There are few better qualified to put a course together than a professional with the highest standards of past tours. Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge has everything the discriminating golfer looks for in a club with an exquisites course, spa, 70-room lodge and the amenities you would expect to find where a player such as Arnold Palmer lives and shoots.

The Bay Hill Club and Lodge opened in October of 1961 as a private club for a group of Tennessee investors, but when Arnold Palmer was invited to tour the course in 1965 and shot a 66 he fell in love with the club and the Orlando area.

Having little chance to play winter golf in his home state of Pennsylvania, Palmer made this central Florida club his winter home with his family and in 1970 he purchased the club and it has been his family’s home for the winter ever since.

The par 4 number three hole is a sweeping dogleg to the left, with the fairway working its way around a lake with traps on the right side, making an accurate tee shot necessary to keep your ball dry. A long number 4 also uses sand to protect the green with a pair of serpentine bunkers flanking the approach.

Another par 5 on hole six is another dogleg left flanking a lake on the left, but the turn is much sharper and traps around the green and on the right side just past the beginning of the landing area are more prevalent.