The Club at Quail Ridge: Delivering the dramatic

The Club at Quail Ridge in Boynton Beach, Florida, has completed a $21 million redesign of its North course, by golf course architects Fry/Straka and contractor NMP Golf Construction. 

The back nine reopened in November 2024 and the front nine reopened in mid-January 2025. 

The project comes five years after the club invested $7.5 million in a Bobby Weed renovation of its South course. 

After several meetings and pre-bids, Quail Ridge and the design team selected NMP Golf Construction as the contractor.  

“Quail Ridge has been actively reimagining every part of the club and community over the last 10 years,” says general manager Bill Langley. “Our most recent masterplan included a total revamp of the North course and perimeter of our community, replacing a 50-year-old tennis facility with a new modern racquet sports facility and relocating our community entrance.” 

The brief for Fry/Straka was to make the North course a stark contrast to the South, which has raised playing surfaces, quite small bunkers and crowned greens. 

“Every hole has undergone a dramatic transformation,” says architect Jason Straka. “However, those whose topography was dramatically altered are the most significant. For example, on the sixth, a lake has been replaced with 60 feet of fill. The new hole is a par four of around 320 yards and plays some 40-plus feet uphill, whereas the original hole was dead flat.” 

There is a now a large central ridge on the back nine, which several holes play to and from, including the stretch from eleven to fifteen. “My favourite is the fifteenth because it is downhill from tee to green, offering a hole that is quite unusual to this part of Florida,” says Straka. 

The design team have worked to create a golf experience where players ‘feel’ the elevation change throughout the round. 

“The short second hole has a small perched green cut into a large hillside with steep falloffs around it,” says Straka. “The sixth green has the deepest bunkers on the course – over 10 feet. The eleventh and thirteenth approaches play significantly uphill, with dramatic false fronts and falloffs around the putting surfaces. However, nearly all greens have dramatically flashed backstops and kickplates to aid in navigating around or totally avoiding hazards, as well as highlight the terrain we crafted, a style not often possible in this part of Florida. We were able to create these features because of the elevation change we created.” 

Darryl Bartlett, NMP’s senior project manager, says: “After doing hundreds of renovation projects, this is the most transformative one we have worked 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. The result is a beautifully transformed landscape with enhanced contours, elevations, and layout that elevates both the playability and aesthetic appeal of the course.” 

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.” 

Bartlett says: “NMP extends its gratitude to the club, especially general manager Bill Langley, and to their long-time partners Fry/Straka, for the opportunity to be part of this significant project. The entire NMP team fully embraced the new design, delivering the project on time despite the expanded scope.” 

This article first appeared in the January 2025 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page.   

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