The view to Bald Mountain is more than just a view — it’s your general line of play as you begin your round. The straight-forward aim becomes more challenging with the bumps and moguls sprinkled across the approach. A good plan is an entrance slightly from the left as the green will not hold any shot that may be headed to the right. Running the ball up from the left is most always better here than gambling with the aerial shot that can easily run off the right or back. From down below to the right of the green, your recovery will require a well-played lob shot to a green you’re sure not to see. Named for its rather kind and hospitable introduction, Handshake only poses a problem when you try to take on more than necessary. Play it cool.

Take note of that lone bunker guarding the left side of the green. Referred to as a “deception bunker,” that seeming little pit of sand is actually well short of the green despite appearing right at the front edge. The best angle into the green is nearly always just left of this bunker, or right over it if you can stop the ball. Fall-Away does just what it says: The entire hole falls away. This may be one of the best approaches to consider the ground game. A well placed shot just above the bunker can be the trick to getting it close. Only with a game that plays right to left will you be able to weigh trying a shot in from the right.

First tip: This hole pays slightly uphill, so don’t let the short yardage get the best of you. Secondly, the green is mostly a pocket where balls tend collect toward the center. That, of course, depends on how far off-line you may be. Take note of the shelf on the green at the far back-right. A flagstick in this location will require an extra bit of length, or the consequence of having to putt up the steep slope. Notch is named for the gap formed at the green’s front edge. One needs to be careful not to toy with the surrounding slopes that create this gap and the green’s pocket design as the slopes can propel the ball in all sorts of directions. Some aren’t ideal.

The original Redan goes back to the 1800s. It graces the West Links at North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland. Named for the French word Redan – “a word to describe a narrow opening, typical of the openings in castle parapets that become narrower toward the outside.” These openings allow a rifle to be aimed outward, while the openings facing the enemy are but narrow slits. Such is the Redan in golf — a hole with a narrow opening, and one where incoming shots must carefully be aimed if the result is to gain any entrance at all. The typical Redan green slopes away from the player. This creates yet another demand, where you must carefully control where the ball lands. Most always a Redan will involve a shot needing to land well short of the hole location in order to give it room to roll and come to rest. At our Redan, it’s typical to aim left and use the slope to work a ball to the right and onto the putting surface. Playing over the bunker at the right side is rarely a good option as the green’s slope will not allow the brakes to be applied in time. That bunker at the left — just like the original Redan — is what makes that entrance narrow. The best advice is to think about the roll-out. It can often be two clubs less to get the ball to stop near the hole. One more thing: This is our longest hole, and can be extended to 240-yards.

Biarritz, France was the home to the original green of this design — a long shaped green with a deep chasm running across from left to right. Willie Dunn Jr., a Scottish clubmaker and professional, created the first example in 1881 at the famous Biarritz Spa on the southwest coast of France. That par-3 no longer exists, but thanks to golf pioneer Charles Blair Macdonald, the Biarritz green was brought to America just after 1900 along with many other replica greens that Macdonald considered essential in any course. The Richardson Hills Biarritz is a downhill tee shot with bumps and native sage pop-outs that can careen or capture an unlucky bounce. The most crucial decision is based on where the flag has been set. At that flat portion of the green at the front, you will need to use the ground game and land a ball short of the green’s surface or it’s likely the ball will roll down into the Biarritz trough. At the back level, it’s a matter of gauging the tee shot so you are able to hold that back surface. If you land on the downslope of the trough, it’s anyone’s guess what may happen. Of course, the Biarritz offers a reprieve to these two more difficult ‘level’ portions of the green at front and back — that’s the actual trough itself. A hole location deep in the trough is among the easier of all. Just get the ball to find its way in and you are bound to be close.

Nearly six stories above the green, the upper tees offer one of the greatest views on the course and create one of the most dramatic tee shots. No. 6 begins what we refer to as The Lower Canyon holes, Nos. 6, 7 and 8. These three holes share the most rugged terrain along with the finishing holes, Nos. 16, 17 and 18. Playing to an L-shaped green, the location of the hole will greatly determine your approach and strategy. The bail-out for all players is clearly to the left. From here, an up-and-down is not so difficult unless you find yourself amongst or behind the gnarly mounds. The most daunting feature of the Drop hole is the “Garden of Boulders” that guards the right of the green and forms its L-shape. A cup location behind this natural area can be tempting, but is a real gamble. The better play to that back-right green area is to softly work a shot onto the green and allow the contours to spill the ball back and to the right.

When Forrest Richardson and design partner Jeff Danner laid out The Hills, this short hole was shifted and re-worked on several occasions. The reason? To better fit the natural terrain and, finally, to preserve the pleasant little creek that meanders down from the hillside above. In its final form, Canyon plays anywhere from 80 to 111 yards and, depending on the tee, it will require a slightly uphill or level tee shot. Everything here rolls left. The two frontside bunkers intensify an uphill shot, so take that into account. One more bit of trivia — Canyon’s green is the smallest of all.

As the course turns back toward the clubhouse, the views become varied with backgrounds of the hills to the east and valleys to the west. Ski Slope is a delicate hole demanding a full carry to a green set into the natural hillside. The back slopes are meant to assist you, not only by stopping a ball, but also by allowing the ball to gently roll backward. The pocket of the green at front is four feet lower than the surrounding upper areas. The two bunkers at the left make hole locations anywhere near the left side a bit more thought-provoking. These are not bunkers to toy with — recovery is especially difficult.

Shortest hole — biggest green. New Moon is named for the unique feature of the green surface occurring about 30 yards past the front edge. This moon-shaped feature has been formed with stacked sod, commonly used on links courses to form revetted bunker walls, those near-vertical slopes that play havoc when a ball comes to rest anywhere near. The Half Moon feature is a hard-edge step in the green that causes a ying-yang situation: Avoid it at all cost when the cup is located before the step…yet be sure to overcome it when the cup has been set past the step. If you do fall short when the cup is past the step, you may be putting over the Half Moon or to either side. The opposite situation — putting back up the hill from below the step — is hardly ideal. Best of luck. This short wedge hole will require careful yardage calculation as the length can change by more than 80 yards depending on the tee used and where the hole has been set. Besides its namesake feature — the first-ever designed into a putting surface — Half Moon sports two deep bunkers. One stands sentry at the front of the deep green. The other waiting patiently at the back for that misjudged shot that just keeps on rolling.