77 on. Taking the existing footprint and redesigning it as a new course is not easy; members will not realise they are on the same property as years past.” NMP’s president Simon Poirier and vice president Mario Poirier add: “Reshaping the golf course to match the new design was no small task. Moving such a significant volume of earth required careful planning and execution, but we’re proud to have brought the vision to life.” Fry/Straka has changed the sequence of holes to provide shorter walks from greens to tees. “The first and eighteenth holes are south of a major thoroughfare, segregated from the remainder,” says Straka. “The ninth now returns to the bridge.” A halfway house, which will also cater to community residents, is being built and will overlook a large lake as well as holes nine and ten. “The new seventeenth is a dramatic par three, and its green is the closest to the undercrossing and near to the eighteenth tees,” says Straka. “The flow is now much better. From an architectural standpoint, many of the new tees and greens are much closer together and more convenient, even though we designed in a lot more elevation change.” The project has seen all bunkers rebuilt, using the Better Billy Bunker method. Straka describes the project as “the most in sync” he has been involved in, with the designers, NMP, Langley and club staff collaborating on the new design, which also included lake expansion, littoral plantings, work to hide cart paths, the relocation of around 660 trees and hundreds of new plantings, plus the introduction of native Florida landscaping throughout the course. “Having been in this industry for 40-plus years, this is the finest golf course renovation that I have ever witnessed,” says Langley. “Not only is the golf course stunning, but every type of player also walks away with a ‘wow, this is a beautiful golf course’. Architects Dana and Jason listened to our members and delivered beyond anything that we imagined.” The fourteenth hole on the renovated North course at Quail Ridge in Florida Photo: Evan Schiller
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