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Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club

Champion Course # 18

The Bay Hill Club is in the suburban high-end community of Bay Hill. Located off Apopka Vineland, one of the city's main thoroughfares, it is within minutes of Walt Disney World Resort. At Bay Hill, lodge guests can play a PGA tournament venue, practice at terrific facilities, enjoy first rate dining, and relax at this very private club.

At Bay Hill, you play the venue of the Bay Hill Invitational, one of the longest standing stops on the PGA Tour. It is also Arnold Palmer's winter home. Were his army to hold a reunion, it would certainly be held here.

Champion Course # 14

If you visit Bay Hill during the winter months, you are quite likely to see The King himself -- if not on the course, then chatting with guests, seeing to arrangements with staff, enjoying friends at the bar, or eating dinner in the splendid restaurant overlooking the putting green and first tee. He is very gracious and unpretentious, and his personality spills over to his staff which make lodge guests feel very welcome at this most private club.

Palmer is the president and CEO of the club. In 1966, he came here to play an exhibition with Jack Nicklaus. He shot a 65 that day and fell in love with the place. Two years later, he formed a business partnership and bought it.

Set under a canopy of trees, the 58-room lodge with its rustic exterior is reminiscent of a New England lodge. The corridors of the modest sized lodge and connecting club are lined with photos, trophies and other Palmerabilia. The bottom floor rooms have doors leading out to the huge putting and chipping greens. For an incurable hacker like me, this is a marvelous convenience. The pro shop is a two-minute indoor walk from your room. The lodge/club complex also includes banquet/meeting rooms for weddings and small business meetings and an adjacent pool/health club.

As for golf, Arnie and his lead designer Ed Seay have made a few changes to this Joe Lee original design. Several holes, including the uphill par 5 4th and the par 5 16th have been lengthened, some lakes and bunkers have been enlarged and the greens have been redone. Arnie is a hands-on manager and is frequently out inspecting the course with his superintendent. Conditions of the course are generally excellent. The tournament 18 is supplemented by Charger, a gentler 9 that is usually uncrowded.

The front 9 of the Big Course is the more scenic and dramatic of the two 9's. It features the half-moon-shaped par 5 5th around a lake where John Daly took an 18 trying to hit his drive over the lake from the forward tees to the green. From the tee box you need a telescope to see the green much less hit it. The downhill 200-yard 2nd and uphill 198-yard 7th are fine par 3's. The 398-yard 4th, curving around another lake, is a terrific hole as is the 450-yard 8th which doglegs right around a copse of trees to a slightly elevated green bordered front and left by a pond.

The back nine is less scenic, as the houses seem to be on top of a few of the holes. It includes the 400-yard uphill 10th; the 430-yard par 4 11th to a long, narrow green hovering over a lake; the short, straight par 4 13th of less than 400 yards over another pond to a tight green; and #15, a 225-yard uphill par 3 to a severely sloped green. The 445-yard slight dogleg right 18th is one of the best finishing holes, primarily because of its length and the yawning lake guarding the fairway and green on the right.

For all of its notoriety, Bay Hill remains a course within a development, albeit a very high-end development. Six- and seven-figure homes on large lots are visible throughout.

For reservations and other information, including non-resident membership requirements, call 888-4-BAY-HILL. 

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Alan B. Nichols is a professional golf-travel writer residing in Bethesda, MD.
He is the featured golf-travel writer for GolfLink. Alan appreciates your
comments on his features and the courses he has written about. 
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