Built just after we finished Pacific Dunes, the original version of The Sheep Ranch was the freest of free-form designs, built so that players could choose their own holes, and play from any of the 13 greens to any other. It was a helpful case study for my reversible design at The Loop, and probably even more complicated.
We envisioned it as a private club where members would come back and play until dark after a round on one of the courses at Bandon Dunes, but the owners never pursued that business model, so it languished in obscurity for many years, gaining a cult following among the few golfers who understood its appeal — among them, Michael Murphy, who filmed the movie version of Golf In The Kingdom here. Today, it has been absorbed by the resort, and my friends Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are set to open a full 18-hole course on the property in 2020.
