Palm Beach Golf Diaries Part 2 - Golf Road, Great Friends of Golf

By: Jay Flemma

This second of a three-part article will explore two Great Friends of Golf and friendly rivals on famous Golf Road - Quail Ridge and Delray Dunes.

Within yards of each other, separated perhaps by only a smooth 3-wood and a pitch shot, two of Florida's premier private clubs lead the golf world by example, selflessly championing the game's great virtues by giving back to it as much and as often as possible, rather than celebrating and promoting their own opulence.

Clubs that boast "signature courses" by big-name, high-price designers are actually quite commonplace. I know of one rural club where the head pro introduces himself as "the head professional of the most exclusive club in [region redacted]." How altruistic, egalitarian, noble: Is Judge Smails around? (Insert Ted Knight voice intoning, "Some people do not belong…")

Nevertheless, when private club members realize one great indisputable truth - it's not what you do for a living that makes you great, it's what you do for others - that's when the members become so much more than a group of golfers and that's when a club makes a truly great contribution to golf. Occasionally - not often, but occasionally - a club can be greater than its course or courses, and it's not the course or amenities or trappings that make it great, but the members.

Well, at Quail Ridge and Delray Dunes, two courses located on Boynton Beach, Florida's appropriately named Golf Road, they ask not what golf can do for them, but what they can do for golf . . . and the golf world is much richer for that altruism.

Quail Ridge Country Club

Quail Ridge is the de facto home of senior amateur golf, and its members are rightly renowned nationwide for their passion. Forgive me for mixing my sports metaphors, but their love of golf isn't just a home run, it isn't just a grand slam, it's a tape-measure blast into the upper deck.

As home to the "Society of Seniors" - the senior amateur golf tour, Quail Ridge is a Mecca of golf to excellent players over the age of 40. The Society itself provides senior amateur players with a yearly series of world-class competitions around the country. As home of the Society, Quail Ridge members embrace their raison d'etre as stewards of that noble goal, and their energy is so electric, you can't help but get excited yourself. They have really done something great for golf.

No less a personage than Maury Povich, for decades recognized as a quintessential American journalist and broadcaster, summed up what Quail Ridge and the Society of Seniors mean to senior golfers:

"It's difficult to make friends late in life because we get set in our ways and our circle starts to dwindle as age creeps up on us. But through the Society, you meet terrific people who love and respect all the virtues of golf that we cherish - honor, integrity and sportsmanship - and suddenly your life gets an infusion of vibrancy and warmth and new experiences.

"The competition is world-class and has opened up a whole world of tournaments for all of us to compete against the best players in the country for our age, but the friends I have made and the experiences we have shared have the paramount joy. Instead of my world closing in and shrinking as I got older, my life has broadened and become far more enriched, and for that I am forever grateful."

Club champion and well-decorated amateur champion Woody Greene (a South Carolinian who calls Quail Ridge his home course and once made 200 consecutive 20-foot putts), agrees whole-heartedly.

"What makes Quail so special - so distinctive nationally - is not only the quality of the golf, but the quality of people. Yes, we have great golf courses, but they are eclipsed by even better folks, and not just as golfers, but as friends and members."

Greene has a great point: when looking at a private club, you have to consider the people, too, as well as the golf course and amenities. After all, you have to get along with everybody if not like them enough to hang with around them. At Quail, they put golf first and self second, and every golfer who understands and champions the game's sublime virtues can revel in that selflessness.

"Everybody is congenial and gets along and understands that we have to work together to further a great goal for the good of golf," continued Greene. "No one cares about what they own or what they do for a living. They care about having fun, playing great competitive golf, and being a part of a club that serves the game of golf by giving back."

Quail has over 150 single-digit handicappers, so great golfers delight in becoming members just for both the competitive atmosphere and for the chance to be a part of the Society. The SOS's founding members, Dale Morey, Johnny Owens and Ralph Bogart, were/are all members of Quail, and they were Walker Cup members or played in professional events nationally and internationally, distinguishing themselves with sterling golfing careers. Their history, as well as the history of many great athletes, is celebrated in the club's Hall of Fame, which includes Sam Snead, a former Quail Ridge member and resident.

With so many phenomenal golfers as members, competitive games are available every single day. This attracts even high-caliber golfers still in the prime of their amateur careers, such as amateur star Kevin Hammer, who is consistently competitive in America's greatest amateur events like the Crump Cup and Travis Invitational.

