Quaker Ridge - Short Par 4s

[RSantangelo]

I played Quaker for the first time in 15 years.  What a great track.

I thought the short par 4s around the turn and frankly throughout the course were well designed and extremely interesting

The shar dog leg right, the short hole with the fairway divided by the mounds, the green abutting the creek...

What do others think of the short par 4s there?

[Tom_Doak]

I had forgotten about the 8th hole with the mounds in the middle.  That one is ... different.


By the dogleg right, do you mean the 7th?  Great hole, but I never thought of it as short.

[Steve Lapper]

What are you talking about???


I grew up at QR and only #8 and #17 could be considered shortish Par 4s. #8 plays totally uphill and #17's elevated green adds as well.


#7 plays 416 from the blues and plays uphill another 8 yds...not exactly a "short par 4"


#11 ("green abutting the creek") plays 372 from blues, but it too plays longer.


Quaker, similar to it's neighbor across Griffin Ave., has one of the best collection of LONG AWT par 4s.

[RSantangelo]

Thinking about it and looking at the card, You are right

We played the white tees 6200 yards and so they seemed short to me...from the whites they played 380, 318, 360, 377 and 15 played 368

I kept saying how the holes were so interesting even though they didn't require a lot of length but As I look at the card, Each hole gives 40-70 yards to the white tees on those holes

[Jeff_Lewis]

Homer Disclaimer: totally biased about this course!

First of all I want to salute the last two presidents, Gil Hanse and our super for doing an unbelievable amount of work to put the golf course in the best shape, both in terms of maintenance and architectural integrity that it has seen in my nearly 40 years (yikes!) of playing it.

The course is not a brutal bear, yet no local amateur (and many participants have been national amateur contenders) has broken par in our 36 hole invitational since 1991. 

Quaker has it all.  Probably as challenging off the tee as any quality US course.  The greens get your interest without going over the top. And there is an incredible variety of holes.

8 is less interesting with the out of control technology than it used to be. We can now simply go over the grassed mounds vs. choosing a side.  The hole is actually pretty interesting if you have to choose a side.  But, for goodness sake, a break between 6 (the hardest hole on the course and frankly one of the hardest par 4s I know), 7 (a very challenging hole), 9 (one of the toughest short par 3s in the world), 10 (a long par 3 with a very difficult green), 11 (a beguiling par 4 with a tree that actually belongs on a golf course), 12 (a very tough long par 4) and 13 (a 200+ par 3)...maybe its ok to have 8 be a flat green on a short hole that one can attack....what a relief. 

[JESII]

Jeff,

Are 9, 10, 11 and 13 all par 3's? I've never heard of anything like that.

[Jeff_Lewis]

Oops!  Corrected...

[Jaeger Kovich]

Jeff,

Are 9, 10, 11 and 13 all par 3's? I've never heard of anything like that.

Almost... 5,9,10 and 13 are the par 3s.

[Jaeger Kovich]

7 has never been among my favorite holes on the course.


Technology has also had an interesting effect on this hole. With the 90 degree dog leg right with out of bounds in the honey spot off tee for some many normal players, long drives have a tremendous advantage, as even a bigger hitter that is prone to too much slice spin should generally be past the turn when the ball starts cutting.


Looking forward to my first trip around QR in a few years next week I haven't seen #6 since the tree came down and the bunkers were restored... The 1940s aerial is framed on the wall in my office

[corey miller]

Jeff

I assume #8 is one of the holes that is visible from the parkway?  Is there more than one grassed area in the fairway?  Is this the only hole with this feature?

I ask the question because  we faced this issue at Sleepy Hollow with all the rock outcroppings.... were the "grassed mounds" always "grassed" or were they originally cut at fairway height and then evolved into more of a "hazard" with closer mowing in the fairway and an inability to cut the mounds short without "scalping" which seems to bother the average member.

At Sleepy I pushed for "scalping" but would be interested if this was ever debated at QR?

thanks

[Jaeger Kovich]

Jeff

I assume #8 is one of the holes that is visible from the parkway?  Is there more than one grassed area in the fairway?  Is this the only hole with this feature?

I ask the question because  we faced this issue at Sleepy Hollow with all the rock outcroppings.... were the "grassed mounds" always "grassed" or were they originally cut at fairway height and then evolved into more of a "hazard" with closer mowing in the fairway and an inability to cut the mounds short without "scalping" which seems to bother the average member.

At Sleepy I pushed for "scalping" but would be interested if this was ever debated at QR?

thanks

No, 4 and 6 are the ones visible from the Hutch. So it must be 4 you are thinking of which has an island of rough as well in the middle of the fairway off the tee. 8 Is visible from Griffen Ave... All the old pics I have seen clearly show defined rough on the mounds on #8.

[Jim Hoak]

I've only played QR once, but I loved it.  Only weakness may be the lack of a practice tee for a warm-up, as I recall.  I thought the drives presented were outstanding--probably better than its next-door neighbor.  WF may have slightly better shots into the greens.  But the quality of the 3 Tillinghast courses are comparable in my opinion.