BANDON - Mike Keiser and Bill Coore posed for picture after picture on the windswept first tee at Bandon Trails on Wednesday, and didn't mind a bit.

The opening of a new golf course is a momentous occasion, especially if it's at a world-class resort.

So Keiser, the Bandon Dunes Resort owner, and Coore, who designed Bandon Trails with partner Ben Crenshaw, happily talked with the 230 golfers who made the trek to the resort for the grand opening of the new course.

"It's a fascinating and wonderful thing to see people come out and experience the course," said Coore. "It's a beautiful day. It's an honor to be part of it."

Bandon Trails follows in the footsteps of Bandon Dunes, the original resort course, which opened in 1999, and Pacific Dunes, which opened in 2001.

Initial reaction, though, suggests it won't be compared unfavorably with the other two, both ranked among the top six public courses in the United States.

"I think it's generally the equal of the other two," said Keiser, who added it's a good contrast for Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes, each of which have several holes on a bluff overlooking the beach.

After the first couple holes at Bandon Trails, which sit on dunes like the other two courses, the new addition to the resort wanders through a meadow and into the forest before returning through the meadow and finishing with the 18th hole on the dunes.

"This course is stunningly different from the other two," said Keiser, who said when Pacific Dunes opened that he liked how different that course was from Bandon Dunes.

Pacific Dunes has narrower fairways and smaller greens than the resort's first course, as well as dramatic dunes. Bandon Trails has the meadow and the forest.

Coore and Keiser played the course together on Tuesday, and the designer came away pleased.

"It was fun," Coore said, adding that the course provides plenty of challenge to keep a golfer's mind focused, but not too much to enjoy the environment.

"It's a glorious setting," he said. "It's golf first and foremost, but it's also a nature walk."

Coore also is pleased with how the course fits in with the rest of the resort.

"Our goal was not to come here to compete," he said. "It was to come here and complement the other two wonderful courses they have here."

Coore and Crenshaw have designed nearly 20 courses, most in the United States and several that have received high rankings. They jumped at the chance to work at Bandon Dunes.

"It was such a wonderful opportunity," Coore said. "In our profession, all you can ask for is a wonderful piece of property and the freedom to work with it."

The result is something that resort officials are pleased with. Many of the first-day golfers had similar reactions.

"It's wonderful," said Carl Rodrigues, who came down from Portland with several buddies for opening day. "It's so unique. You play (every) hole and you say, 'I've never done that.'"

Rodrigues and his friends are regulars at the resort, coming down several times a year. He said every member in his group had a similar reaction Wednesday to the first time they played the other two courses.

"The one thing all four guys in our group said as we walked off the 18th green was, 'Gee, I wish it didn't have to end,'" Rodrigues said.

Resort officials like it when people debate which course is better because that means they want to return to play all three. For Rodrigues, that's a likely future scenario.

"When people ask, "Which one is your favorite?' I always say, 'The one I just walked off,'" he said.

Wednesday's golfers featured a mix that included about 50 percent from the Pacific Northwest and 50 percent from other parts of the country, including more than 20 from the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

During the summer, a higher percentage of the golfers usually come from other states, but quite a few golfers came to the opening of Pacific Trails just as they had for the first day of the other two courses.

One such group was from Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon and included, among others, Dick Howells, his son, Blake, and Blake's father-in-law, Pat Becker.

They, too, came away with favorable first impressions.

"I think it's a sensational complement to the other two courses," said Dick Howells. "The natural beauty is tremendous, and how they used the natural elements to shape the course."

"I think what I like most about the three courses is they're all distinct - they have their own personalities," said Blake Howells.

As for Bandon Trails, he likes how the tee shots are fairly easy on most holes, leading to generous fairways.

"It gets tight around the greens," he said. "And the bunkers look like they've been there 100 years."

"I think it's just a jewel and a great addition to the two oceanside courses," said Becker.

He envisions playing Bandon Trails as a nice relief after two days battling the winds on the other courses - the new course isn't influenced as much by the breezes.

And the group expects to play all three courses on every journey to the coast, the one "problem" with the new addition, Dick Howells said.

"We used to leave home at 6 in the morning, play 18 holes, spend the night, play 18 in the morning and be back home by 7 p.m.," he said. "Now we're going to be forced to spend two nights. You can't just play two of the courses."

The course wasn't the only thing drawing rave reviews Wednesday - the clubhouse, named Trails End, also left a strong impression.

"The clubhouse and restaurant match the ambiance," said Dick Howells, who spent decades in the lodging and restaurant industry.

Trails End includes a restaurant with views of the 18th green, as well as a gazebo where people can gather to discuss their rounds over drinks.

"I want to put in a plug for that building," Keiser said pointing to Trails End from the first tee. "It's not often you say the building is an addition to the golf experience."

With the opening of Bandon Trails, the resort now has three distinct dining opportunities between the Bandon Dunes Lodge, McKee's Pub and the restaurant in Trails End.

It also has another lodging option in the nearly completed Grove - 10 of the 16 four-room suites in that area were rented Wednesday night - and an expanded employee base. Now 461 employees work at Bandon Dunes during the high season, which stretches from early April to mid-November. That doesn't include the 325 members of the caddie corps.

Among the pleased observers on the first tee Wednesday was Josh Lesnik, the resort's first general manager, who saw the opening of Bandon Dunes before being promoted to a vice president position in Kemper Sports Management, which runs the resort.

"I think it's phenomenal," Lesnik said of the new course. "I think we all think it's phenomenal. I think Mike's hit another home run."

For Lesnik, the entire resort has been one big home run by a great visionary.

"I can't believe this man created this," he said of Keiser. "It's unbelievable."

Keiser admitted Wednesday that he never envisioned the resort being so successful when Bandon Dunes first opened.

"There were times when I sort of dreamed it would work out well, but there wasn't anything tangible," he said. "This was always a possibility, but a distant or remote one."

Now the resort not only has three courses, but three busy ones. About 130 rounds were played on both the Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes courses on Wednesday, a pretty good number for a Wednesday two days after Memorial Day, resort officials said.

The opening of Bandon Trails led some to wonder when a fourth course might be built at the resort. That's a question for the future, Keiser said.

"I'm not even thinking about it," he said.