip I was great, here's a photo. We had our fabulous ten there eight twelve will you do it? Eight twelve, sixteen of you? I like those stories. They're basically all the same saying we had a fabulous time even though it rained, or even though whears the wind. There's always a wrinkle, but the the buddies have a great time, and many of them come back here and in year out. But the ones that really got me are the father's son trips, which are fewer than the muddy trips, but those are very heartfelt, you know, like you know I we came all the way from Boston. It's been one of my life streams. The father writes to me that I can take my sons to Bandon Dudes. And we did, and we had a glorious time, and I don't know if we'll do it again, but it was just babit us being with my son's or a lot of father's sons making a four some rates. And so I've got a soft scotch because I have two sons and four kids. They all like Bandon Dudes. So I like the father's son father daughter letters. In particular, I ask every guest on the fire pit to share their favorite fire pit and give me a reason or two. Why do you have one? It's probably the one at growth Cotta Jump. We're building one right now for and I haven't seen it a sheep ranch, so it's got it's gonna have some growth cottage just doesn't really have a view. You're just part of nature. And the one sheep ranch, she's going to be resplendent with the visuals. You'll be overlooking the golfers. So wait until you see that right now. It's the Growth Cottages. I'm looking at it right now, the putting courts at Gamble Sands. On the far side of it is a fire pit that lukes diving into the Columbia River Gorge and to the north cast Gate Mountains. Uh. And it is by far my favorite fire pit. Yeah, my favorite fire pit experience. Again, you know, after the playoff in the Uncle Tony Invitational and winning. You know, I think you'll recall I came into the fire pit pretty hot that night. And I mean, any fire pit where Joe Horowitz is playing music should be my favorite, but that night, um, you know it was. That was a pretty special occasion. I appreciated your advice and that night and uh, we really we enjoyed the fire pit, and we enjoyed Joe. And that's that fire pit abandoned Dudes near the Growth Cottages is my favorite fire bit, no doubt. That's the inspiration for this podcast. As I've said, before without that fire Pit. I don't know that we even have a podcast called The fire Pit. I mean, that's how special that fire Pit is. Are you looking for good value on great golf apparel as a listener to this podcast, my friends John Ashworth and Jeff Cunningham at Link Soul in Oceanside, California are offering you a discount on all future orders of What I Wear All Day, every day, on and off the course. Whenever you go to link soul dot com, just use promo code matty G M A T T Y G. Thank you for listening to The fire Pit. It's produced by Alex Upeggy. It's edited by Rex Lint. The theme song is by Joe Horowitz. Please rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts and we might track you down and send you one of our new Imperial Road Pats. Got a question, comment, or a story for us to track down. You can find me on Twitter at Matt Janella or on Instagram at Matt Underscore Janella. And if you haven't already done so, please subscribe to The fire Pit on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to a story like this one. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel, which is where we post portions of our podcast and add some visual surprises.

It really comes back to that that opening day that really capsualized everything. A golf course we think of as a recreational playground, but I think of it in addition as a consumer product. So when you spill your heart heart out and you spend a lot of money on a product, let's say, you don't know if if it's any good until people are offered it to buy and use. So that first day in the bookings for the first year all told me that America was ready for Links golf, even though it was in a banded Oregon It's truly remote place. And that that made me feel that I had done a product, architectural, structural design that the American golfer, which and you we number in the millions, really appreciated. That feels good. Another law nobody here is get in time. Welcome to the fire Pit with Matt Joneller. So I'm just back from my twenty five trip to Bandon Dunes, which just happened to fall in between two episodes of this podcast. On the building of Bandon, we refer to the old course as the home of golf. Some say Pinehurst is the cradle of American golf, and the book written about the building of Bandon Dunes is dream golf. Mike Kaiser's dream has become a nightmare for his competition. In twenty plus years of development of sand based minimalism, the remote destination on the southwest coast of Oregon has quickly become what some might say is the best pure golf destination in the world, which is why I dedicated two parts to this story. As you recall from Part one, in the mid nineties, with acres of course choked dunes land, Mike Kaiser started looking for an architect who would do anything but what was being done in the United States. He stumbled