Orlando’s best public golf courses: Where to play near Bay Hill
The 9-hole course at Winter Park is packed with old-school charm.
Courtesy Winter Park Golf Course
Let’s say you’re in Orlando, and you haven’t earned a spot in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where the pros are pegging it this weekend. Where else might you play golf? Here are four of Orlando’s best public golf courses and facilities.
Winter Park Golf Course
Some short courses have a long history. Born more than a century ago, this charming 9-holer in Winter Park, roughly six miles north of Orlando, received new life through a 2016 renovation by Keith Rhea and Riley Johns. The result is a character-packed par-35 that GOLF Magazine ranks among the finest 9-hole courses in the world. Tucked into a neighborhood, and framed by a cemetery, a pair of churches and a passenger train line for full old-school effect, WP9, as locals know it, is a first-rate match-play venue, with several sweet par-3s and drivable par-4s. It is also built for walking. Odds are you’ll want to walk it twice.
Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge
This 45-hole facility, west of the city, has been called the Bandon Dunes of the Sunshine State for its low-frills, golf-focused atmosphere. Along with a circular driving range, a 36-hole putting course, and a 9-hole course called the Tooth, the property has a pair of 18-holers, Panther Lake and Crooked Cat. While the former poses a tougher test, both layouts have plenty of movement, set on a rolling ground with enough elevation change to hold your interest and not a home in sight.
Walt Disney World Resort
The self-proclaimed “Happiest Place on Turf” is home to four courses, three of which (the Palms, the Magnolia and Lake Buena Vista) have hosted the PGA Tour. If you’ve got time for two rounds, the Palms and the Magnolia would be the tracks to target. True to billing, the former is fringed with palm trees and the latter is lined with magnolias. Both are fortified with white-sand bunkers and water hazards and are kept in the pristine condition you’d expect from a resort where few details go overlooked. One time-sensitive note: the Magnolia is undergoing some touch-up work, and while it’s still playing as an 18-hole routing, the 16th hole has been shortened so the course is temporarily playing as a par-71. A 15-percent discount on tee times is being offered until the work is complete.
Omni Orlando ChampionsGate
At this 36-hole property, two Greg Norman-designed courses here, the National and the International, provide a study in contrasts. The latter is longer, with sandy features that call to mind a links, while the latter winds through trees and wetlands. If you’re not properly warmed up, there’s no excuse. ChampionsGate also has a training-and-entertainment center, with 30 hitting bays equipped with Toptracer Range technology.
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