How The Owner Plays Redstone: Hole 13
Hole #13 — The prettiest hole that ruins my scorecard.
345 yds (blues) · Par 4 · Slight dogleg · Fairway bunkers: right side
Green: perpendicular to fairway, generous, slopes front to back · Grass bunker rear, three bunkers centre-right and right
I am torn on Hole 13. Genuinely torn.
Standing on that elevated tee, the fairway dropping away in front of you, trees framing the whole picture — it’s a postcard. One of the most beautiful tee shots on the course. And when you finally drag yourself up to the green and turn around to look back at where you came from? Also a postcard. The tee box sitting up there, the mountain behind it, the whole hole laid out below you.
Two stunning views. One hole. Absolutely ruthless scoring.
This is my nemesis. My bogey maker. The hole I have been trying to figure out for twenty years. And I say that as the person who owns it.
SOMETHING I SHOULD MENTION
It is only 345 yards from the blues. I use driver. Every time. I know exactly what you’re thinking. You are correct.
The tee is elevated — you hit downhill to the landing area, then back uphill to the green. My goal is to get inside 100 yards. The smart play is a rescue club to 150, but the shot from 150 on this hole requires its own therapy session. So driver it is.
On this glorious day I actually nail it. Land in the rough on the right at about 80 yards, right beside the bunker. Things are looking up.
The rough is shaggy. I grab the 58-degree wedge. Back centre pin. The green tilts front to back, bunkers protect the front, and the grass bunker at the rear is where dreams go to die — especially with a back pin. The ideal shot lands just below the hole. Simple. Straightforward. What could go wrong.
QUICK DETOUR — THE MINE SHAFT
When we built this green there was a shaft about three feet in diameter and forty feet deep running right underneath it. We filled it in, built to full USGA spec — six inches of pea gravel, a foot of sand, proper drainage, irrigation. Textbook. And over the years that old shaft just kept slowly, quietly settling. We’ve repaired it seven or eight times. The mountain always has the last word.
TEE
Driver. Nail it. Rough on the right at 80 yards. Beside the bunker. Genuinely optimistic for the first time on this hole in recent memory.
2ND
58-degree from shaggy rough. Good swing. Adrenaline kicks in at exactly the wrong moment — as it always does on this hole — and the ball carries into the grass bunker at the back. I grunt up the hill. Emerge at the top tired, slightly out of breath, treated to another gorgeous view of the tee box below. Beautiful. Terrible lie.
3RD
Six feet off the green, nestled in the rough. Pin is 10 feet onto the putting surface — only a couple feet from the downslope. Fast greens in summer mean anything past the flag finds the bunker. The play is to flop it exactly 5 feet short. No more. I flop it. It rolls nearly off the green. I have done this before. I will do it again.
4, 5
A couple of putts. I won’t go into detail.
Sheepish double bogey — 6
In many cases I am genuinely happy to walk away with a 6 here. That’s where I am with this hole.
The view from the green looking back at that tee box is still worth every stroke.
If you can do better consistently, please send me your plan. I’ve been working on mine for twenty years and the hole is not concerned.
On to 14.
— Cary