upon David McClay kid who was in his mid twenties, and his father, Jimmy, who was the agronomist at Glenn Eagles in Scotland. I gave what would be today a power point presentation, but I did it with poster boards and a sharpie pains and I wrote down on these poster boards, you know, like no car paths and make you know they would walk, and that the fairways would be uneven and there'd be pop bunkers, and the clubhouse shouldn't be on the water's edge, it should you know, the best green should be on the water's edge. I said to David, if we deviate any any time from offering make anything more than a true and I mean a true Links experience, Irish Links experience. Here, you will look hire us as architects. He will go elsewhere. Kaiser hired the kids to build it, and he hired Kemper Sports to manage it. He tapped Josh Lesnik, also in his twenties, to be the first general manager. Lesnik explains why Bandon was so unique in the US. Golf courses were being built close to people, you know, close to cities. People didn't necessarily care about the site for golf, and you could have mud and clay and rock under the soil. But if we were close to people and you could put houses around it. That's the kind of golf courses people were building in the nineties, eighties and nineties in America. This was close to nobody. This is going back to the golden age when you look for the best site for golf and you know, no bank would finance it. No, no, everybody thought it was crazy. Mike's friends thought it was crazy. Mike thought it was crazy against all odds, and swimming into the current of trends. Kaiser kept going one whole at a time, and on May one, on the eve of opening day, he reflected on what if all the doubters were right and he was wrong? You know, Josh and I discussed, you know, what it happens if no one comes, or what happens if we break even? Because we all had bets the first year how many rounds we would do, and twelve thousand rounds is break even. And most of our bats about how many rounds we would do were less than twelve thousand rounds, so in my group, no one thought we would break even. And the discussion I remembered probably then in the night before, well, if it doesn't work, I'll give it three years for it to catch on, and if it doesn't, will turn into a sheep ranche. The Sheep Branch opened on June one, fifth eighteen whole golf course abandoned dunes. Plus there's the Preserve, a thirteen whole Part three course shorties, another version of a Part three course at the back of the range, and the punch Bowl, a two and a half acre putting course which you can play for free. Needless to say, I'm not even sure Kaiser could have dreamed something as big as what Bandon has become. But for now, let's go back to the beginning. We're back in Bandon. It's and word is out in the town of three thousand that there might be a golf course coming. Meet Mick Peters, a recreational golfer who has been barbering and bandoned for fifty four years. In the shop, we said, oh yeah, they're gonna build a world class golf course in band And who's gonna come to Bandon to play golf? That was That was the talk right off the bat. Bob Gasbar, also known as Shoe because he looks like Jackie Bill Shoemaker, was a customer a mixed hair surgeons. As a story went on, Shoe came in and he was getting a haircut. He said, I'm going to go out. They're looking for a candy master. He says, I'm going to go out and apply for that. It's a cool so he did, and course, as a story went on again he got it. He was in my shop again. I've got a new Sereny says man that for day is really filling up. I said, wow, I said, is the first tea taken yet. He's I don't know, but I'm going back out there and i'll check and i'll call you. So he dad and he called me, said no, it's open. I Nick, how would you like to be the first flowing off? I said yes, And he said you will have to have a bar. So I said, that's cool. I can do that. Mike Peters, Mick's oldest son, is in. Dad Collins said, I got the first tea time for Bandon Dunes. He says, you want to play. I'm like sure. He's like, we need to find two more people. I'm like, okay, we'll see if we can find two more people. Um. A friend of mine and his falling law joined us, and we showed up that morning and it was a typical Bandon day. It was raining cats and dogs. We showed up in our golf attire and they handed us gortex golf rain stuff because it was pouring down rain. Josh Lesnick on him memorable day. Yeah, we opened on May second. It was rainy and I'd say fifties, maybe high fort these low fifties. And we were booked from the first tea time to the last tea time. Um, you know, mostly Oregonians. It was kind of a regular day. We didn't do a big v I P invitational and invite. We just did whoever's going to make tea times or let him play an opening day. Mike Kaiser's plan was to be there and hand out the opening day coins to each player. David Kidd wasn't at Opening Day, but his father Jimmy, who was in town collaborating with the maintenance team, stood next to Mike Kaiser and helped pass out coins to everyone who played that day. Opening Day was the most surprising thing I've been at the few opening days, and they were pretty