Golf course architect Tom Doak tees up a ball on the eighth hole at Old Macdonald, which is under construction at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. World Photo by John Gunther.

BANDON — As workers used heavy machinery to shape fairways and greens on the newest golf course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort this week, a group of special guests got their first look at the course’s 10 holes completed last winter.

If their smiles and congratulations to designers Tom Doak and Jim Urbina are any indication, Old Macdonald will fit in just fine with the resort’s three highly ranked courses when it opens in 2010.

Doak invited golfers from several other courses to preview the holes that have been growing in for most of the year to get their feedback on the work that has been done. Then he and Urbina looked at the work still in progress with resort owner Mike Keiser.

By the end of the day Wednesday, all were happy.

“It’s (nice) finally to get people out there and see the reaction,” said Doak, who repeatedly received praise from the golfers. “They’re playing half the golf course. We can adjust (things based on) the feedback.”

The golfers all appeared pleased, though the hardest to satisfy probably is Keiser, a hands-on owner who gets final say in nearly every aspect of the design — just as he did with the Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails layouts.

Keiser said he is pleased with the progress on the new holes. Doak, Urbina and the construction crew will go through final shaping the next few days, with the last preparations before seeding being made early next year.

Keiser was thrilled with the reaction of the golfers, who came from clubs across the United States.

“I’m very happy,” he said.

The best thing might be that Old Macdonald will share one significant trait with its siblings at Bandon Dunes — a unique feel despite sharing the same land.

“There are now four courses and they are still all different,” Keiser said.

The other three courses all have debuted with praise by all the major golf publications, and have been ranked among the top 50 new courses in the United States.

Pacific Dunes, which was built second, has received the highest acclaim, and also was designed by Doak. But Old Macdonald is not just the work of Doak and Urbina, his longtime partner.

The concept for the course, as stated by Keiser from its announcement two years ago, is to honor C.B. Macdonald, described by some as the father of American golf design, by reflecting some of the great golf holes in the world, just as Macdonald did when he was the architect for courses a century ago.

Perhaps the first thing to catch the eye of the golfers Wednesday was a gaping bunker in the middle of the fairway for what eventually will be the sixth hole, but will be the first played by the visitors who preview the course — the resort plans to offer people a chance to play the first 10 holes starting this spring.

The sand trap is similar to Hell Bunker, a prominent feature on the 14th hole, also known as the Long Hole, at St. Andrews, considered by many the world’s most famous course.

The 11th hole also is reminiscent of St. Andrews, copying the 17th, famously known as the Road Hole. Except that instead of a building to drive over for golfers who want to cut the corner on the dogleg, the obstruction is gorse, a Bandon Dunes staple. The green comes complete with a road hole bunker on the left edge, just like St. Andrews.

The eighth hole is like the Cape Hole, which Macdonald built both at Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda and the National Golf Links of America.

When Macdonald built those holes, his obstruction for golfers was a lake. At Bandon Dunes, it’s rough with native plants.

“Ours revolves around a native area — his always used water,” Urbina said.

One feature golfers familiar with the resort quickly will notice is the immense size of the greens — double or triple the size of those at most courses, Doak said.

The seventh hole, a downhill par-3, has a nearly half-acre putting surface bisected by a huge swale that separates the front and back of the green.

It is patterned after a golf course in France that no longer exists. Only pictures remain of the Bairritz Golf Course, Urbina said, but he and Doak feel the hole reflects that one, except that its tee and green were separated by a cavern.

Old Macdonald will have a few original holes, including No. 7, which will take golfers to the edge of the bluff that overlooks the beach and Pacific Ocean, reminiscent of several holes on both Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes.

Doak played with three golfers and all raved about the hole, which includes an uphill second shot to a 12,000-square foot green separated from the cliff by several yards of fringe and rough.

“We didn’t think we were going to be up here when we started building the course,” Doak said.

But when he, Urbina and Keiser were discussing the routing early in the process, the question was raised, “What if we put the green up on the hill?” he said.

They figured it was the only way to get golfers to walk up to see the ocean, and plan a snack stand between the greens for the eighth hole and the 15th — the only other hole that comes close to the ocean.

Golfers got a close look this week at a hole under construction that mimics one of the most famous concepts, and one used repeatedly by Macdonald, a Redan hole — the original at North Barwick in Scotland.

“The Redan was one of his favorite holes,” Keiser said of Macdonald.

All the Redans were par-3 holes with greens that sloped from right to left and away from the tee box, and the one at Old Macdonald will be the same.

“It looks more like the one at North Barwick than any (Macdonald) did,” Urbina said.

Other holes are similar to ones at the National Golf Links of America, probably Macdonald’s most famous course, as well as several courses in Great Britain.

While they were happy to see the reaction of the golfers, for Keiser, Doak and Urbina, Wednesday was an important design day.

Keiser questioned the designers on how wide fairways would be, what the final shape of greens might look like, placement of bunkers and how tall gorse separating two holes would grow.

When looking at a couple of the greens, Keiser made suggestions for the areas immediately around them.

“Every one of these greens and surrounds is what we’re selling,” he said. “It’s not just the greens.

“That’s what Macdonald did and what you’ve done so well.”

He also reminded them that not all golfers coming to the course will be low-handicappers and that the layout must provide opportunities for average golfers to avoid troubles.

One of those areas will be on the 17th hole, reminiscent of the Alps Hole at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland because of a hill that hides the green on the second shot for all but the longest hitters.

Doak said all versions of the Alps Hole have two common threads.

“It’s (a) blind (shot) and you have to have some sort of bunker there,” he said.

The bunker will be right in front of the green and run nearly the entire width of the putting surface.

Keiser suggested that Doak and Urbina widen the area for golfers to run their shots up to the green to the left of the bunker and the peak of the hill.

Old Macdonald will be located east and north of Pacific Dunes, and covers a broad area. As Keiser looked out at the expansive area Wednesday, he said big is good, ranging from the size of the holes to the monstrous greens.

The fact that buildings won’t be visible from any part of the golf course except the clubhouse on the opening and closing holes and perhaps the snack shack near Nos. 7 and 15 — just like the courses on the rest of the resort — sets Bandon Dunes apart from the prevalant golf construction style used today, with residential areas offsetting the costs of operating the golf courses.

Looking at the wide fairway area for the Alps Hole, Urbina said, “You don’t see anything like this in development golf.”

Keiser was quick with his response:

“I’m very happy to say Bandon Dunes stands alone on golf,” he said.

And soon, that golf will include four courses.