"For me, the big reason I joined Quail Ridge was the high number of low-handicap players and the daily games featuring Society of Seniors members. Not only is the competition outstanding, but those guys have been everywhere and played in everything - national opens and amateurs and all the world's greatest courses," explains Hammer. "They have so many stories from all the tournaments they have played that it's fun for me to learn not only about the history of the game, but also their part in it. It makes me love the game even more, and even though I'm only 39 and not playing in SOS events, I can't help but be excited about the SOS and Quail and their dedication to the game."

Still, with a membership of over 600, half of which are women, the club is not only for expert players. The two Joe Lee-designed courses, North and South, are tough but not onerous. It's the quintessential penal Florida architecture you have seen before: hook bunkers at 290, fade bunkers at 270, and greenside bunkering at 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock, with a few variations thrown in to change things up. Architecturally, the courses are as mellow and laid-back as a Gerry Rafferty song. The greens, however, are where the adventure begins.

There is a reason why Woody Greene once made 200 20-footers in a row: he practices his putting with the same ardor as a Benedictine monk at prayer. At Quail Ridge, you need that kind of practice. The greens are fiendishly clever in their intricacy. First, many greens are canted - either the entire green or sections thereof are gently sloped in one direction or another. One of the best examples is the iconic 12th green on the North Course. On the scorecard or to the naked eye, this short par-3 looks like a pushover. However, the left portion slopes into the greenside water hazard so a poorly planned, careless or over-cooked tee shot will turn the tiny tot into a pint-sized terror waiting to sink your scorecard.

Secondly, the greens contain micro-movement: barely perceptible breaks that make even short putts a dicey proposition. As a result, putts that are even the slightest bit off line don't go in - and don't ever ask the lips to give you anything. If you're not dead-center, you have a 5-foot comebacker. Short-game prowess is critical to scoring well on either course, so a few hours of practice not only on the practice green but at the excellent short-game practice area will be worth the effort.

Finally, the greens are small. People don't realize that one easy way to offset technological explosion of length is to simply make the greens smaller. Look at Pebble Beach's U.S. Open last year. The smaller greens still confounded the greatest players in the world, and the hardest shot on the course was the 100-yard wedge approach to the par-5 14th hole, a green which the pros hit at a dismal 20 percent clip! Quail's smaller greens and devilish greenside chipping areas subtly and more effectively and interestingly defend par than an 8,000-yard behemoth that touts machismo over intelligence.

Still, generations of golfers, expert and novice alike love to call Quail Ridge home because of both the members and the amenities. The entire facility and residential component sit on 600 acres in the heart of Boynton Beach's fabled Golf Road. Families can live in small, cozy bungalows or three-bedroom, three-bath townhouses or anything in between.

There's a full spa and fitness center so you don't become horizontally challenged eating the first-rate cuisine and seemingly endless menu. As the old saying goes, "every meal is a banquet." Heck, there's so much great food to choose from you just want to look at the entire menu and say, "Okay," and if you have to try both the made-to-order risotto and seafood pasta on Italian night before putting away a few of the chef's sinfully rich brownies - which recently received special FDA status as their own food group, well, then there are 16 tennis courts and a pool to get in some extra exercise.

Even so, it's not just the amenities and the golf that have made Quail Ridge rightly famous; it's the members and their unswerving devotion to create something unique in the golf world. The Society of Seniors is a great gift to amateur golf and senior golf.

I know what you're thinking: when it comes to television or Internet hits, amateur golf and senior golf don't pin the needle on the far side of the dial. But you know what? Sometimes instant gratification, gobs of liquid cash or Madison Avenue style are actually bad for golf in the long run. Outstanding senior and amateur golfers desperately need competition just like pros do, and Quail and the SOS fill that need admirably and joyously. Great golf will be great golf long after each fad passes so long as the game's stewards retain their diligent commitment to serving others, not just themselves. Quail Ridge members embrace this duty with such passion and fervor it makes you grateful to be a golfer.

Delray Dunes

Delray Dunes makes a perfect compliment to Quail Ridge, and although the courses are rivals they are also siblings. Delray enjoys the distinction of being Pete Dye's first 18-hole solo design, but the club also celebrates and reflects the dedication and drive of its devoted founders and creators, Laurie Hammer and Bob Murphy.

