Quaker Ridge is an Albert Tillinghast Golden Age design that sits directly across the street from its more famous cousin Winged Foot, which has hosted numerous major championships. Truth be told by those who know, Quaker Ridge is built on a more topographically interesting piece of ground than Winged Foot and the result is a strategic offering with all the Tillinghast design features that is a pure delight to walk and play.
Plenty of kudos in the clubhouse for A.W.’s design efforts.
It too has hosted it’s fair share of National and Metropolitan New York championships which is a testimony to it’s design pedigree.
1997 pitted the best male amateurs against each other from America and GB & I in the bi-annual Walker Cup
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2018 the Ladies Curtis Cup international amateur team competition was contested here.
The clubhouse and amenities have a low-key, hamish character that is welcoming to all who set foot on the property. They make you feel like a member even if you are not and are only interested in making sure your Quaker Ridge experience fulfills your expectations. The club maintains a casual sense of humor as well as depicted in the “Suggestion Box” conveniently located near the clubhouse.
Playing courses created in this era where hickory shafts and balls with little spin prevailed one has to keep in mind there are some design features of the era that will affect your strategic play. Tillinghast bunkers seem very arbitrary in shape and location yet they guide you through a course where he presumed the low trajectory run up shot would often be the preference. Lots of cross bunkers 50 yards from the green are a bit disorienting but with open green front access they make the bump and run approach an option. Coupled with contoured greens with plenty of movement, that in the day were 7 on a stimpmeter, current faster green speeds make keeping the ball in the area of the pin location quite a challenge. Again the ground can be your friend as you plot your way in and around these green complexes.
Par 70 at 6200 yards from the White Tees does not seem overwhelming but with the hilly terrain and only two five pars in the mix the host of par fours in the neighborhood of 400 yards makes this a stiff test of driving accuracy and solid long club approach play. Having said that there is only one pond and a handful of streams in play through the round so you have to make some simultaneous swing or judgment errors on the same hole to end up with a disastrous score on the card. Careful consideration on each tee to the lines of the hole and the day’s pin location is critical to winning your match and posting a score you will be proud of.
The opening tee shot on one of the two par fives of the day gives you a true flavor of what is ahead. You have to drive it solidly over the hill in front of you to get a clear look at the lay up zone or consider going for the green in two. The massive cross bunker 50 yards from the green is a major no-no. Visiting this bunker because you were greedy on an approach a bit too far is a sure way to start your scorecard from a staggered start you may never recover from.
Par 4 fourth at 408 yards is eye candy in a radioactive package.
Tilly was always good at taking the elements the topography of the land presented and seamlessly integrating them into the strategic play of the course. Standing on the fourth tee box you can an eyeful of strategic options in playing one of the more unique par fours of the day. As described in the full hole-by-hole descriptive linked at the end of this posting, the large oak tree through the fairway and the center-line rock outcropping force you to make decisions that can result in a scoring opportunity or possibly a scoring disaster.
Not much water in play but where you see it your full attention is required.
The short Par 3 at the fifth is one of the only forced carry over a penalty area you will see all day, but the challenge here, as it is throughout the course, is the slope and movement presented in the putting surface. With greens kept at speeds in the 12 range being in the wrong segment of the green is a prescription for a putting disaster.
The second shot on this 3rd handicap hole is a challenging uphill fairway wood or hybrid into an elevated plateau green complex
How often do you see the number one and three handicap holes one after the other? Number six is the number one handicap hole on the course-this bedeviling four par played as a five back in the hickory age when it was created. It is followed by the third handicap hole an arduous dog leg right march up to a steep green complex requiring position off the tee followed by strong approach carry into a plateau green complex. Two bogies on 6 and 7 picks up shots on the field.
Decision off the tee ….from the left the approach shot must carry the bunker, from the right the line is not obscured.
Stepping on the eighth tee you are now entering over the next five holes the technical part of the course, where strategic finesse not power will be your friend. As you see on the fourth Tillinghast introduces the center-line feature on the eighth that forces the player to choose what side to hit their drive for the most advantageous approach to the green. This time it is a huge grassy dune that is probably another rock outcropping he did not want to make the expense to remove. In this case the safer route is left of the mound but it presents a longer shot in that must tangle with the green side bunker. Right of the mound brings trees and OB into play but from there the shot to the green is considerably shorter and has open access.
