Labor Day weekend wildfire leads to close call at Bandon Dunes

It was an eventful Labor Day weekend for one of America's top golf resorts.

A large wildfire just north of Bandon Dunes Resort along the Oregon coastline promoted area evacuations, including golfers on the Old Macdonald and Pacific Dunes golf courses.

The fire had been contained and put out by around 11 p.m. Monday, according to a report from KMTR, a local news station.

Bandon Dunes released this statement on their Facebook page:

At roughly 2 PM a fire reportedly started on the south end of the Sheep Ranch property and jumped the road heading up the ridge toward Old Macdonald. The local fire agencies raced to the scene and our agronomy teams did a spectacular job, acting quickly to contain the fire.

As a precautionary measure we evacuated Old Macdonald and Pacific Dunes. Old Macdonald will remain closed September 8th and reopen on the 9th.

Thank you for the wonderful support from Bandon Fire Chief Lanny Boston and his crew, the other fire agencies, staff of Bandon Dunes who provided help, as well as all the support from the community.


Meanwhile, at the time of the fire, Matt Ginella was tweeting out surreal images of the scene over the weekend:






Brandon Tucker is the Sr. Managing Editor for GolfPass and was the founding editor of Golf Advisor in 2014, he was the managing editor for Golf Channel Digital's Courses & Travel. To date, his golf travels have taken him to over two dozen countries and nearly 600 golf courses worldwide. While he's played some of the most prestigious courses in the world, Tucker's favorite way to play the game is on a great muni in under three hours. Follow Brandon on Twitter at @BrandonTucker and on Instagram at @btuck34.
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It's gorse.  

It appears that the fire is under control.  Thank God!  Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is the best place in the world.

Actually one of the selling points to the locals when they were first trying to establish the resort is that the courses would act as a fire break.  The town of Bandon has burned to the ground three times I believe.  The Gorst that grows in the area is extremely flammable.  When Pacific Dunes was being built the area "accidently" caught on fire, saving about $1M in costs.

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Labor Day weekend wildfire leads to close call at Bandon Dunes