"It's like my Pinehurst No. 2. Ross tinkered with No. 2 all his life, and doggone it with all the work I've done at Delray, maybe one of these days I'll get it right," quips the humble, folksy Dye, who knows full well that his work at Delray has been right for a long time.

Architecturally, the Dunes is quite the opposite of Quail Ridge. Where Quail can provide a predictable comfort zone, Delray offers something different on every hole. The par-5s are the showstoppers, swerving one way off the tee, then back the other way for the approach, following one of Dye's favorite architectural tenets: Keep the player off-balance by making him shape shots both directions. This also rewards the more skillful player, not just the golfer who can hit one type of shot.

Unlike most Florida courses, Dye - thankfully - uses little water to defend the course. Only three holes have water hazards, and twice it is a burn rather than a monstrous eyesore of a lake like those found at Doral or Bay Hill. Instead, fairway bunkering - particularly on the par-5s - provides strategic interest by requiring diagonal angles of attack based on the length and competency of the hitter.

Dye explained the formative years of his design philosophy in an earlier interview with this writer: "Back then, Trent [Robert Trent Jones, Sr.] was building a lot of great courses. And he was a good friend. But when I went to Harbour Town . . . he was building Palmetto Dunes. And it occurred to me that the only way I would ever get an identity was just go the dead opposite."

So Dye turned to smaller, more curvaceous greens, instead of oceanic, oversized greens that were flat. He eschewed Trent's penchant for uphill approaches and narrow fairways, instead letting fairways flow naturally into the greens.

As an aside, the old master can still sling the sticks. Just this week Pete lasered a hole-in-one on the third hole at Delray at his age - "half 168 and trying to get into Heaven now!" The clubhouse rang with cheering.

Yet even though Dye is the mastermind behind the course's design, the beating heart and soul of Delray Dunes are venerable head professional emeritus Laurie Hammer and pro golfer-turned broadcaster Bob Murphy. Hammer has had a Hall of Fame career as teaching professional, but his ability as an instructor is only surpassed by what a prince of a man he is.

"He's our hero, our role model, our coach, and our mentor in life and in golf, which are parallel," said a smiling Gino Composto, who ascended to first assistant to the PGA head professional at Delray Dunes after Hammer's stellar 41-year tenure as the head pro. "He's always upbeat, smiling, positive and supportive, we couldn't have asked for a better head pro. Because of his guidance and example, many young pros and young players came here and moved on to bigger and better things."

Indeed, Hammer ministers the swings of his charges like a priest cares for the eternal souls of his penitents, and they in turn love him back for his passion for the game and poignant, stoic dignity as a man.

"What a role model," gushed one apple green-clad Delray member, who was watching Hammer roam this year's Road Cup matches against Quail Ridge, spurring the team on to victory at every turn. "He's our heart and soul. We members should do everything we can to honor he and 'Murph' at every turn. There would be no Delray Dunes without them, and they define this club."

Murph, of course, played great golf, then, thankfully, provided a fine, jovial tenor broadcast voice to offset the grating, nasal, vacuous Tiger-philic honkings of Dan Hicks and the pointless insults of Johnny Miller.

And so the heartwarming glow that is "The Sportlight" burns with an unquenchable fire in the stout hearts of the members of both Delray Dunes and Quail Ridge. May God bless and keep it burning always. When you remember that it's what you do for others that makes you great, that's when you accomplish great things on an enormous scale. With that as their fulcrum, they can move the world.

Since launching his first golf writing website in 2004, http://www.jayflemma.thegolfspace.com, Jay Flemma's comparative analysis of golf designs and knowledge of golf course architecture and golf travel have garnered wide industry respect. In researching his book on America's great public golf courses (and whether they're worth the money), Jay, an associate editor of Cybergolf, has played over 220 nationally ranked public golf courses in 37 different states. Jay has played about 1,649,000 yards of golf - or roughly 938 miles. His pieces on travel and architecture appear in Golf Observer (www.golfobserver.com), Cybergolf and other print magazines. When not researching golf courses for design, value and excitement, Jay is an entertainment, copyright, Internet and trademark lawyer and an Entertainment and Internet Law professor in Manhattan. His clients have been nominated for Grammy and Emmy awards, won a Sundance Film Festival Best Director award, performed on stage and screen, and designed pop art for museums and collectors. Jay lives in Forest Hills, N.Y., and is fiercely loyal to his alma maters, Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and Trinity College in Connecticut.

Tweet