All the elements of a classic Redan in a very small and tidy package.
The ninth presents you with Tilly’s kitchy version of a short Redan Par 3 with plenty of right to left contour as you work into the green. The hole is completely surrounded by deep bunkers so there is no real bail out available. The kidney shaped green is silhouetted by the top edge of the front bunker so the play is landing the ball just over the right-center edge of this bunker and letting the ground move your ball into and across to the green surface.
The poplar tree gives you only half the green to shoot at and only if you are in the right half of the fairway.
Standing on the eleventh tee the driving area seems wider then the Hudson but take note of the large poplar tree shadowing the left side of the fairway. Any drive left of center will have to contend with the sprawling limbs of this tree. If you are in the correct segment of the fairway the second shot is likely less than 150 yards but the architect created a moated effect by having the fronting stream turn around the right side of the putting surface and meander behind the back right corner. An articulate iron in needed here and could provide a good birdie opportunity.
Brawny comes to mind as you take in this long Par 3.
As you look down over 210 yards from the elevated tee box on this big boy of a Par 3 thirteenth you will recognized the technical part of the course is now behind you. It is hard to be articulate with a very long club in your hand but at least Tillinghast provided lots of roll up space behind the two front bunkers set well off the green. The contour of this one is tricky so pay attention to the ridge that bisects the green.
This serpentine five par should be very manageable if you don’t get greedy.
I cannot help but wonder what it must have been like to try to negotiate this three shot Par 5 with a set of hickory clubs and a ball with a lot of curve. The strategic path of the fourteenth ramping it’s way up the steep hill is delineated by more bunkers then you can fathom. From the drone this kind of looks like the silhouette of a Tyrannosaurus Rex but it packs slightly less bite. If you lay-up short of the crossing line of bunkers at 120 the short iron approach should take the high score out of the mix.
I love the way the high edges of the bunkers further obscure your vision of this tiny target.
What these Golden Age architects do really well is they let the land dictate the routing and hole strategies and they rarely make two holes on the same course that have similar strategic character. The penultimate hole is such a unique offering-a short but not drivable Par 4 on one of the flattest portions of the course that still demands discipline in both the tee ball and the approach to take advantage of a hole that is only 344 yards on the card.
The tee shot has to hug the right side near a nest of bunkers to have a straight on approach line to the flag. The green is the second smallest of the day, a virtual thumbprint pinched on all sides by deep bunkers. There is plenty of back to front slope which puts a premium on keeping your very short iron approach below the hole. As with so many great holes you may walk off this green shaking your head wondering why you did not make a better score then you did.
As you work your way up the corridor of trees playing your tee ball on the last, you get a full relief of the grand clubhouse at the top of the hill behind the eighteenth green. The approach is significantly up hill requiring an extra club and once again the fronting bunkers are a good 75 short of the putting surface so you have plenty of space to work a shot in on the ground if you have to.
When the final putt drops and you take off your hat to shake hands with the others in your group, take a second to look back down the fairway at the rolling topography that Tillinghast had you explore through the day. It is a majestic sight and one worthy of the quality of the course you just experienced.
Scarsdale, New York
Architect: Albert Tillinghast (1916), Gil Hanse (2013)
(Red/White) Par Rating Slope Yardage
Black 70 74.8 143 7008
Blue 70 72.2 137 6456
White 70 70.8 134 6163
Green 70 68.5 130 5631
If you would like a printable PDF of this posting including a yardage book quality hole-by-hole description of how to play the course hit the link below.
moegolf 
Had the good fortune to play Quaker Ridge one year when the East Course at Winged Foot was under repairs. Tilly at his best!
It was an awesome day. Noah and I played in a Golfers Journal event. We played it twice that day. Second time through was awesome since we were familiar with what was in front us.
We played Westchester Country Club the next day. The Tour played there for decades.
Real Big Boy course.
Loved it.