big and pretty grand. A field as well. The opening Day abandoned was anything but grand anything. But it was a wet, miserable day if I remember rightly. It was a typical Scottish linked day shoe again with more details. It was a full ticket once again I believed to hearty people and we didn't have any rooms, so everybody had to stay in town there, stay in town, or just drive home again. Local golf, local golf for us as Eugene in Portland, Nobody around here, particularly except for our golf club members, play golf here. I had made it up bag tags for everybody. This a big stack of bag tags and I thought this would be cool. We're gonna tag the bags once again. We didn't know what we're doing. Cars pulled up, but it wasn't just one car to time. Was like everybody pulled up. The tags went by the window. You know. Uh it was porn rain. Mike's up on the tee. Uh, it's He's huddled down. Everybody's trying to smile. All these people here to play golf pouring. Mick, the local barber, was the first player at Bandon Dunes that day. Mick Peters and his sons were the first ones to play, and they since have been the first ones to play every single opening, including the preserve of every golf course abandoned. We're going to have a lot more on Mick Peters and his sons and their legacy abandoned in episode ten of The fire Pit, but for now, Mick stays focused on his first tea shot of the first course. It was just it was bigger than I expect that I didn't I don't think there would be that many people they're watching, and I was so nervous I couldn't already put the ball on the TV. Mike Peters has been second off on every new course abandoned. Dudes. It was a lot of fun. It was like what are we doing? Why are we doing this? You know until we walked up onto the tea and then you saw it over the first tea and the whole course. It was like you couldn't get me out of here. I mean just bandon weather. Yeah, a big deal. And it was an absolute gorgeous golf course. Um, and I, like I said, I've never seen it. I had no idea what I was getting into until I stepped on that first tea and and it really was on inspiring as first off. Mixed tradition is to tee up a ball and with his first swing he only hits the ball a few feet. I do that, and then I have Mr Kaiser sign it and I put it away and I grabbing at the ball and I hit it again. But I am at I'm the first guy that hits the ball. Um. There was only there. I'm not going to say the name, although I have in the past. There was one person that didn't show up the first day was one of my friends in town and he decided it was too rainy and cold to show up. Every other person shut up. Was just one person that didn't show up. It was rainy and called no doubt, I'll give him a break, But everybody else played. Um, who is this guy? He's a local, he's a friend, he's a uh, he was a friend until he didn't show up. Shoe showed up. Of course, what would Bandon be without Shoe. There was a big traggler. One of our local cranberry growers brought a barbecue trailer, backed it up back here, right back to where the the pubs at. He was calling hamburgers and hot dogs for everybody. The rain finally stopped, sun came out. It turned beautiful. The cranberry growers name was Jack, and by the end of the day, because he had a bottle of Jack, hamburgers and hot dogs were flying everywhere. I swear man he was. You wouldn't know a boom, you're a ghost. It was great. It was the greatest experience because it was just it was banded, nothing fancy. You know. The hot dogs and hamburgers were free. Everybody had a great time. What's the rain stop? It was extremely rewarding. It was it was really it was a really neat day, and it was fun to see the staff altogether and really have the customers out there. Is great fun day. Jimmy Kidd on watching Mike Kaiser as his dream unfolded in front of them. Mike was relatively quiet. He was basically listening to to what everyone was saying, and everyone seemed to be happy to be there, even before they had even before they had shot, they were delated to be there. Maybe it was there just the the atmosphere of an opening day in a golf course. But when they came back in my goodness, the comments and the club posts and the atmosphere in the club post was just this world. It was an incredible day. You could always even today, I could you can feel it here in the back of your next standing up because you knew that something had happened to you and in a place which was in the middle of nowhere. So everything until opening day was rough. And then from then and the golfers took over. Guys like you, Matt said, this is fun links golf, what we like even a bad We weren't sure kind of what it would become. Um by that point though we were quite sure. Our rounds were gonna, you know, exceed what our expectations were the first year, because there was an article written in December of nine seven by Bob Robinson, and he was a he was a well known golf writer, and he wrote a story about Bannon Dunes, you know, almost six months before we opened. Came out in December. We were set to start taking teak times January one. The article comes out in December. The phone started ringing that day. Shoe was in there