The Quarry at Giants Ridge

Two things have been on my travel to-do list for several years: (1) hiking in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and (2) visiting northern Minnesota, both to hike and to see some of its golf courses. Several of these, including the Quarry and the Legend at Giants Ridge, the Wilderness at Fortune Bay, and Deacon’s Lodge and the Classic in Brainerd have spent considerable time on the three golf magazine top 100 public course lists, which gave the impression that Minnesota might even be a better golf destination than northern Michigan.

So with some time on my hands in September 2025, I decided to travel west through the Upper Peninsula from Detroit, hitting Pictured Rocks and the Porcupine Mountains (both highly recommended) and then turning north at Duluth to try the Giants Ridge courses, the Wilderness at Fortune Bay, and to do some hiking in the Boundary Waters (the Brainerd courses are about 3 hours west, so I skipped them). This route brought me first to the Quarry at Giants Ridge, a 2004 Jeff Brauer design that forms half of the 36 hole complex (along with the Legend, also by Brauer) at the Giants Ridge golf and ski resort, about an hour-and-a-half north of Duluth. This course opened to much acclaim in 2004, winning Golf Digest’s award for best new upscale public course (Brauer's Wilderness at Fortune Bay, about 30 minutes up the road, won it in 2005). It continues to be ranked highly by both Golf Digest and (#58 best public) and Golfweek (#47 best public).

I didn’t know a ton about this course before I played but the name was promising—quarries often make great sites for golf courses, creating a kind of manmade landscape that lends itself to dramatic golf holes. And this has to be the best quarry site that I’ve seen. It’s moderately hilly and would be good for golf even without the quarry features. Yet the quarry features—the leftover rock walls and pits—never seem too severe for golf.

It’s hard to say without having seen the site before the course, but this may be in large part due to Brauer’s deft hand in navigating the site and shaping the holes. He’s mentioned that he took his inspiration from Tobacco Road (I also saw shades of Jim Engh a few times) but it seems to me—and I mean this in the best way—that the Quarry is like Tobacco Road on Valium. Brauer never overdoes things with crazily built-up and contoured green complexes and blind shots the way that Mike Strantz did at Tobacco Road. To be sure, there are some challenging features and plenty of opportunities to lose balls. But Brauer’s design features are tempered, taking advantage of the unusual opportunities that the site created but not trying to one-up it by adding a lot of difficult design features.

I thought this was a nice change of pace for modern courses on dramatic sites. On too many of these—Greywalls and Arcadia Bluffs along with Tobacco Road come immediately to mind—the architect added too much difficulty in the form of crazy green contours, steep drop-offs around greens, and deep bunkers, turning a course that would have always been difficult owing to the nature of the site into one that’s unplayable for most golfers. Many golfers will lose a lot of balls at the Quarry, but at least they won’t four-putt, putt the ball off the green into a bunker, or hit a good approach shot than runs 25 yards off the edge of the green down a 20 foot hill a half-dozen times. My one criticism is that the shaping around the fairways and greens is often a bit fussy. A lot of this blends in with the leftover quarry mounding but there’s a lot here that was, I think, unnecessary and several of the holes would have had a cleaner look without it.


The par 4 first plays 410 yards from the 6,700 yard blue tees, which on these soft bentgrass fairways should be plenty enough for almost anyone. It’s a tame-looking drive but there’s more trouble than appears—if you take the direct line to the green, there’s a blind, leftover pit from the quarry about 260 yards out. So you’ll either need to lay back or play up the right side.

An innocuous-enough-looking drive...

but looking back from behind the green, we can see the narrowing fairway and the dropoff on the left in the driving zone.

It's a nice-looking approach although I think the mounding up the right side of the fairway and behind the green is unnecessary. Still, a good opening hole.

The long par 5 second may not just be the best hole on this course, but one of the best in the state of Minnesota. It’s a great par 5 and a great example of how the Quarry is well-described as ‘Tobacco Road-lite’—a hole that’s visually dramatic and challenging if you try to pull of the heroic shot, but one where there a no hidden extra layers of difficulty or unpleasant surprises. You can tell pretty well what’s going on from the tee here.

It's pretty clear from the tee that if you hit a long drive here, you'll be able to make a go at the green over the quarry on the right. If not, you'll have to play the long way up the left.

