Pacific Dunes - Oregon, U.S.A.

The Bandon Dunes Resort burst onto the golf scene in 1998 when it unwrapped an honest-to-goodness, Scottish-style seaside links on the rough and tumble dunes high above the Pacific in southern Oregon. Michael Keiser, the developer of the resort, commissioned Tom Doak, an intrepid believer in the virtues of classic design principles, to design the resort's second course. Doak had a tough act to follow but Pacific Dunes, opened in 2001, is, if anything, even more stunningly picturesque and varied in its artistry. Doak was able to layout holes on the cliffs above the windswept beaches with their sculpture gardens of gargantuan driftwood. Other holes run through blowout sand ridges and across swaths of huckleberry bushes and red fescues, while everywhere there are wildflowers and ferns and splashes of yellow gorse. As much as the setting, it is the strategic options, thrilling shots, and challenging green complexes that have lifted Pacific Dunes near the top of most golf course rankings. The no-frills resort is dedicated to golf, while the quaint old village of Bandon offers seafood restaurants overlooking the Coquille River, vintage stores, and the Cranberry Sweets candy store.

Astoria Country Club - Oregon, U.S.A.

Astoria Country Club is located on the northern Oregon coast, in the lower Columbia River region, laid out on land that was claimed by an early settler who had reached the Clatsop Plains by wagon train over the Oregon Trail in 1845. The golf course dates from 1924, a wonderful vintage links that funnels through the deep valleys between the high dunes one mile from the Pacific. The town of Astoria was founded in 1811 in the triangle formed by the Columbia and Young's Rivers pointing westward to the Columbia Bar and the Pacific. The Astoria Column, built in 1926 atop Astoria's highest hill, is etched with a pictorial frieze of Captain Robert Gray's discovery of the Columbia River in 1792. The reward for climbing the winding steps to the top of the 125-foot-high column is an immense panoramic view of the girdling rivers, ocean beaches, surrounding forests, and the volcanic cone of Mount St. Helens.