We got the opportunity to play Bay Hill Golf Club thanks to winning a charity auction a few months back. Here are our thoughts on playing a course where some of the best to ever play the game have competed and won.
History
Bay Hill Golf Club was built in 1961, purchased by Arnold Palmer in 1975, and refined multiple times since then. It consists of 27 holes, the Charger 9-hole course and the 18-hole Championship Course which has hosted what is now known as the Bay Hill Invitational Presented by Mastercard since 1979. As a quick history side note, the pros used to play at an East Orlando Course called Rio Pinar where players such as Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Hale Irwin won what was then called the Florida Citrus Open.
List of Winners at Rio Pinar
Scoreboard from the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational
The Bay Hill Golf and Lodge has hosted the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational since 1979 and has an incredibly distinguished list of champions including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Ernie Els. Arnold Palmer made sure to be behind the 18th green and personally congratulate every winner from inception until his passing in 2016.
We attended the tournament in 2024 and had an amazing time. Orlando as a whole and especially the community surrounding the course go all out for this week. Quite a few houses on the course decorate for the tournament and host parties all weekend.
Playing the Bay Hill Golf Club
There are only a handful of ways to secure a tee time at the Bay Hills Golf Club. We were able to get on by winning a charity auction for a foursome. The second way is to be a member or be the guest of a member. The third way is to stay at the lodge, which gives you access to tee times.
Driving Range
If you are lucky enough to secure a tee time, we recommend arriving early to take advantage of the warm up / practice facility. The driving range was like carpet with nearly brand new Callaway range balls. They also have a large short game practice area along with a few putting greens.
Arnold Palmer Statue behind 1st Tee
World Class Driving Range
Well known landmark on the putting tree.
Driving Range
Clubhouse
The main clubhouse is the building right next to the parking lot. This is where the pro shop and locker rooms are located. Speaking of locker rooms, these are probably the nicest we have ever scene, and we have experienced Turnberry, the Old Course at St. Andrews, and Carnoustie. The bartender didn’t have many customers so he showed us around the locker room including Arnold Palmers locker. A cool fact that he mentioned was that the reigning champion of the Bay Hill Invitational has the locker next to Arnie’s.
We highly recommend going across the way into the main lodge building. We entered into the main restaurant where there is an incredible amount of memorabilia on the walls that continues down the hall all the way to the check in desk for the lodge itself. It was amazing to see how many musicians had given Arnold Palmer various signed items for all those years.
A few gators around the course
Par 5 6th Hole
8th Green w/ stands going up
Tee shot on 5.
Caddies
If you’ve read any of our Scotland golf posts, you know that we are big advocates of using a caddy when given the opportunity. We booked our caddies ahead of time and they met us next to the starter’s hut about 15 minutes before our tee time. They did a great job guiding us around the course, providing great stories from the tournament over the years, and pointed out certain houses that used to belong to famous golfers over the years.
13th Green
Our Round
Like we mentioned above, we played about two months before the Bay Hill Invitational so the course was in near perfect shape and they had already started building out some of the stands.
One of the most eye opening things about playing a well known course is seeing the slopes in person that the TV coverage just can’t portray. The green slopes in some areas are much steeper in person and the elevation changes on some of the holes are much greater than Andrew initially thought, especially for a central Florida course.
The first standout surprise of playing the course was how narrow the fairways were. Not sure if they shrink them when getting ready for the tournament or they are that thin the entire year but some of them were very hard to hit, especially if it was a dogleg or had water to navigate around/over. Another was how long the course is for the pros. We played it at about 6700 yards and some of the pro tees were insanely further back (8, 9, 15, & 16 to name a few).
View of the 18th Green from 16 Tee
Remodeled 17th Green without the bunker
A few of the green complexes were much more severe or different than expected. Some of the greens slope severely from back to from and demanded near perfection when chipping from behind the green. One of the hardest shots Andrew had to hit was chipping from the right side of 16. The hole was middle left and Andrew hit what he thought was a perfect chip but it just kept rolling and found the fringe on the left side. Following that, the back right of 17 (where the hole was that day) is much smaller than it looks on TV and very hard to get to. The finishing hole green is no picnic either with back right considered the hardest location, and it appears to be, but ours was front and that is also a very narrow area to hit to.
18th Green
Like most rounds played on well known courses, at the end of the day it’s certain moments that stand out and not the overall score. For Andrew, it will be the 75 foot putt he drained on the first for birdie, the perfect drive he hit over the pond on the par 5 6th, and parring the final three holes that everyone who watches golf are very familiar with. Even though the flag on 18 was on the front, Andrew made it a point to walk to the back right of the green to experience what the famous Sunday hole location really looks like in person and remember the historic moments that have taken place there.
One cool touch is the sidewalk that crosses the street from the 18th green to the clubhouse includes plaque inserts that show each tournament champion and the year they won.
18th from behind the green
Walk of Champions
Final Thoughts
This was a real cool opportunity that we may not ever have the chance to experience again. We were lucky in that we found out later what most people who stay at the lodge pay for their round and ours came out to be significantly less. It was great to experience this with friends and family, three of us had never played the course before and the fourth who hadn’t played it in over 20 years. The weather was perfect and it turned out to be just about as good a day on a golf course as can be had.