And what’s going on is that you’ll have a choice on your second shot: lay up down the fairway to the left or carry the quarry to a narrow strip of fairway short of the green on the right. You’ll need to go about 470 yards in two shots for the latter. But the problem here isn’t so much the distance, it’s that even if you can make the carry, this stretch of fairway leading into the green is about 20 yards wide between a bunker and a hill. So it’s a pretty low percentage shot. Still, that didn’t stop anyone in front of me from trying…and failing.

This is around where most good drives will end up and while the carry is only about 180 to clear the quarry, it still probably isn't worth it--there just isn't a lot of room over there. Still, it's an exciting shot and many will try, even though most shouldn't.

There just isn't much disadvantage in playing out to the left for the third. You can see from here how narrow the approach is up the right even if you carry the quarry.

There’s isn’t too much to say about the mid-length par 4 third except that the further away you play from the bunker right, the blinder your approach will be over the two bunkers short-left of the green. I prefer the (lack of) shaping around this fairway and green to what we see on much of the rest of the course.

I do think that the bunker on the right is well-placed because it narrowed the fairway enough to convince me to lay back short of it, which left a long approach.

The view into the green is also better from the right side.

I thought the par 3 fourth looked pretty innocuous until I zapped it with my yardage finder and saw that it was 225 yards (the back tee is 270!). It’s a really well-designed hole for this length, with the front of the green being completely open. Unfortunately, whether because of the maintenance regime or the recent weather, the run up shot was impossible, with even low long-irons stopping dead in the soft bent grass short of the green.

This hole is very well-designed for a long par 3 but the soft fairway negated the design.

I thought that the par 5 fifth was almost as good as the second. There’s a bit more interest off the tee here, with the fairway curving left around a waste bunker and three bunkers collecting errant shorts out to the right. You can cut off quite a bit of length if you either sling a draw around the bunker or make the carry of only about 220 over the right edge of it. That’ll bring the green well within reach on your second.

This is definitely a more interesting driving hole than the second. From the blue tees, the carry up the left where the cart is was only about 220, which makes it feasible to challenge the entire waste bunker and take the right bunkers out of play.

But there’s a lot of danger here; left of the fairway is all junk and the only way to run the ball onto the green is at the front-left, which requires you to play close to the junk. Even if you’re not going for the green, the green angles front-left to back-right and is narrow from the right side of the fairway, favoring an approach from near the junk on the left. So it’s really a case of needing to take on risk on both the drive and the approach for the reward of hitting the green in two and still benefitting from taking risk on the second even if you’re laying up to prevent from having an awkward third. Whatever you do here, it’s an interesting hole. And I think that makes it a great one.

A good drive brings the green into play, but there's serious trouble up the left.

And from closer in, we can see that the trouble is very tight to the green. But if you lay up out to the right, the angle into the green becomes very shallow. Outstanding hole.

The short par 4 sixth doesn’t require so much thinking off the tee, but it does require execution to hit the 40 yards of fairway between lost balls left and right. The green is probably over 50 yards from its left to right edges and the approach will be simple if the pin is on the left. But if it’s on the right—as it was when I played it—the green narrows to about 40 feet deep and you’ll have to carry a deep depression to get to it.

Just pick whatever club you feel most confident hitting straight.

This long, squiggly green and the stylized shaping of the depression and mounds behind the green reminded me a lot of Jim Engh’s Tullymore in western Michigan. Generally I’m not a fan of the style, but I didn’t mind it here because this was the only green that looked like this and I thought that it added good variety. They hid the pin all the way on the right side on this day, which made for a very interesting approach.

Definitely shades of Tullymore looking back from behind the green.

The drop shot par 3 seventh is also a bit Engh-esque with the green being sort-of upside-down T-shaped with the center of the T being a high tier between mounds back-right and left. Again, I liked this green because I think it plays well; wherever they put the pin, you can’t go wrong with playing to the center of the green. But if you want to get aggressive, you have slopes that will allow you to work your ball to the pin.

There's never a good reason not to just try to play to the center of the green here.

Like the sixth, the eighth demands that you stand and deliver on the drive, although the fairway does open up on the left past about 250. But this hole is about 100 yards longer, so this time you need to hit a driver. The approach to the green also requires accuracy as it narrows between ridges left over from the quarry days left and right.

This hole is a very demanding test for the driver; you'll need both length and accuracy.

As is appropriate for a par 4 of around 450 yards, the green is open in front. But don't expect any roll-up.

