Known as the most copied golf hole in the world, the 15th on the West Links is both historically significant and much loved by members and visitors. The term "Redan" hails from a type of defensive fortification used to protect territories from invading armies. Following the Crimean War, John White-Melville, a serving officer with the British Army likened the 15th hole (or the 6th hole back in those days) to the formidable fortress, or Redan, he had encountered at Sebastopol.
Charles Blair MacDonald, famed for designing famous golf courses including National Golf Links of America and Shinnecock Hills, used templates of iconic holes from links courses in the UK such as the Road Holes (17th, Old Course, St Andrews), Alps (17th, Prestwick) and of course, Redan. He started a trend of course designers constructing a par 3 hole which has a green that slopes from right to left (or left to right for a "Reverse-Redan") surrounded by bunkers. Many of these holes fail to resemble the original but the fundamental features are there.
Looking at this photo below and comparing it to older photos of Redan, it is clear that the bunker left of the green had lost its original shape and size. It felt like there was a big crater left of the green which the bunker just didn't sit quite right in. Those who have played out of the bunker will be aware that the base of the bunker sloped from left to right and similarly to the 17th bunker before it was renovated in January, often made golfers play from the bottom of the face forcing a very steep flop shot to escape. As we were planning our winter programme of work, this bunker was at the top of the list to rebuild.
Clyde Johnson (Cunnin Golf Design) and Chris Haspell (Chris Haspell & Associates) were once again asked to come on-site to carry out some project work after their excellent work with the 17th bunker. They started their time on site renovating the 6th and 10th tees before moving onto the 15th hole. Old imagery of the hole was used as guidance as to how the bunker used to look. It was also decided to move the existing Red and White tee over behind the Blue tee to tie the bunker into the bank and make the stone dyke behind the green visible from the tee again. Ground was broken on the 16th of November.
I won't lie, of all the projects we have ticked off this year (17th Bunker, Turf Nursery, Bulk Materials Building and the 6th & 10th tees), this project has given me the most trepidation as I'm hugely aware of the historical element of this hole and it's features. That's why it was so important to involve Clyde and Chris along with Reece and Rory to use their expertise and make sure the bunker was rebuilt sympathetically and that it resembled something close to how the bunker used to be. By having a good few months to research and prepare for rebuilding the bunker, they knew what the objectives were and how they were going to achieve them.
They wasted absolutely no time in getting going with the old bunker and tee essentially removed within an hour or 2. From there, they moved material over to where the new tee was going to be placed and got the levels to where they needed to be. From there they tied the tee to the left side of the green.
Clyde worked away at shaping the size and shape of the bunker before Reece and Rory started laying the base layer of revetted turf. Scott and Ryan from our Greenkeeping team joined them to expertly build the revetted wall within a week using roughly 20 pallets of turf. Clyde finished off shaping the base layer and finalising the top line of the revetted wall. The new bunker is notably bigger, but with Clyde's shaping of the base, it will play a lot fairer with balls rolling down into the middle of the bunker to give golfers a better shot to get out - similarly to how the 17th bunker plays now.
The bunker will still need to be turfed around the sides along with the tee. The green will be extended out on the left side beyond the bunker which will restore the green closer to its original size.
Big thanks to Clyde, Chris, Reece, Rory, Scott, Ryan and Daniel for all their time and effort working on this bunker restoring an important part of the Redan hole.
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