Golf - Osprey Ridge course

Walt Disney World

Disney's Osprey Ridge golf course closing in August as part of the Golden Oak sale
11 years ago

Osprey Ridge will be transferring to the Four Seasons Resort

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"Osprey" 17 years ago by Baylordad

My favorite Disney Course. You leave the 1st tee and never see a road or building. It is well maintained and service is great. I have played golf all over the country and this course is in my top 3 for fun and enjoyment. If you play golf at Disney, this course is a must play!!

"What a day" 22 years ago by kaos

My first WDW golfing experience was a fun one. It was a hot muggy August day at Disneyworld. I had finally, after about 25 or so trips, brought my clubs with me. I made my reservations about a month earlier for the Palm. I have always wanted to take my picture on the famous Mickey sand trap. Well, about two days before we departed, we got a phone call. The Palm and Magnolia were both being closed for work for the upcoming National Car Rental Open. We were then asked if we would like to play on the Ospery Ridge courses. I was a little disappointed, but I said sure. Once we got to the course, it was everything that it was promised. Great food at the bar and grill, a very neat and clean pro shop, and a beautiful wide open course with very manicured fairways and wide open spaces. Of course, I only hit the fairways a few times. As the day rolled on, the hot Florida sun was beating down. The golf course ranger came to our group about every 5 minutes with ICE COLD TOWELS and ICE COLD WATER. This was very unexpected, and very refreshing. I am looking forward to my next golfing adventure at WDW, and would defiantely recommend these courses for a fun and challenging round of golf.

Description

This Tom Fazio design offers dramatically elevated greens and tees, nine water holes, and more than 70 strategically placed bunkers throughout the course. Rolling fairways cut through the forests of scrub

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Course Information

Osprey Ridge Course
Architect: Tom Fazio
Opened: 1992
Yardage: 5,402 - 7,101
Par: 72
Course/Slope Ratings: 69.5-74.4 / 123-131

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Golfers who test their skills on Disney's Osprey Ridge course try to add some "artful strokes" with their golf clubs on a "masterpiece" course from the "palette" of renowned course architect Tom Fazio.

In fact, Osprey Ridge was a picturesque, challenging layout in Fazio's eyes long before golfers began reviewing his creation in 1992. He had studied the hundreds of acres of wilderness in the northeast corner of Walt Disney World Resort and, like an artist who sees the finished painting before the first pigment is applied to the canvas, he saw great things.

"Some of the factors that excited us about the project were the vegetation, the water areas and the wetlands which became part of the background and framing for the holes," he said.

One of the challenges for a resort course designer is to create a layout that would prove an equal challenge for the expert and the player with lesser ability. At Osprey Ridge, playing options produce that versatility -- from the positioning of tee boxes to the choices the player can make concerning a route from tee to green on the many holes where water is a factor.

Fazio notes that the design of Osprey Ridge uses the existing land patterns to their fullest while preserving all of the adjacent wetlands and other natural areas. Its positive characteristics include remote areas and high ridges with some tees, greens and viewing areas 20-25 feet above grade.

More than 70 strategically placed bunkers, mounds and a meandering ridge that runs through the course provide interesting obstacles, banking and elevation changes.

According to Robert McCord's The 479 Best Courses to Play in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, "The links-style layout . . . has an abundance of beautiful and sometimes golf-threatening foliage, including pine, scrub oak, palmetto, bay trees, cypress and other varieties. Wind is another element [to challenge golfers.] Often the winds here are swirling and unpredictable.

"The front nine starts out with some of the easier holes on the course but includes two long par 3s before you reach the 582-yard par-5 seventh, the number-1 handicap hole, largely due to distance. The course gets more difficult on the back nine. The three finishing holes at Osprey Ridge are excellent tests of golf."