I think the 350 yard par 4 ninth plays through the middle of the old quarry but Brauer was gracious to cut through the ridges to allow us to see both the fairway and the green (something that Mike Strantz might not have done). Standing in the fairway looking up through the gap to the green, this hole feels a lot like one on Tobacco Road or Royal New Kent. But save for a false front that requires you to carry your approach at least 5 yards onto the green, the green is large and gently contoured, making this hole much easier than similar-looking holes on a Strantz course.

I think the main thing here is just not to let the surroundings intimidate you. There's plenty of room out there.

There is a false front if you come up short, but unlike several of the Tobacco Road greens, there's plenty of safe space up top.

Ten is another ~350 yard par 4 where it’s best not to try to do too much off the tee. You probably only need to hit it about 220, although it will undoubtedly be tempting for many to try the 230 yard carry over the pond on the left. The Red Pine is perfectly positioned to knock your ball into the pond if you attempt it and hit one a bit weak right.

This is probably a better hole than I thought at the time because while I didn't consider it, driver over the pond on the left is a viable option. If you lay up right, you'll need something long enough and far enough right to avoid being behind the pine tree.

The further you go up the right, the shallower the angle into the green. Again, the mounding around this hole is a bit finicky.

With its wide, shallow green, the 140 yard eleventh has a bit of the flavor of a Mike Strantz par 3. But I like this one more than holes like six or seventeen at Tobacco Road because there’s a reasonable amount of depth to any pin for a hole of this length. And I also how the green is built up on the ledge, which I think both looks good and makes for a pretty stiff penalty for vanity club choices and weak iron shots.

This green is wide and shallow like many Strantz greens, but it doesn't have a weird shape that makes putting between the sections impossible as is often the case on Strantz greens.

Running downhill between pines to a green framed by seemingly endless forest, the long par 4 twelfth will look familiar to anyone who has played golf in northern Michigan. I found the shaping at the back of the green to be a fit fussy and would have preferred the look without the mounds, but these did create an interesting illusion—while the green looks like it slopes back-to-front, the first ~2/3 of the green slope front-to-back.

A familiar look for anyone who's played in northern Michigan.

I don't like the look of the mounding behind the green, but it does make an interesting optical illusion--the green looks like it slopes back-to-front, but most of it doesn't.

If you’ve seen a picture of the Quarry, it was probably of the drivable (~300 yards) par 4 thirteenth. This seems to be the course’s most famous hole and for good reason; it’s readily drivable but to do so, you’ll have to carry a ~10 foot high wall of long grass just short of the green. If you don’t think you can do this, there are several lay up options. Anything near the wall will leave you a blind shot. If you want to avoid this, you can lay up to the high part of the fairway left of the centerline bunker, no more than about 220 yards. And getting a good view of the green is important because it’s probably 60 yards wide, angled from front-right to back-left, and probably has more interior contour than any on the course.

A lot of options standing on the thirteenth tee. The entire area over the grass wall is green.

If you lay up, keeping it on the high fairway left of the centerline bunker is sensible because it leaves a good view. Having said that, the blind pitch from just ahead isn't hard if you're reasonably dialed-in on your half-wedge yardages.

I like this hole and I think it fits in well with Quarry’s collection of short par 4s. It’s a bit busier than holes like six, nine, and ten, but this adds variety and the options here are sensible. Like on eleven, I like both the look of the grass wall in front of the green and how it plays. We’re awash in drivable par 4s on newer courses but for a course built in the early 2000s, this hole was quite original.


At only about 500 yards on the card, the fourteenth seems like a short par 5. But it’s uphill and, at least on this day, was playing into the wind. So it certainly didn’t feel like it. The green is in a punchbowl and there are several hide-the-flag pin locations, which should dictate where you lay up (if doing so).

There isn't too much to say about this hole except that when it's into the wind, you'll need to hit the ball solidly.

The greensite has been shaped into a punchbowl and we faced another pin hidden on the right, which made it important to lay up out to the left.

By most accounts, the long par 4 fifteenth is probably the most questionable hole on the course. That’s because the fairway ends abruptly about 180 yards short of the middle of the green meaning it’s a lay up followed by a long iron, a concept I dislike in principle. This one bothers me less than most of these because the approach is both a looker and well-designed for a long shot. And there is a lot to be gained by good placement of the drive; you want to get it as close to the edge as you can, otherwise you'll have a very long approach.

