Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Redans I’ve built




St. Catharines, you can aim left of the bunker and feed the ball across the green. The green slope right the whole way.


I have built a few over the years.

The first true redan I ever built was the 17th at Ballantrae in Aurora. While the concept for the hole was good and the green worked as planned, the hole is too short. The original hole was going to be 200-210 yards before the housing lots got changed in the middle of construction to increase the lot sizes to increase the housing square footage. The hole was forced down to 165 yards (back tees) which allows players to always fly at the green surface every time. It taught me that there is a minimal length for the concept to work properly.

I have built two reverse redans; one at St Catharine’s (the green and fronting bunker at least) and one at Frog’s Breath (where bunkers are exchanged for rock and the hole is uphill adding length - very stunning looking). I have run a few greens away but have not built the feeding grade going into the green up to have the same impact as a redan would have on the approach.

There is no question in my mind that I will likely do a redan green on my next course. There just too much fun to play!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ian
Is the 4th at St. Catharines an original Thompson green site. When I played it last year it really stood out as a hole that Thompson may have done. That may be a testament to you that it looked like an original. Did you do any other work at St. Catharines?