answering him. The phone has not stopped ringing since that day. And I gave a huge amount of credit to making that a reality to Josh. You know, he was the one that got the message out there and go people to pay attention and come and look. And it was those first few people. I remember Brian Callen coming who was with Golf magazine at the time, and Josh and I played the back nine, I think with him and his reaction was my first experience of an American golf journalist seeing this and saying, wow, this is different. And that was all as I remember it. That was old Josh. He was the one bringing these people and had those connections and we were seeing that reaction happened because of his skills delivering the message. What Josh got to do was be fun and fun to be with and hire people and find Kaddy's when everyone said you'll never find Kaddy's, and go to the Portland Golf Show and convince people that is only four and a half hour drive. So Josh was great and publicity. David was great on building the golf course, and Howard McKee was the magical architect guy. So all systems are go. Abandoned Dunes was open for business, and we learned in part one of this podcast Kaiser had already bought the land that would become the second course on property. So I asked Mike how soon after opening day of Bandoned did he commit the Pacific Dunes a tom dope design? Almost immediately, I mean it was within within days. It was overwhelming, And let's give Josh credit for we we opened in May, early May, and when we then the opening day, we knew that we had bookings. Whether people and actually show up, we didn't know. But as the days ticked by, we realized that all the bookings we had, we're going to become real rounds that people would drive and fly from who knows where. You made it, make it a success. So I'd say within the first two months, if not the first couple of weeks, Josh and I and Howard all said yeah, let's go. Because we opened open Pacific Dunes in two thousand one, two years later, so that tells you that we didn't like it is split and the second golfers. Last year, on May second, two thousand nineteen, David Kidd was on the first he for the twentieth anniversary of Bandoned Dunes. You know, it's amazing to think that in twenty years, with fifty thousand approximately visitors per year, we're looking at a million individuals have now visited Bandon Dunes. Sure some of them visit every year, but the number I use as a million people million golfers have visited Bandoned Dunes now over the first twenty years. That's pretty amazing. I think it awakened in American golfers willingness to accept nature, that golf through nature is what golf is truly meant to be. That's why we've seen golf move away from being ornate and overly manicured and become far more natural. It speaks to our current ethos that we want things to be sustainable and have less inputs, less chemicals, less, less of everything so that nature can take a hold. And Abandoned Dunes was the a ground zero for that in America twenty years ago. But as Shoe explains, the impact of this resort goes a lot deeper than some of the natural sand bunkers throughout the property. And you know, it's really basically made the town come alive. Uh. And not only Banndoned, but cous County actually the entire state of Oregon. Uh almost Well, now it's true. It's true because look how many there's so many people that would never venture west of the Mississippi River that are coming here, and they've never been to Pacific Northwest. I mean, this place is this place is beautiful. I mean it just is um And so this has brought people here that heretofore would never have come this way. But almost almost everybody in town in the county gets a check from band and Dunes UM for one thing or another. Newspapers, flowers, coffee, you know, uh, me, you name it, and they get a check. Uh. And that doesn't even take into consideration a payroll for six D forty and staffers. And then an additional uh fifty caddies that goes out into the community. I think Matt, you know, for for Mike and I, the one thing we always say to each other is we look at each other and like, can you believe this? You know, because we it's hard to say, you know, like we didn't look at Bandon Dunes as a business every day. We didn't, but we knew we were opening a business and you can't do things stupid and we're doing it for the love of the game, but it was still a business. And you know, to to budget to do ten thousand rounds the first year and end up doing close to thirty thousand, and now, you know, multiply those numbers by the five courses now and it's like, we still can't believe it. I can't believe it. Mike can't believe it. I mean, there's no way you could have imagined that it would become what it's become. It's you know, thankfully to the work the architects did and and the site selection, and it's uh, I still have to pinch myself. Some final reflections from several key players who have helped make Bandon so special. We'll start with Josh Lesnick, followed by David Kidd. I've been involved with a number of other places, and but Bandon is is uh Yeah, it's home. It's my home away from home. It's my happy place. I love you