The fairway ends abruptly about 250 yards from the back tees, leaving this fine-looking long iron approach.

Sixteen is a kind-of S-shaped par 5 that probably looks a little more interesting than it actually plays, unless you’re a short hitter. The carry up the left side was just a hair over 200 yards and if you can make this, the second carry over junk toward the green is easily doable. Both landing areas are quite wide so more than any other hole on the course, this one gives you an opportunity to swing away.

This is an interesting-looking hole, but it shouldn't be much trouble to any but short and inconsistent hitters...probably 10% of the people who play it.

The approach into the green is wide-open but again, I think the mounding is unnecessary.

After about a 300 yard walk under the entrance road past the clubhouse—really the only walk of any distance on the course; the Quarry is very walkable—we come to a longish par 3 over a pond. It’s best to keep this one simple; there’s ample room on the right side of the green and you should always aim there. Left is nothing but trouble…as I learned.

A pretty hole and one that requires a solid mid/long iron.

The long par 4 finisher is a bit awkward, but I found it to be one of the best holes on the course. It’s a sharp dogleg left and the fairway appears to run out into a lake if you go through the dogleg. It’s possible to run through the dogleg, but you’d probably have to hit it about 280 going down the middle to do so.

Still, there’s strong reason to either cut one up the tree line on the left or hit a slinging draw. That’s because anything out to the right will leave a very long approach. And if you’re on the right edge of the fairway, you’ll have to hit over a wooden fence than runs along the right side of the hole and guards against a steep drop down into the lake. A drive up the left side will leave a shorter approach and a better view into the green.

The ideal drive here is just over the corner of rough that cuts in on the left (which also hides a bunker). It's not a difficult carry, but you either have to hew closely to the tree line or hit a pretty good draw. There's plenty of room to play safe, but that leaves a much tougher approach. So it's an outstanding driving hole.

As you can see here, the further right you are in the fairway, the trickier the approach gets because you have more of a carry over a cliff and a wooden fence. An outstanding approach and a great finishing hole in general.

I’m having a difficult time getting a handle on my feelings about the Quarry at Giants Ridge. My sense is that it deserves a spot on a top 100 public course list, although probably near the bottom. I think it’d be one of the top 10 public courses if it were in Michigan, although also near the bottom. That puts it in the company of courses like Arcadia Bluffs—South, Stoatie Brae, and the (horribly underrated) Fazio Course at Treetops. Good company, but not on the level of Forest Dunes, Arcadia Bluffs, or (in my mind at least) Pilgrim’s Run.

But there’s a pretty strong list of positives. One, the land is excellent and afforded a lot of opportunities to build special holes. Two, the routing is very good, with the course being completely walkable (although as in Michigan, no one walks it). Three, the course has a handful of truly excellent holes. I thought that the two par 5s on the front and the finishing hole were among the best of their types that I’ve seen. The course also has a nice variety of short par 4s, highlighted by the drivable thirteenth. I also liked the par 3s, although I wouldn’t say that any struck me as special on the level of the holes that I’ve highlighted. And there aren’t any bad holes.

I guess the issues that keep me from thinking most highly of the course—or to put it concretely, thinking that it’s a Doak 6 rather than a 7—are the shaping and the quality of the other holes. As I’ve mentioned throughout, the shaping is overly fussy. There are a lot of unnecessary mounds around the fairways and greens. They’re alright from a landscape architecture standpoint because they blend in with the bumpy landscape left over from the mining. But I think I would have preferred it if Brauer had kept his shaping to a minimum, which would have highlighted the leftover mining landforms. And while the top 3 or 4 holes are excellent, I feel that the majority of the rest are just good. When comparing courses, I think it’s important to compare their 50th and 25th percentile holes, not just their best ones. And while the Quarry comes out very well when comparing best holes, I think it falls short of Michigan’s best (or the Pfau Course at IU, or Pine Needles) when comparing the median and lesser holes.

Still, if you’re in northern Minnesota and you’ve got your golf clubs, the Quarry is worth a trip to play. And the combination of this and the Legends at Giants Ridge and the Wilderness at Fortune Bay make a good, short golf trip. Better yet, bring a pair of hiking boots and a canoe. While the Arcadia—Roscommon—Mackinac triangle of northern Michigan might beat this part of northern Minnesota for golf, it doesn’t compare in its depth of beautiful, remote places for other outdoor activities.