Red Feather Preview: Holes 4 & 5

As the grand opening of Red Feather draws near, I thought it would be nice to give a preview of the work that has been done. This will give you a chance to envision the new golf shots the improved layout will force you to hit.

#4 Red Feather

The perspective from the elevated tees really highlights the new fairway bunkers and greenside bunker. It also allows you to notice the grading changes and improved shape of the fairway. When stepping on the tee, you may notice how much more challenging the tee shot has now become. The addition of fairway bunkers on the left and right forces you to choose whether to layup, attempt to carry, or split the narrow gap between them. The left fairway bunker sits 237 yards from the blue tee and requires a 255 yard carry. The prevailing south winds will come in handy when challenging this bunker. The right fairway bunker sits 217 yards from the blue tee and should catch most shots missed right. The addition of these two bunkers definitely puts a premium on a well struck tee ball.

Your approach leaves you with an uphill shot to a green guarded on the right by a new greenside bunker. This bunker is deep and provides for a very dramatic bunker shot especially to a back pin. The miss on this approach shot is to the left where we have created a low mow roll-off area that hugs the front left length of the green. A chip shot from here is far more manageable than one from the bunker.

#5 Red Feather

The southern summer winds have always made this a challenging and intimidating tee shot. Combining the challenge of this tee shot with the elevated views from the box results in a pretty good golf hole. To enhance the hole, we only made a few changes. We started by shifting the left greenside bunker closer to the greens edge and wrapping it just slightly around the front of the green. We also added a greenside bunker on the front right edge of the green. These two changes should add to the aesthetic value and intimidation factor of this hole. However, in all reality, this hole should play fairly similar to the way it always has. The distances from the tees have not changed and the bunkers should only penalize those who miss the green. A well-played ball should have no problem finding its way to the green.

I hope you enjoy what you see and I will profile two new holes next week.