Lil Wispy is a challenging short course designed for enjoyment and growth. This new addition to The Ridge opened in 2025. The layout includes 9 par 3s, each with a signature tribute green complex paying homage to the Scottish links. With no tee markers, players are welcome to tee off from any flat area on each hole. Walking is encouraged, and golf carts are allowed on the path only.
Benefits: private use of Lil Wispy at no charge 1 time per year for 5 years.
Receive a large, framed print of course design.
Benefits: private use of Lil Wispy at no charge 1 time per year for 3 years.
Benefits: private use of Lil Wispy at no charge 1 time.
Mobile donations are available by texting WISPY to 44-321.
Himalaya Putting Green
New South Practice Tee
Comfort Station with walk up patios on all sides for a relaxed viewing experience
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of #1 & #9 “double” green design.
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of the #2 “punchbowl” green design.
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of #3 “Short”
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of #4 “Redan”
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of #5 “Biarritz”
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of #6 “Postage Stamp”
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of #7 “Volcano”
Original sketch by Jerry Slack, course architect, of #8 “Eden”
#1 & #9 DOUBLE
The “double” green design template has existed since at least 1863, when Old Tom Morris created the seven double greens at the home of golf at St. Andrews. Centuries
later these doubles are again popular. The greens continue to exist given their challenge and flexibility as they can be up to nearly one acre in size and allow for multiple pin positions. Most modern “doubles” are now joined by more narrow and distinct ramps connecting different green section elevations; also these connecting slopes are closely protected by extensive bunkering at the junction.
At Lil Wispy, #1 is 105 yards and plays slightly uphill to a plateau, while the center of the #9 section is about 30 yards further away into the prevailing winds. Bunkering on both sides of the three to four foot connecting ramp section as well as the 120 degree line of play difference between 1 & 9 allows for minimizing potential conflicts.
Creating the double green at this location further allows for the most efficient use of this section of the property and therefore enhances a more robust use of the site for the remaining 7 holes.
A “punchbowl” green design concept was frequently used in early golf design by locating greens in natural depressions where water from more prevalent rains would keep them in better condition. Sandy soils in these areas kept drainage from being a problem.
Modern day sites, often inland that do not drain as well, lessened the use of the “punchbowl” until quite recently. With a good drainage plan, today’s modern irrigation systems now render this concept on such sites quite maintainable. The design itself is popular given the higher than normal expectations a golfer might have. The green and surrounds will funnel shots toward the center, thereby greatly increasing opportunities for birdies. Holes in one will likely be a common occurrence.
The existing site for #2 is truly conducive to the punchbowl template and can be drained quite attractively as well in terms of golf features. This 110 yard par 3 plays slightly downhill and acres will be fully visible from the tee.
The original “short” hole was the 5th (now 4th) at Royal West Golf Club in Brancaster, UK. Notable early architects C.B. MacDonald and Seth Rayner brought this design template to America in the early 1900s.
Primary design features of this design concept are incorporated into #3 at Lil Wispy and include a short downhill shot of 100 yards to an elevated green surrounded by a moat of bunkers on all sides of a rectangular green surface.
Typically there is an infinity effect behind these greens, which adds to the difficulty of gauging the weight of the tee shot into a prevailing wind.
The template, wider than deep, places a classic thumbprint on the green surface. This adds to the strategic challenge by further complicating a successful two-putt par, much less and up and down save. Missing the green or leaving the ball in the wrong place on this green more often than not results in a bogey or worse.
The original “redan” hole is the 15th at Berwick Golf Club in Scotland. The redan is one of the most imitated design templates in course design worldwide.
The #4 hole at Lil Wispy is well defended by the military-like fortifications for which the holes are named. Typically, the green is set at a 45 degree angle from the line of play, sloping downward and away from the point of entrance at the right front of the green. The right-to-left movement is almost always around one or more menacing deep bunkers on the left, therefore rewarding a links-style right-to-left ground game to reach most pin positions in the middle and back of the green.
Additionally, the surrounds feature slopes on the right front that funnel the ball back and to the left. Missing the green long and left provides the easiest uphill chips back to all pin positions. Lil Wispy’s terrain allows for a perfect redan of 175 yards, downwind and lightly uphill on the cross slope.
