You've probably played a Redan hole. You almost certainly didn't know it.
If you've ever stood on a tee box facing a par 3 where the green was angled away from you, tilted from front-right to back-left with a deep bunker guarding the low side, you were looking at a design concept that's been replicated on hundreds of courses worldwide for over a century. It has a name. It has a history. And understanding it can genuinely change how you play the hole.
Welcome to the world of template holes — golf architecture's most enduring and fascinating tradition.
The Man Who Started Copying
In 1901, a wealthy Chicago socialite named Charles Blair Macdonald read a series of articles in Britain's Golf Illustrated debating which holes in the British Isles were the greatest. Macdonald, who had learned the game as a teenager at St Andrews and won the first U.S. Amateur in 1895, became obsessed with an idea: what if you could take the best strategic concepts from the finest holes in Scotland and England and build them all on one course in America?
Over three trips across the Atlantic, Macdonald sketched, measured, and studied the holes he admired most. He wasn't interested in exact replicas — he wanted to capture the strategic essence of each design. The angles. The decisions. The way a hole rewarded smart play and punished lazy thinking.
The result was the National Golf Links of America, which opened in 1911 on the eastern tip of Long Island, right next door to Shinnecock Hills. It was immediately recognized as something revolutionary. Macdonald hadn't just built a great golf course — he had created a vocabulary for golf design that architects still speak today.
The Big Three Templates
Macdonald and his protégés Seth Raynor and Charles Banks eventually developed around a dozen template concepts, but three stand above the rest in terms of influence and recognizability.
The Redan
Origin: The 15th hole at North Berwick West Links, Scotland.
The Redan is the most copied hole in golf, and once you know what to look for, you'll see it everywhere. The defining features:
- A par 3 with a plateau green set at an angle to the line of play
- The putting surface tilts from front-right to back-left, falling away from the approach
- A deep bunker guards the front-left, which is the low side of the green
- The back of the green often falls off into trouble
The genius of the Redan is that it presents a clear risk-reward decision on what seems like a simple par 3. You can aim at the high right side of the green and let the slope feed your ball toward the pin — but if you misjudge the carry, you're in the front bunker or worse. You can play safe to the right, but you'll face a terrifying downhill putt across the full width of the green.
The name itself comes from military architecture: a redan is a V-shaped fortification designed to deflect incoming attacks. The green does exactly that to incoming golf shots.
Where to play one: The 4th at National Golf Links is widely considered the finest Redan in the world, possibly even better than the original. Riviera's 4th hole is George C. Thomas's take on the concept — Ben Hogan called it "the greatest par 3 in America." For a public option, the 12th at Old Macdonald in Bandon, Oregon is Tom Doak's excellent modern interpretation.
The Biarritz
Origin: A now-destroyed hole at the golf course in Biarritz, France.
If the Redan is golf architecture's most intellectual template, the Biarritz is its most dramatic. Picture this: a long par 3 — usually 200 yards or more — to a massive, elongated green that's split in half by a deep swale or valley running across its center. The putting surface has two distinct plateaus separated by a depression that can be several feet deep.
The original hole was built around 1890 by Willie and Tom Dunn at a course serving British expats in the French seaside resort town. The green sat on a cliff above the Bay of Biscay. The hole was destroyed during World War II when German forces built fortifications along the coast, but by then, Macdonald had already brought the concept to America.
The Biarritz tests distance control in a way few other holes can. If the pin is on the back plateau and your ball lands on the front, you face a putt that dives into a valley and has to climb back out the other side. Get the wrong plateau and you're looking at a very creative two-putt at best.
Where to play one: The 2nd at Yale Golf Course is one of Raynor's finest, with a green that stretches over 60 yards deep. Fishers Island Club's 5th is another Raynor classic. For a more accessible option, look for the Biarritz hole at Lido Golf Club, the modern Keiser family project in Wisconsin that recreated Macdonald's lost masterpiece.
The Cape
Origin: The 14th hole at the Old Course at St Andrews (though the concept has evolved).
The Cape is the template that challenges you most off the tee. It's typically a par 4 or par 5 where the hole doglegs around a hazard — usually water — and the green juts out into or alongside that hazard. The more of the hazard you carry off the tee, the shorter and better your approach angle becomes. Play safe and you're left with a longer, more difficult second shot.
The Cape is essentially a geometry problem. Every golfer faces the same question — how much can I bite off? — but the answer is different for everyone based on their carry distance and confidence. A 280-yard driver and a 220-yard driver are playing completely different holes, and that's exactly the point.
Where to play one: The 5th at Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda, designed by Macdonald himself, is the original American Cape. The concept shows up in modern designs too — you'll find Cape-style holes at Streamsong, Cabot Cliffs, and Sand Valley.
Why This Matters for Your Game
This isn't just architectural trivia. Recognizing template holes gives you a real strategic advantage.
On a Redan: Stop firing at the flag. The hole is designed to reject direct attacks. Play to the high side of the green and let gravity do the work. A shot that lands on the right half of the green and releases toward the pin is the architect's intended play. If the pin is front-left, directly above the bunker, take your par and move on — that's a sucker pin.
On a Biarritz: Club selection is everything, and it's not about distance to the center of the green. Figure out which plateau the pin is on and commit to landing on that level. The swale is designed to make the wrong plateau feel like a full shot away. Two-putting from the wrong tier is a victory.
On a Cape: Be honest about your carry distance. Not your best drive — your average carry. The hole rewards the right amount of aggression for your game, not someone else's. Taking on more water than your game supports isn't bold, it's just bad math.
The Template Revival
Here's what makes this topic timely: template holes are experiencing a genuine renaissance. Architects like Tom Doak, Gil Hanse, Coore & Crenshaw, and others have been weaving template concepts into modern designs for years. Old Macdonald at Bandon Dunes is essentially a love letter to the template tradition. The rebuilt Lido Golf Club brought Macdonald's lost Long Island masterpiece back to life. And at Seminole Golf Club in Florida, Gil Hanse is currently in the middle of a major restoration project to unwind decades of modifications and get back to Donald Ross's original 1929 vision — a reminder that the best ideas in golf architecture don't expire.
The next time you're standing on a tee or in a fairway and something about the hole feels familiar — a green angled just so, a bunker placed in a way that seems to dare you — pay attention. There's a good chance you're looking at a design concept that's been challenging golfers since before your great-grandparents were born. And there's probably a smarter way to play it than you think.
