Redan - The "Redan Hole" in Golf

The "Redan Hole" in Golf

A Redan hole or Redan is an aspect of golf course architecture commonly associated with golf architect Charles B. Macdonald. The term alludes to the "Redan" type of fortification. Specifically, a Redan hole has a green which slopes downward and away from the point of entrance, typically the front right portion of the green. Links golf is played on the ground as much as in the air and, consequently, the green slopes away from the golfer playing to the green from the tee or fairway. Thus, it is often played in an indirect manner; that is, the player plays somewhat away from the target and then allows contours to direct the golf ball to its final resting point.

Macdonald's oft-quoted description from Scotland's Gift: Golf is as follows:

Take a narrow tableland, tilt it a little from right to left, dig a deep bunker on the front side, approach it diagonally and you have a Redan.

This definition serves well to explain the basic concept. Macdonald built his original American Redan as the fourth hole at the National Golf Links of America, commonly known as NGLA. He and his design cohorts, Seth Raynor and Charles "Steamshovel" Banks built a Redan or a reverse version of it at nearly every course that they constructed. It is a design element that has been copied by modern architects frequently - most notably the husband wife team of Pete and Alice Dye and Tom Doak. The design element can be used as a green complex of any "par" hole - a par 3 most commonly, but it may also be used as a par 4 or par 5 green complex.

Many Redan holes are flanked by a variety of deep bunkers, in the typical arrangement one fronts on the left side. The original "Redan" is the 15th hole on the West Links of North Berwick. A frequent feature is a somewhat raised portion of ground with or without a bunker to the right (in a traditional Redan) side of the green which can be skillfully used to propel the ball onto the green and nearer the hole by the more skilled golfer. Redan holes in which the green is visible from the tee can produce a particular excitement for the golfer as the ball tracks its way to the hole. At the original Redan design in North Berwick, Scotland, the green is invisible (or blind) from the tee. The NGLA version, more the inspiration for modern copies than the original hole, introduced this concept of green visibility to the design. Many golf architecture connoisseurs feel that the NGLA hole is the perhaps the greatest example of this design, exceeding the original.

The name 'Redan' in golf comes from the Crimean War, when the British captured a Russian-held fort, or redan. A serving officer—John White-Melville—is credited on his return as describing the 6th (now the 15th - Ed.) like the formidable fortress, or redan, he had encountered at Sebastopol. It was conquered only after nearly a year of attrition, in which deaths totaled more than 20,000 British and 80,000 French soldiers. The word 'Redan' is now part of the English language, and the definition given by the Oxford Dictionary is 'Fort—A work having two faces forming a salient towards the enemy. — West Links - North Berwick