A links hole becomes a model
The par-three 15th on North Berwick’s West Links is the original Redan, one of the most widely imitated holes in golf. The club’s history places its arrival in the westward course extension of 1868, while also noting that later alterations produced the celebrated hole. That distinction matters: the Redan we admire belongs to an evolving links, not a single drawing frozen in time.
Its name brings a military image onto the golf course. A redan is an angled defensive earthwork; the hole’s name is associated with the Great Redan at Sevastopol during the Crimean War. The analogy is apt without being literal. A raised, slanting target and formidable defending sand make the golfer consider how to approach a position that resists a frontal attack.
The ground is part of the shot
North Berwick’s essential lesson is the relationship between angle and movement. The green lies diagonally across the approach and falls from the higher right side toward the left and rear. The deep front-left bunker makes the direct line intimidating, while the higher shoulder on the right offers another route. A ball landing in the right place can use the slope to travel toward a flag that would be difficult to attack head-on.
This is not a rule that every shot must be run along the ground. Wind, firmness, the hole location and the player’s ability change the sensible choice. A direct aerial approach can work, but it asks for control of carry and stopping distance on a surface that falls away. The running alternative asks for an equally thoughtful judgment: not merely where the ball will land, but how it will move afterward. The bunker, shoulder and tilt are a single strategic system.
From Macdonald’s model to Raynor’s language
Charles Blair Macdonald made celebrated British holes the starting points for his American architecture. At National Golf Links of America in Southampton, the Redan became one of those “ideal hole” adaptations. Seth Raynor entered the project as a surveyor and civil engineer, helping translate Macdonald’s architectural ideas into a built landscape. National’s design should therefore be credited to Macdonald, with Raynor’s surveying and construction contribution clearly distinguished—not described as an independent Raynor commission.
The Redan’s influence on Raynor is best understood through that collaboration, rather than an assumed personal discovery at North Berwick. In his later independent work, Raynor carried forward the combination of an angled target, defending bunker and helpful contour, adjusting it to new sites. Camargo and Fishers Island belong to the broader story of his template architecture. The achievement was not to reproduce a Scottish green with photographic fidelity; it was to preserve its strategic question while changing the scale, setting and execution. A reverse Redan can turn the slopes the other way and still ask the same thing: can you use the land to reach a well-defended hole?
