Bay Hill Club & Lodge

Bay Hill Club & Lodge features 27 holes of championship golf originally designed by Dick Wilson in 1961, later refined by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay after Palmer acquired the property in the mid-1970s. The Challenger/Champion combination hosts the annual Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour and is known for its strong angular doglegs, elevated greens, and the dramatic finishing stretch along the shores of the Butler Chain of Lakes.

Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando traces its origins to a Dick Wilson design built in 1961 — a layout carved from genuine Florida terrain that gave the property something rare for a state dominated by flat, featureless land: actual topography. Wilson worked with natural sinkholes and elevation changes on the site, creating Champion and Challenger nines that illustrated his characteristic design philosophy of elevated putting surfaces for improved visibility and drainage. Bob Simmons built the course to Wilson's specifications, and the result was immediately recognized as one of Wilson's finest Florida works.

The defining moment in Bay Hill's history arrived in 1965 during a charity exhibition, when Arnold Palmer shot 66, demolished the course record, and beat Jack Nicklaus by seven strokes. After the round, Palmer called his wife Winnie with a declaration that would reshape the club's identity: he had just played the best golf course in Florida and wanted to own it. Palmer acquired Bay Hill in 1974, and the club became inseparable from his identity as both golfer and businessman for the remaining four decades of his life.

Palmer and his partner Ed Seay modified much of Wilson's original design over the following decades, incorporating changes that reflected Palmer's competitive philosophy and personal aesthetic preferences. In summer 2009, Palmer undertook his most significant renovation of the course: a four-month project that repositioned bunkers with prominent sand faces, re-grassed greens with flatter edges for additional pin positions, and added new tees that stretched the layout to 7,400 yards from the tips — a length that places Bay Hill among the demanding-to-play Florida tests. In 1979, Palmer convinced the PGA TOUR to move what was then the Florida Citrus Open Invitational from Rio Pinar Country Club to Bay Hill, initiating the tournament that became the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The event has been held at Bay Hill every year since, growing in prestige alongside Palmer's legend and the course's reputation. Palmer's daughter Amy and her husband Roy Saunders assumed ownership following his death in 2016, maintaining the club's identity as one of professional golf's most personally significant venues.