Old Macdonald: A Tour Of The Back 9

"I have a new crush on golf," I said. And then I explained: I told him Old Mac is like getting a new girlfriend. Sometimes in life we get stuck in long-term relationships. We take things for granted, she picks at our flaws and stops saying, "Thank you." She becomes unforgiving and constricting, narrow, insecure and mean. (But I'm not bitter.) So there's a breakup. And then you date a different girl. It just clicks with the new girl -- things are fun again.

Old Mac is the new girlfriend. As I've said many times before, we -- the golf industry -- have made the game exclusive, expensive, hard and time-consuming. Old Mac at Bandon Dunes starts to break down some of those barriers. Tees range from 4,258 to 6,944 yards, and if you lose a ball it's because your playing partner put it in his pocket. I've said I've stopped ranking the other three courses on property at Bandon Dunes -- three of the top 14 public courses in the country -- because whatever one I'm playing at the time is my favorite. But even if I were to participate in that exercise, I wouldn't include Old Mac in the discussion: It's such a different brand of golf, such a different girl, just enjoy her, don't rank her.

With that said, here's the tour of the back nine (the front nine tour is the previous blog post below):

The back-nine is par 37. I shot a 39 from the green tees (3,516 yards) with two birdies for a final score of 81. Total yardage for the green tees is 6,320, which is plenty of golf course in a three- to four-club wind (typical of an afternoon at Old Macdonald).

--Matty G.