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U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship
Red Tail Golf Club, Devens, Mass.
June 22-27

Yardage: 6,259/6,157 yards

Par: 36-36—72

Defending champion: Tiffany Joh

Opened: 2002

Designer: Brian Silva

USGA championships: This is the first USGA championship for the course, but Red Tail previously hosted the 2005 Massachusetts State Junior Championship and is the annual home of the New England Assistants’ Championship.

Set-up notes: The seventh hole could play 351 or 391 yards depending on the location of the tee marks and the ninth could measure 345 or 400 yards.

What’s in a name: The course derives its name from the Red Tail hawks that routinely soar over the 7,000-plus-yard course. The layout, which was routed on a former U.S. Army base (Fort Devens), flows over rolling wooded hills and meanders around and through numerous ponds and streams. The New England landscape features maples, birches, oaks and pines along with tall grasses and sands reminiscent of links-style coastal courses.

High praise: The club became the first Audubon International Signature Sanctuary golf course in Massachusetts and New England.

Mass appeal: Massachusetts has hosted 52 previous USGA championships, but this will be the first U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links held in the state. No player from Massachusetts has ever claimed the WAPL title, but the state’s most famous champion is 1913 U.S. Open winner Francis Ouimet, who edged past two English stalwarts Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff at The Country Club. Ouimet would later add two U.S. Amateur titles.

Top honor: Red Tail’s Jim Pavlik, the director of golf, received the 2008 New England PGA Merchandiser of the Year award.

Bunker down: The par-4 17th hole does have its share of obstacles, but the hole wasn’t named "Bunker" for its sand hazards. The course was built on an old Army base, but the hole’s location on the course formerly housed ammunition storage bunkers, some of which can still be seen to the right of the green. Meanwhile the par-4 12th hole is named "Slide" because of an old American vintage that remains near the ground that was once part of a children’s playground for base families.