How The Owner Plays Redstone: Hole 10

It’s a short walk from the log cabin behind the 9th green to the blue tee on 10. Maybe two minutes. But those two minutes cover about 130 years of history.

Right of the blue tees, down on Trail Creek, there’s a wood stave water system that most people walk right past. It was powered by electricity generated from the Lower Bonnington Dam. Rossland got electricity on or about July 14, 1898. The golf course tapped into the line in 1927. So before any of that — before the dam, before the wires, before the course — people were already crossing this ground.

A LITTLE KNOWN FACT

The exact spot where you stand on the 10th tee is where prospectors used to make camp before their final push into the mountains looking for gold. They’d sleep here, load up, and head out the next morning. You’re teeing off from a gold rush basecamp.

I always pause here. This is the turn — you step off the front nine and into the back nine, and something shifts. The front nine follows the historical layout of the course. The back nine runs through what was mining country. When you tee up on 10, you’re standing exactly on that line.

It gets me every time. In a good way.

Now. The tee shot.

419 yards, dogleg left at 230. You’re hitting across a ravine, which means any real mistake goes into red-staked territory. There’s a bunker on the left that’ll grab a ball that might otherwise drift into the trees — which sounds like bad news but is actually Les Furber looking out for you.

I take three wood here. Try to hit it straight or with a slight draw. 210 to 220 is the number you need to carry the ravine and get to the corner. It is genuinely fun to watch the ball on this hole.