The Quarry at Giants Ridge

[Mac Plumart]

So, I have my usual weekend round with a good friend of mine who travels quite a bit for business.  As we play our round today, he talks about a course he just played this last week.  The course turns out to be Jeff Brauer's The Quarry at Giants Ridge.

He said that it was a special golf course and that the holes were magnificent.  Wonderful risk/reward options with great variety, not to mention the land and course were fantastically beautfiul.  He said the "feeling" of the course reminded him of Cuscowilla (and what he meant by that is simply being on Cuscowilla makes you feel good as you just know it is a special golf course).

He was adament that I needed to get up to MN to play this course.  Although the course is highly regarded in the MN rankings and public course rankings, he said it was widly under-rated nationally and was a must play.

Anyway, I'll shut up now...but I just thought is was really cool that a non-golf course architectural focused golfer loved Jeff's course so much that he made a point to  passionately discuss it with me and encourage me to get  up there and check it out.  Congrats, Jeff.  It sounds like you hit a homerun with The Quarry!! 

[Jeff_Brauer]

Mac,

Thanks for the second hand kudos!  It was definitely a special piece of property, and I like to think I made the most of it.  Most people I know who have played it convey some of that "special feeling" which I gather comes from the Quarry site and the pure scale of the architecture compared to most MN resort courses.

I don't know if its "wildly underrated", being on top of the state lists in most mags, and ranked 19th nationally in the GD public rankings. I know Brad Klein has some heartburn with it as being too difficult, some of which is the way they choose to mow it.

BTW, if he played it last week, it must have been the first week it was open, and probably nowhere near peak playing conditions...in fact, in many years it still has snow on the ground up there at this time!

Thanks again!

[Charlie Goerges]

It often is under snow at this point, it's been a special year so far. I plan on actually being able to play it this year, the last time I was up there, it had just snowed a foot the week before and I couldn't play. I did, however, take some photos for a photo tour. I'll try to find the link to it and post it here.

[Charlie Goerges]

Here is a link to the photo tour thread:

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,36661.0/

[Joel Zuckerman]

I played both the Quarry and the Legend on a visit to Minnesota this past summer...they were both excellent, albeit well off the beaten track...but well worth the effort to get to.

[Jeff Shelman]

Both the Quarry and JBrauer's Wilderness at Fortune Bay located 30 minutes up the road are very, very good. They are probably the top two public access courses in Minnesota and matched with the Legend at Giants Ridge (good, but not like the other two, but a helluva No 3 starter) makes the Biwabik area the best place for a pure-golf trip.

It's probably not the greatest place to take the Mrs., but for pure golf, it is great.

And I don't care what JBrauer said, the two courses are underrated nationally.

Two summers ago, I played Paa-Ko Ridge on my drive from Phoenix to Minneapolis. I thought it was good, but as I played, I kept thinking, this isn't any better than the Quarry or the Wilderness.

[Jim Franklin]

I loved the Quarry and thought it was the best test of golf in Minnesota. I can't wait to get back.

[Terry Lavin]

Looks like a great piece of mining property on which Jeff built a great looking golf course.

[Bill Brightly]

The course looks great but I have to ask a dumb question: are the black areas the result of a brush fire?

[Charlie Goerges]

Black areas are the result of a controlled burn. I believe the purpose was to thin out the native roughs.

[Scott DeBolt]

Several courses burn their outer roughs, and native areas....it helps in getting a better take of the natives and eliminates weeds, etc. Most places these days are unable to control burn due to housing, burn restrictions, etc...

[JNC Lyon]

I love the look of the burned-out rough.  It looks very much like a heathland course with that texture.