know, the second you step foot on that property and breathing that air and then get to play of those golf courses um and bandoned doones being my favorite golf course anywhere in the world. Yeah, there's I don't know that anything could ever take over bannon D's my favorite place in the world. I never tire of talking about Bannondon's. I never tire of every visit I make. I especially love it when I get to take bandoned virgins there who are not banned in East as yet to experience the place with a newbie is still a huge kick. And I know it's the same for you guys to make taking I probably take at least one or two eate somes to band in a year, and in that eights I might try and make sure there's at least one or two virgins, uh and introduced them to the place and know that it's just blowing their minds and that's such fun to be part of. To see that wonder again and experience it through someone else's eyes, seeing it for the first time. I'll never ever tire of that kid and Lesnik again on what they learned from working with Mike Kiser. You know, he is the master of cutting through the b s and getting to the heart of the matter. He simplifies things to their absolute core really really quickly, better than anybody I've ever made before. I could be doing mental gymnastics trying to figure something out, and I could call Mike and it'd be like he could figure it out in a second and get to the get to the mottom of it. And it's he keeps things really really simple and accomplishes amazing things. Um yeah, I mean that would you know, everything nothing. He never wanted to see anything that was more than one page. If you sent him anything more than one page, it was too much, too complex, Just don't do it, don't send it to him. So I mean working with him, you know, as I said earlier, I think one of his many legacies. Um and it's all you know, its opinion and people can look back. But I feel like he's with each architect, He's worth worked with each golf course architect, they may have built their best golf course with working with Mike Kaiser. I think that's part of his his brilliance is just working with people and working with the artists UM David and Tom Doak and Bill Core and um, you know, and keeping it simple and just achieving incredible things. It's amazing, amazing to work with them. I asked them both, what if there was no Mike Kaiser in your life? I would still like to think that I would have uh found my way in golf course design. But I wouldn't have the you know, the bandoned Dudes logo on my shirt, and that would have made it much much harder, and uh, the road would have been a lot longer. But I would still want to believe that I would have h managed to be a force irrelevance in golf course architecture. Uh. You know, there were a number of other projects that I managed to get in and around. You know, I was on numerous sites that are now world beater golf courses. You know. I was at Friar's Head that Kuru Crenshaw did two years before they got there. I was on numerous others, the Preserve and Carmel, I was on that site before Fasio did it. So there were lots of other projects that I was managing to to squeeze myself into one way or another. So I would like to think that I would have made a break somehow, some way, And I think Josh would have too. I think we both were full of piss and vinegar, and one way or another we would have made it. I've never I'm afraid to think about that. Um, you know, I think, uh, I think I I'm not sure I would have found what I truly love about the game of golf, um and the business of golf without Mike. I don't know. It would have taken a long time. I didn't I didn't go play golf in Scotland. Thought I was forty years old. Um, and it would have taken me a lot longer to find out what I loved about the game. Uh. If it weren't for Mike Eiser, I mean it's uh. I think he's done that for a lot of Americans probably who have now gotten abandoned and and got on to play Sand Valley and and kind of seen um dream golf and what makes the game of golf so lovable. So I don't want to think about what it would be like with no Mike Keiser and no bandon Dunes. Bill Core and Ben Cruncha just opened their third course from Mike e are Abandoned Dunes. They've built seven courses for what's referred to as the Dream Golf Portfolio, and are under construction on their eighth, Cabot St. Lucia. That accounts for almost a third of what cor and Crenshaw have built from Scratch, Core and then Crenshaw on the overall impact of Mike Kaiser. We've gotten so far and away more than our fair share the very special sites, and a great number of those have come from Mike Kaiser. Uh. He's been He is simply the most incredible and should be the most highly acclaimed golf developer in the world. And he the products that he puts out there and the care that he puts into them is just beyond comparison. And he finds these sites, he goes back to that that nucleus of playing golf on sandy firm ground, and in Mike's case, at least until Sand Valley, it was always about somewhere near the sea ums. He just finds it to be It's a it's a connection to five years of golf history. And he he just I think he believed in before he started doing