The original “biarritz” was the par 3 third hole at the Biarritz Golf Club in the South of France. Designed by Willie Dunn Jr. in 1888, the template hole was initially dubbed the “chasm” after C.B. MacDonald brought the concept to America in 1911 at Piping Rock, NY. Subsequently, a hole of this type evolved to its present day moniker “biarritz”.
At 185 yards, into a strong prevailing wind, this is the longest hole at Lil Wispy. The green is bisected by a perpendicular chasm or swale, three to four feet deep at the approximate middle, which leaves three distinct “pinnable” areas from front to back. The valley, in addition to the long bunkers on both sides of the green, i intended to mimic an old dry creek bed landform that runs across the green site.
The concept creates a full option of golf shots with at the premium value being proper distance, given that two putts from across the valley will be exceedingly difficult. Depending on the tee, wind, and or pin position, this hole can vary from a short iron to a long iron or even a hybrid on any given day.
The famous par 3 eighth at Royal Troon in Scotland was nicknamed the “postage stamp” due to its tiny rectangular size. It was set into a large sand dune hillock on the left, the base of which holds the feared “coffin” bunker.
The green at Lil Wispy is perched on a small narrow shelf that falls off to a pair of deep bunkers on the right. More dangerous bunkers guard the downhill approach, which is exposed to the prevailing south and southwest winds. While a shot of only 100-125 yards is needed, it must be played “under the wind” to a green, half o which drops in the direction of several right hand bunkers on the edge of the green surface.
The safest shot is a slight draw to the more accepting front left, followed by a quick, but satisfying, two-putt par. Any shots into any of the bunkering can result in several back and forth shots from the “coffin” and back again, as has happened many times to great professionals at the British Open. Among the most painful of several examples is when Tiger himself, at the time in contention at the 1997 Open, unraveled his Sunday charge with an 8.
The volcano golf hole template is classically defined as looking like a volcano, but with no bailout long, left, right, or short. The famed Donald Ross was a fan of this concept, which typically are built up on three sides and frequently also play uphill. This gives players on the tee the sensation that the green towers over them and a miss in any direction will repel tee shots to their doom.
The 7th at Lil Wispy has all of these features with five prominent shoulders and four deep pockets in the immediate surrounds that mimic lava flows from the higher green surface plateau. Green surrounds at the rear provide a mountainous backdrop and the shoulders and pockets left of the green and crosswinds will tend to push shots towards the upper lake, which is the source for the waterfall at #8 tee. This hole, with its prevailing strong crosswind, will require a precise uphill shot of 105 yards.
The “eden” template comes from the 11th hole par 3 at the “Old Course” at St. Andrews. It is often considered on par with the “redan” as among the best par 3 design concepts.
The well protected green slopes steeply from back to front featuring distinct deep bunkering, particularly in front. Both the “Strath” and “Cokleshell” or “Shelly” bunkers, short and right of the green are quite deep and therefore challenge the player to keep the ball left and below the pin. Staying below the hole is further desirable since shots from the “hill” bunker above the left side and “Eden” above the green likely as not will roll back into either “Strath” or “Shelly”.
Putts from above the hole can also meet the same fate. The 8th at “Lil Wispy” also will have a depressed chipping area over “Shelly” but right of the green, which will further be a challenge, however it also provides a possible “bailout” from the tee. This will play as an uphill but downwind par 3 of 140 yards.
The closing 9th section of the 1st and 9th double is an uphill shot of 120 yards presuming a crosswind breeze. The first hole is thirty to forty yards uphill and behind the 9th, which combined with the 120 degree line of play variance, will provide a significantly less potential conflict between #1 and #9. The same three to four foot ramp with the adjacent bunkering provides a great backdrop as well as another grade separation of the playable green surfaces.
There is also a distinct bunker to #9, as well as a chipping area on the left, that prevailing winds will frequently bring into play. The shaping in front of the green either pulls the misses short of the green or directs them into the front bunker. A handful of players may find themselves navigating putts across the ramp between the greens, which adds an additional interesting feature to the overall layout.
