Bay Hill
One thing you’ve got to love about our incredible game of golf is the nostalgic moments that embody the golf experience.
There’s no doubt that many of us can all recall some of the best shots that we’ve ever hit, but often the well struck 7-iron pales in comparison to the memories we have with our friends and family on the golf course.
One of those experiences that will never be forgotten was one that so many of us in the golfing world had the chance to experience: meeting the legendary Arnold Palmer.
In a world that loves to debate anything and everything about the game from who’s the best player, the best private course, the best course for a buddies trip, and so on and so forth, there’s one debate that never really seems to be much of an argument, and that’s who has had the biggest impact on the game of golf. Without a doubt, it’s Mr. Palmer.
As the best players in the world make their way to Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge this week, we find ourselves thinking back to the many ways that Mr. Palmer has made an impact on the game of golf, and from our perspective we wanted to focus on how his ways have influenced the world of golf travel. With over 300 courses designed by the Arnold Palmer Design Company worldwide, we had plenty of options to choose from and have highlighted just a few examples of how the King left his mark on some of the world’s greatest destinations.
Palmer North at The K Club
Harbour Town Golf Links
Now for those who know this golf course, you might think it’s funny that we are starting this list off with a course that wasn’t even designed by Arnold Palmer. The reason for that is that without Mr. Palmer’s blessing of this golf course, many of our favorite non-Palmer designed courses may not exist today.
Harbour Town is the result of the collaboration of a young Pete Dye and his design consultant Jack Nicklaus, and at the time hiring this duo was considered outside the box thinking by Sea Pines owner Charles Fraser. Nicklaus had never designed a golf course before this, and he was the first one on this project and suggested that Pete Dye be brought in on the design. At this time, Pete Dye had designed less than 10 golf courses and was far from a name that was held in high esteem like it is today, but Nicklaus was familiar with him from their days of amateur golf in Ohio together.
The result of this partnership’s design was a course that featured narrow landing areas and small greens which was not what Tour pros of the time were used to playing. Designed in just 18 months time, Harbour Town Golf Links hit the big stage as it played host to the inaugural Heritage Golf Classic (now the RBC Heritage) in 1969. Many players moaned and griped about the design, but there was one person who loved it: Arnold Palmer.
Mr. Palmer had been experiencing a winning drought leading up to the event, and after his long-awaited win at Harbour Town he raved about the brilliance of the design, and all the sudden Harbour Town had the seal of approval from the two biggest names in the game, and thus began the design career of Jack Nicklaus and the elevation of the legendary Pete Dye. Oh, and let’s not forget that without Pete Dye becoming the man that he became, we also may not have the designs of his disciples that include Tom Doak, Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw, Bobby Weed, P.B. Dye, Rod Whitman, Tim Liddy, and Jim Urbina just to name a few.
That’s literally thousands of courses that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Mr. Palmer’s kind words. Once again … thanks King.
Harbour Town
Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge
If you’ve been to Orlando in the last 30 years, it’s hard to imagine what the beginnings were like for Bay Hill. In an area that was known for growing citrus, it was an unlikely story that a group of businessmen from Nashville, Tennessee, would invest in this land and create a Dick Wilson-designed golf course in what felt like the middle of nowhere.
The trajectory for Bay Hill changed dramatically in 1965 when Walt Disney announced the development of nearby Walt Disney World. In the same year, Arnold Palmer played in and won an exhibition match at Bay Hill, and he quickly fell in love with the course. He told his wife Winnie that he wanted to own it, and in 1970 he took out a five-year lease with an option to buy the property, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In 1979, Mr. Palmer was able to bring the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard (originally known as the Bay Hill Invitational) to the annual schedule on the PGA Tour where it still resides today as a marquee event that continues to cultivate some of the best fields in golf.
Mr. Palmer made Bay Hill his Florida home, and his presence around the course was something that will never be duplicated. He famously would walk up to a table of guests who were enjoying their lunch to welcome them to Bay Hill and thank them for coming. Can you imagine?! The King himself coming over to your table to thank you for your business? It’s just the type of man that he was, and his indelible legacy will always be felt at Bay Hill where his spot on the right side of the range still stays reserved for him today even after his passing.
Bay Hill
King & Bear at World Golf Village
As the only golf course in the world that was ever designed by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus together, the King & Bear at World Golf Village delivers golfers a wonderful variety in 18 holes of golf including a front 9 that is more of an open, links-style design while the back 9 feels more like a traditional Florida design with plenty of water, pine and oak trees, and coquina rock. As you’ll see in the drone footage here, the course is a wonderful design as the footage speaks for itself.
We love this course as we feel like it’s the perfect culmination of where things started at Harbour Town, and where they ended up at World Golf Village. It’s a celebration of the friendly rivalry between the Golden Bear and the King, as these two continued to push each other further into greatness in what started during their days together on Tour and later developed into a lifelong friendship of two of the best to ever pick up a club.
The K Club
The K Club in Kildare, Ireland is home to 36 holes of Arnold Palmer designed legendary golf with the Palmer North and Palmer South courses. The Palmer North course is recognized worldwide as it played host to the Ryder Cup in 2006 as well as the 2016 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and eleven European Opens making it one of the premier destinations for championship golf in all of Europe. The Palmer South course’s inland links style design has the pedigree for championship golf including hosting the Smurfit European Open as well.
It was great to see Mr. Palmer’s design talents showcased on the international stage in a country that loved and respected what he did for the game of golf. A two-time winner of The Open Championship in 1961 and 1962, there’s no doubt that the crowds “across the pond” were huge Palmer fans and many were members of Arnie’s Army.
Palmer South