these golf developments that that was a connection that would resonate with American golfers as well as European and other other nationality golfers. And he brought it to us. He gave us the opportunity to experience it, and he was right. I mean, it's a it's a It may be the oldest form of golf in the world, but I think it's still the most appreciated. Maybe it was his first trips over the British Isles, and you know, people make a journey to go see those golf courses and the way they are in the in their natural state. Uh. But Mike was after some sandy ground and picturesque ground, no matter where it was, and he was gonna tap into that golfer who wants to travel, much like you know, a a surfer or a sailor that would go to remote places around the world to enjoy their advocation. Uh. You know, you've heard the surfers going, you know, to Tierra del Fuego too, you know who who knows where and in the Pacific to go find that wave and and and that experience. And that's golfers have a way of you know, if they if they're one or two groups that travel together and get to a place and enjoy golf. That's that's who he's after. And he's really done a great job uh with that. It's the repeat customer uh uh in places that eat, sleep, and drink golf. Uh. And Bill and I are just a recipient of of his outreach. We we can't thank Mike enough. And and Mike, you know, extends to all the other architects that we know, and they've done a great job. Two. So it it it's it's pretty unique, and we're very honored to be part of that. I get two kinds of letters from men, in particular, ladies are are beginning to go up there, but there's still in a small minority of people who play man. So the letters I see go into two categories. The buddy strip I was great, here's a photo. We had our fabulous ten there eight twelve will you do it? Eight twelve, sixteen of you? I like those stories. They're basically all the same saying we had a fabulous time even though it rained, or even though whears the wind. There's always a wrinkle, but the the buddies have a great time, and many of them come back here and in year out. But the ones that really got me are the father's son trips, which are fewer than the muddy trips, but those are very heartfelt, you know, like you know I we came all the way from Boston. It's been one of my life streams. The father writes to me that I can take my sons to Bandon Dudes. And we did, and we had a glorious time, and I don't know if we'll do it again, but it was just babit us being with my son's or a lot of father's sons making a four some rates. And so I've got a soft scotch because I have two sons and four kids. They all like Bandon Dudes. So I like the father's son father daughter letters. In particular, I ask every guest on the fire pit to share their favorite fire pit and give me a reason or two. Why do you have one? It's probably the one at growth Cotta Jump. We're building one right now for and I haven't seen it a sheep ranch, so it's got it's gonna have some growth cottage just doesn't really have a view. You're just part of nature. And the one sheep ranch, she's going to be resplendent with the visuals. You'll be overlooking the golfers. So wait until you see that right now. It's the Growth Cottages. I'm looking at it right now, the putting courts at Gamble Sands. On the far side of it is a fire pit that lukes diving into the Columbia River Gorge and to the north cast Gate Mountains. Uh. And it is by far my favorite fire pit. Yeah, my favorite fire pit experience. Again, you know, after the playoff in the Uncle Tony Invitational and winning. You know, I think you'll recall I came into the fire pit pretty hot that night. And I mean, any fire pit where Joe Horowitz is playing music should be my favorite, but that night, um, you know it was. That was a pretty special occasion. I appreciated your advice and that night and uh, we really we enjoyed the fire pit, and we enjoyed Joe. And that's that fire pit abandoned Dudes near the Growth Cottages is my favorite fire bit, no doubt. That's the inspiration for this podcast. As I've said, before without that fire Pit. I don't know that we even have a podcast called The fire Pit. I mean, that's how special that fire Pit is. Are you looking for good value on great golf apparel as a listener to this podcast, my friends John Ashworth and Jeff Cunningham at Link Soul in Oceanside, California are offering you a discount on all future orders of What I Wear All Day, every day, on and off the course. Whenever you go to link soul dot com, just use promo code matty G M A T T Y G. Thank you for listening to The fire Pit. It's produced by Alex Upeggy. It's edited by Rex Lint. The theme song is by Joe Horowitz. Please rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts and we might track you down and send you one of our new Imperial Road Pats. Got a question, comment, or a story for us to track down. You can find me on Twitter at Matt Janella or on Instagram at Matt Underscore Janella. And if you haven't already done so, please subscribe to The fire Pit on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to a story like this one. 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