Quarry Ridge Golf Course

First time playing this course and it was great! Very challenging, and you have to be able to hit the fairways, but well worth the trip! Highly recommend!

Another nice round at Quarry Ridge course is in very good condition. T boxes are in good shape along with Fairways and greens. Maintenance has fixed a lot of the potholes on the cart path. The pace of play was good finished under 3 1/2 hours.

Few Connecticut golf courses will get your pulse racing as does Quarry Ridge. From hole 6 onward, the holes rise and fall, twisting and turning and tumbling like no place I’ve played golf. The falloffs on the sides and back of greens can be severe in places. On top of that, you’ve got to deal with the massive rock outcroppings, should some of your shots—directed in their vicinities—take a turn or bounce for the worse.

Even an outstanding Perry Dye Course I’ve recently played in Hawaii, set 2,000 feet above sea level in the wilds of the Big Island, is not quite a match for this. For pure intensity, for all-out drama, Quarry Ridge is a must-play.

It’s also worthwhile for the quality of its prime layout. There are no bad or dull holes here, though some may have you gnashing your teeth a bit. The sixth and seventh have few rivals for both their views and their jaw-dropping elevation changes. Both are highly difficult. And the back-nine somehow ups the ante by its constant stream of varied and thrilling shots. Quarry Ridge may be compared, mainly by analogy, to a smaller-scale version of Bethpage Red on Long Island. I played the Red quite some time ago, but found it to be a somewhat toned-down version of the iconic Black, if still extremely tough. Here in Portland, the problems and the difficulties will jump up to bite you, especially when you’re not on top of your game.

And shortness is a good thing at Quarry Ridge—it plays 6,300 yards from it championship tees—having been designed into the course deliberately because of the number of narrow fairways (my count is five really tight ones) and extreme elevation changes on several holes. The championship tees, by the way, did not appear well worn today.

Green design is also excellent, with no two putting surfaces alike, and virtually every one of them featuring any combination of distinct ridges and crowns, depressions and undulations. Also challenging around these will be pitching and chipping; today, I was forced to hit several high pitches and lobs, some of them difficult to control strictly because of the slopes and speed around the greens.

In good condition overall, QR still was not what I experienced last fall, when it was in excellent shape. Today, the greens were quite good and rolled at a smooth speed. Some of the fringes, however, were marred by weeds in places. Rough around the green complexes was generally good. Varying in quality were tees, rough around the fairways, and the fairways themselves, all ranging from average to good. Most of these moderate declines, I’m sure, can be blamed on the hot, dry stretch over the past three weeks. Moreover, having played a lot of golf this summer, I have seen excellent conditions on only about 30% of Connecticut golf courses—considerably lower than what is typical. It’s safe to say that QR’s high conditioning levels will return before long, with summer ending.

One other notable facet of Quarry Ridge has been the service each time I’ve played it. Several golf clubs I’ve visited recently are OK or good when it comes to this, but not enough realize the value (from everything I’ve observed) of truly high-quality service. Much of the credit for this goes to the PGA Pro here, John Lucas. When I walked in at check-in today, he was informative, friendly, polite, and helpful, and did the little, extra things to help that you don’t typically expect. On the course’s website, a Fox-61-produced video includes his commentary on the Quarry Ridge layout, but also reveals a lot about the positive attitude and character—also to be experienced in person—that Mr. Lucas exudes.

All in all, I would call this a 4 and ½ star course for now—I suppose until we get some steadier rain. But it remains one of my ‘Top Ten’ Connecticut golf courses and an outstanding value.

A) Fortunately, the quarry itself is not part of the golf proceedings, though it lingers, well fenced-in, on the fringes of holes 13 and 18.

B) Careful observance of and practices regarding Covid-19 issues.

C) You meet the nicest people playing this game. Today, I was fortunate to be grouped with three playing partners who were engaging, friendly, and serious about their golf. Great combination, and we played an enjoyable 18 together.

D) Follow the cart paths very closely when driving down some of the steepest slopes here.

E) Excellent clubhouse.

Just hanging out with my friends. The weather,fairways,tee box, and the greens was in perfect condition.it was a beautiful day to spend time with ur friend. Itbe golf staff Wass really friendly. I would recommend this beautiful course for everyone to come out and and play here just once.

Nice course. I like the layout and it's in great shape.

First time at QRGC. Couldn’t beat 29 to ride 18 holes.

The course is in great condition mostly. Some tee boxes (black) weren’t great but nothing terrible. Greens were great, fairways were good.

Super challenging. Slopes everywhere with big elevation changes, really forces you at times to hit the comfy clubs just to keep the ball in play.

DO NOT TRY AND WALK THIS COURSE. The layout is very zig-zaggy and will no doubt take 5-6 hrs to walk. (And 1500 calories burned)

Overall a good experience. Will come back.

I love this layout and location. Very challenging yet fun. The greens were very good to great. The fairways had some rough spots. Tee boxes were just OK. Bunkers were a bit tired and in need of maintenance.

Today was a great day for everyone each one of us have a couple birdie along with alot of pars.the fairways and greens were in perfect condition and the ball was really rolling great today for everyone. The staff was really friendly. We really had a great day at the golf course. I really like everyone to come out at Quarry Ridge Golf course in Portland, Connecticut and play this beautiful course. The view on the course is so beautiful, I could almost guarantee you gonna kei coming back if you ce out and play. Thanks Golfnow/ Tee off!

I've been playing here for years and don't get to very often. I thoroughly enjoy it every time and hope to get back soon!

Very poor signage to assist in navigating from greens to next tees. Greens in pretty good shape but rough needs work. Surprised that no holes had bumpers or other mechanisms to prevent the ball from going all the way down. For a day in the 90's, we saw the beverage cart exactl;y once.

The weather was a little humid but we had a great time. The fairways and greens was in perfect condition, but the ball was traveling farther than normal because of the humidity, I couldn't figure out what club to used. My pitching wedge was going between 155-175 yards.we we're all long all day long. We all shoot in the 90's we all shoot 10 over our handicap. We all had a great time.our best golfer in the group was the worse golfer yesterday. Like I said before, I would recommend this beautiful course to everyone that play this game.

First off, I rated this course good value only because of Golfnow deal.

When I checked in at the pro shop

I was treated in a demeaning manner and it was made clear to me that they considered Golfnow customers as unwelcome. So my question is why do they offer Golfnow tee times if they feel so negatively about those of us who take the deals. Probably won’t go back to this course again.

Oh and by the way, I have played this course a number of times in the past and always had a good interaction with the staff. Possibly a disgruntled employee or their policy has changed.Either way , I don’t need that kind of disrespectful treatment when there are so many other courses to play.

Staff was a bit unfriendly wouldn’t really play there anymore unless I was forced to

This was my 2nd time there this season and both experiences were unfriendly