BANDON, Ore. — Was it possible to drive a U-Haul truck into the lodge at Bandon Dunes golf resort and not be embarrassed to tell about it?

It certainly was, the truck loaded with our daughter's furniture — and my golf clubs — pulling smartly into a parking lot at the Lily Pond cottages, and next to a couple of Ferraris, no less.

There was a chance to play the new Bandon Trails course a couple of days before it opened on June 1 and who would let pride — or prejudice — stand in the way?

Not me.

What better way to break up a truck trip to California, one day playing golf among the dunes of the southern Oregon coast, the next walking among giant Redwoods across the border?

Bandon Dunes is a big story in Oregon, and in the golf world. The three courses — Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and now Bandon Trails — are as good or better than any three open-to-the-public cluster of courses in the world.

They are the equal of Ballybunion in Ireland, Turnberry in Scotland and Royal Birkdale in England, but are all together, and here, not there.

So many rich guys are flying in to play Bandon Dunes the state is ready to enlarge the airport at North Bend-Coos Bay about 30 minutes away.

Otherwise, Bandon, a small town on the Coquille River, is a tough two-hour drive from Eugene along the Umpqua River. You've got to want to go there, and people do. Resort officials say they have in advance tee times already realized 97 percent of their 2005 projections for the three courses.

The resort has so changed the economy and image of Bandon that loggers and cranberry farmers are now caddies and Bandon Dunes is spoken in the same resort breath with Pebble Beach and Pinehurst, even though Bandon Dunes is decidedly different.

It seemed like a silly notion, building a European links-style course on the dunes north of the river, silly because of Bandon's remote location and silly because of the prosaic notion of owner Mike Keiser that besides $100 greens fees there would be no carts allowed.

The theme was simple. Play golf the way it was meant to be played, without carts to ferry you around and global positioning systems to tell your yardage.

The holes would be shaped by wind and sand, not Jack Nicklaus. But could Old Tom Morris ever have meant that a round would cost $175, and a caddie, if you want one, another $50?

Bandon Trails, like its sisters, is special. In fact, its opening hole — onto a wide, washboard fairway to a green cut into an unearthly dunescape — is better than the first hole at either Bandon Dunes or Pacific Dunes. The closing holes, fought into stiff, prevailing winds, are better, too. Let the debates begin, over salmon hash in the mornings or meatloaf in the evenings, with the winner the golfer who happens to inhabit the Northwest.

The question isn't which course is better, but rather can you find a way on a long summer day to play all three, walking not riding, of course, paying $175 for the first 18 (if you are staying at the resort), $90 for a second 18 and getting a free round for the third. If Pacific Dunes, the wild ride through the dunes designed by Tom Doak, is like Ireland, and Bandon Dunes, the work of Scot David Kidd, more like Scotland, then Bandon Trails is surely Oregon-inspired.

Taken away from the ocean, over a ridge of dunes into a peaceful meadow and then on to some areas surrounded by tall timber, Bandon Trails is the thoughtful work of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, whose reputation at Sand Hills in Nebraska preceded them. It won't rank as high as Pacific Dunes, which has been ranked as high as No. 9 in the world. It doesn't rim the ocean the way the fourth and fifth at Bandon Dunes do, or have ocean on one side and five-story-high dunes on another as the 13th at Pacific Dunes does.

But I'm not sure Bandon Trails isn't a better 18-hole collection. There were no weak holes, with the par-3s, one to a green bisected by a gully of green, absolutely seductive. Bandon Trails is more isolated than the other two courses, more peaceful, more graceful, and for the most part less daunting.

There is more up-and-down, the sequence of holes back over a ridge of dunes — 13, 14 and 15 — wild and wonderful, setting up a monster par-5 into the wind at 16, the scorecard-picture par-3 at 17 and then an all-you-can-handle uphill finish on 18. As if Crenshaw, one of the game's great putters, designed the course for himself, the fairways are wide and the greens wicked. It is definitely a second-shot golf course, maybe the easiest of the three, maybe not.

Opening this summer along with the course are 64 new rooms, a 30-acre expansion of what already must be the world's grandest practice area, and an extension of the lodge to add 55 more seats at dinner. Bandon Trails has its own pro shop, away from view.

So far, the resort doesn't seem spoiled by success. So far, more is better.

Comments for Blaine Newnham can be sent to sports@seattletimes.com