Golf Scrapbook Blog (The Other Ones)

Bay Hill

Because I put Streamsong in its own “market” then Bay Hill is my top-ranked course in the Orlando area. For this reason alone – since I have no photos and only a vague recollection of the course – I decided to do a quick write-up and will discuss top Orlando golf options here.

Played Bay Hill back in 2004 with my dad as a quick escape from a Disney trip we took with all of the families. At that time, I think, the only way to get on was to get your pro to make a call, however I am 100% certain that today you can stay at the resort here which will give you access. It’s definitely worth the effort.

As of 2021, Bay Hill is back on the golf front page thanks to Bryson DeChambeau. His attempt to drive the par-five 6th hole in the tournament has taken the “distance” debate to a different level. Golf Digest did a great little article showing the Twitter difference between DeChambeau in 2016 versus 2021 here. Roids? By the way, I hate his face and stupid cap but would love to see him and Koepka (who I only hate slightly less) in a steel cage match. C’mon think about it – the Roid Challenge. 18 holes of golf, followed by three rounds of no holds barred steel cage fighting. That would get a huge PPV following.

As noted, when we played, our pro called to set us up. We belong to a course in Philly that Palmer designed. So we got to Bay Hill early for our tee time and checked in. I asked the pro whether Mr. Palmer was on property and he said that he was indeed and we should go meet him in the dining room. Well, we kicked around the pro shop for a little before going into the dining room and lo and behold Arnie was sitting there with a group having breakfast. Neither me nor my dad are big “groupies” or get all gaga over celebrities but I said we should go over and meet him. My dad said “no way” let the poor guy eat and we started heading for our table. At that point, Palmer gets up and comes over to greet us! Said “hey, why didn’t you come over and say hello.”

So as we were chatting, my dad says, “Hey we belong to a club your company designed called Commonwealth up near Philly.” Palmer says, “My company didn’t design that, I did.” He then went on to talk about the holes, etc. So the pro probably set him up, but damn did that make a great impression on my dad. So my dad bought a cap there and Arnie asks if he could autograph it for him. He goes, “Oh yeah okay.” Then tells me later, “I was going to wear that today and now I have to buy another God damn hat.”

But wait there’s more. So we head out after breakfast to putt before our tee time and the pro comes out. He says, “If you can hang around until noon, Mr. Palmer would love to come out and play with you guys.” Pretty cool right? Once in a lifetime opportunity right? Well, my dad says, “Eh would love to but we got kids and stuff waiting for us back at Disney so we better just get out now, but tell him thanks.” Only my dad would blow off a round with Arnie. We finish the round and head back into the men’s locker room and it is completely empty except there’s a bar there and sitting on the bar are two ice cold Miller Lites. The bartender looks at us and asks. “You the Philly guys?” We nod and he says, “These are courtesy of Mr. Palmer. He said not to rush too fast getting back to the Tragic Kingdom.”

I say all of that to show you what a class act Palmer was. Can you imagine DeChambeau doing all of that? Even Tiger or Phil? I wish more golfers got it like Arnie did.

As noted, I remember the course more for the tourneys than when we actually played so I’ll spare a walk-through here. But let’s talk about Orlando golf. I come to the area quite a bit, played a lot of the public golf options and have a few friends here that have gotten us on to a lot of the private courses around the area.

So is it dude trip worthy? Well if you’re a group of Goofy fucks that want to split time between golf/drinking and the Tragic Kingdom, I guess it is. Me personally, while there are some great courses, the sea of kids are a huge turn off. Mine are grown so I never have to hit the Rat Trap again but if you got young ‘uns then there are some good options here to sneak away. I’ll rank the ones I’ve played (remember Streamsong is the best of all but is a separate trip in and of itself and is closer to Tampa anyway).

1. Lake Nona (private): Great conditioning. Nice layout. Get on if you can.
2. Golden Club at Keene’s Point: Another private option that is really underrated.
3. Grand Cypress (New Course): Public and super close to Disney. Different than other public options. They got the “Scotland” feel right though there is no sea nearby.
4. Grand Cypress (South/East): Couldn’t be more different than the New Course here. The “rooms” here are pretty dated or at least they were when I stayed in 2008.
5. Disney Lake Buena Vista: Lots of trees.
6. Mystic Dunes: Close to Disney and a pretty unheralded public option.

I played some of the other Disney courses (some of which are no longer associated with Disney) and some others in the area. There are some nice options but again if you’re doing a golf only trip with dudes then I’d hit Streamsong (and separately Tampa) before here. I added some photos from other Orlando courses since not sure I’ll be doing a write-up on any of them.