Fire Ridge Golf Club

Getting To Know: Fire Ridge Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Steve Smith, Owner, Operating Partner

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Steve Smith who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Fire Ridge provides 4 sets of tees, built on 208 acres out in the quiet wilderness with 70 bunkers, 11 holes with water in play, trees and rolling hills. The finest bent grass greens, tees and fairways.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
Fire Ridge is a challenging but fair golf course. We feel Fire Ridge is the best value of any course in the area. You can play Fire Ridge for $69 weekend or weekday. We pride our self for having one the best golf staffs and on course restaurants in the State.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
Club down to keep you tee shot in the fairways. Be aware of the slope of our greens. 3 putts await you if you are not below the hole on many of our undulated greens.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
Midwest Golf Magazine On-Course Restaurant of the Year 5 Years Running!!

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Hole #5 Par 4 390 yards This is the toughest Par 4 on the course. The landing area on the tee shot is very tight with water left and right as well as a strategically placed fairway bunker. The approach is just as difficult with a long and narrow green protected by a deep bunker front right. Par is always a good score here.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
Hole #17 Par 3 170 yards This hole is my favorite because of the Hole-In-One I carded this past season. It is my 1st and only Hole-In-One and was part of one of my best rounds at Fire Ridge 78.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
Our "Grilled" Buffalo Wings are simply the best. And on Wednesday they are 1/2 priced!!! I always wash my wings down with a cold draft of Pilsner Urquell.

My other favorite dinner entrees are our Irish Ribeye and Cajun Chicken Bowtie Pasta. Both are great with Pilsner Urquell as well.

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
Tony Fanau carded a 64 during the US Bank Qualifyer in 2009. His tee shots exploded off the club. I watched him hit a drive on Hole #1 whichs plays 440 yards to within 60 yards of the green!!!???

Back Tee Stats
Par: 72
Yardage: 7084
Slope: 136
Rating: 74.6

More Information
Fire Ridge Golf Club
2241 Hwy W
Grafton, Wisconsin, 53024
262-375-2252
fireridgegc.com

Revised: 01/23/2013 - Article Viewed 34,877 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.