Still Your Favorite After 100 Rounds
- Emma Novak
- Jul 29
- 4 min read
There's a concept in media studies called habituation — the idea that repeated exposure to anything, no matter how good, eventually dulls our reaction to it. The tenth time you watch your favorite movie, you're not gasping at the plot twist anymore. The hundredth song on repeat starts to blur into background noise.
Golf courses should, in theory, work the same way. You play the same 18 holes enough times and you'd expect the magic to wear thin — you know where the trouble is, you know the yardages, you've seen the view before.
Somehow, Red Tail doesn't do that. Every hole out here has a name, earned the old-fashioned way — through repetition, arguments in the clubhouse, and a few humbled scorecards. So I went looking for the stories behind them.
Tanks Crossing — No. 2
Most par 5s ease you in. Red Tail's 2nd doesn't bother — a 568-yard dogleg right that climbs as it swings, named for the Army tanks that once rumbled across this exact fairway back when this was Fort Devens. History aside, the real threat shows up on your layup: two enormous bunker complexes squeeze the fairway about 120 yards from the green, the left one stacked six bunkers deep, rising out of the ground like a small mountain range. They're not really in play for most shots. They don't need to be. One look off the tee and you're already playing more cautiously than the hole actually demands.
It's not usually grouped with the course's more famous holes — but ask around the clubhouse and you'll find plenty of golfers who'd argue Tanks Crossing is the one that actually humbles them most.
Gravel Pit — No. 11
Red Tail sits on what was, decades ago, a working gravel pit — and nowhere is that history more dramatic than the 11th. It's a par 3 playing the entire way over a valley of waste bunker, to a green that rises up out of the earth to meet you almost level with the tee. Miss short, right, or left, and you're in some of the most punishing sand on the course. It's routinely called the best par 3 at Red Tail, and it's been compared to the legendary quarry hole at Pine Valley — which is about as good a compliment as a hole can receive.
Willies — No. 16
Some holes let you play it safe. Willies asks you to decide, out loud, what kind of golfer you are today. The dogleg turns sharply right about 250 yards off the tee, and the smart play is the conservative one — but the two-tiered green, guarded by a wall of waste bunker on the left, has a way of punishing anyone who plays it too timidly on the approach, too. Front pin, back tier, and you're not two-putting your way out of it easily. Most regulars have a Willies story. Not all of them are proud of it.
Bunkers — No. 17
Some holes get their nicknames from what's actually still sitting there. No. 17 got its name from the old Army ammunition bunkers, left over from Fort Devens' military days, still visible alongside the sweeping waste sand that frames the fairway. It's the most photographed hole on the property, and for good reason — but it's also a genuine risk-reward test. Bite off as much of the corner as your swing can handle. Come up short of the fairway, and you're not in the rough. You're in the waste, playing your next shot from ground that plays closer to hardpan than sand.
There's no other hole like it in New England, mostly because there's no other piece of land quite like it in New England.
Temptation — No. 18
Every course needs a closer that knows it's being watched, and Temptation earns its name honestly. It's a 572-yard downhill par 5 with a blind, tree-lined drive, and from there the hole asks the only question that matters: lay up short of the water, or carry the whole thing to a tiny, tightly guarded green. Go for it and pull it off, and you'll remember the walk up 18 for a long time. Go for it and don't — well, that's a story too, and the clubhouse balcony has a clear view of the whole thing.
The Thing About a Course Like This
None of these holes are new. Regulars have played all five more times than they could count. And yet — ask anyone walking off 18 how the round went, and it's rarely "fine." It's usually some version of a story, about the bunkers that got them again on Tanks Crossing, or the tee shot on Willies they finally pulled off. That's the actual test of a golf course, more than difficulty or conditions ever could be: whether it's still giving you something to talk about on round 100.
What's your Red Tail story? Tell us which named hole has gotten the better of you the most — or the one you finally conquered — in the comments below. 👇
Go Find Out For Yourself Reading about Tanks Crossing and Gravel Pit is one thing — playing them is another. If it's been a while since your last round at Red Tail, or you're still working on your own Willies story, there's no better excuse than an open tee sheet.
Bring the Whole Group Every hole out here has a nickname because someone had a story worth telling about it — and stories are better with a group. Whether it's a corporate outing or a long-overdue guys' trip, Red Tail's ready to give your crew eighteen new ones to argue about.
Refuel on the Deck Whichever hole got the better of you today, the deck's a pretty good place to relitigate it. Grab a cold drink, order something great, and settle the debate over which name on the scorecard deserves to be feared the most.
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