Monterey Peninsula pride: New and improved Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel
CARMEL, Calif. -- Quail Lodge & Golf Club now stands proudly among the best public courses on the Monterey Peninsula. California-based architect Todd Echenrode of Origins Golf Design completed an impressive restoration of the 51-year-old layout in May.
Quail Lodge, a 6,464-yard course originally designed by Robert Muir Graves, winds through an exclusive neighborhood in the secluded Carmel Valley seven miles inland from Pebble Beach Resorts and the Pacific Ocean.
Echenrode moved bunkers into more appropriate landing zones and lined them with eye-catching tufts of fescue to create a stylish, unique look. He carved fairway swales on the first three holes to spice up previously flat land and added more contour to the 16th and 17th holes, replacing several pond features.
Once a traditional, water-logged par 3, Quail Lodge & Golf Club's 17th hole became much more interesting, playing to a table-top green with fall-offs in all directions.
Several other ponds were replaced by drought-tolerant landscaping of wood chips and native plants.
The fun of shaping shots still applies. For example, players must hit their tee shot around or over a tree blocking the narrow 10th fairway guarded by a canyon wall.
"The changes give each hole more definition and character," Head Professional Mark Perbix said.
"It's amazing," he said of the reaction from members and visitors alike. "There is so much history with this golf course. The biggest thing with the renovation is that they didn't change the history, but they modernized the course."
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