Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Bay Hill — made for Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer discovered Bay Hill by accident.
Back when Sand Lake was a two-lane road amid the Central Florida orange groves, the world’s most popular golfer stumbled upon this remote corner of Orlando.
“You almost had to get lost to find Bay Hill.” said Roy Saunders, Palmer’s sonin-law.
The 35-year-old Palmer immediately felt at home.
While visiting Bay Hill for an exhibition match during the winter of 1965, Palmer found a golf course that fit his eye, rugged natural surroundings teeming with wildlife and solitude that suited his western Pennsylvania sensibilities.
“It appealed to him because of the privacy,” longtime Palmer right-hand man Doc Giffin recalled. “He thought he had found a nice, quiet, lovely place — with a golf course.”
Tourism and 20th-century progress would reshape Palmer’s vision, but he didn’t fight it. Palmer’s business sense and ability to dream big would give him ownership of Bay Hill Club and Lodge in 1974. He soon transformed it into a high-end resort and one of the most popular stops on the PGA Tour.
In the week ahead, many of the world’s top golfers and sizable crowds will descend on Palmer’s winter oasis for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Even as Disney World butted up on the Bay Hill’s southern border in the early 1970s, Universal Orlando squeezed the property from the east two decades later and hundreds of homes and condos sprouted up over the years within the community, Bay Hill remained Palmer’s sanctuary.
“He didn’t like to leave,” said Cori Britt, vice president of Arnold Palmer Enterprises. “He was very comfortable here.”
Palmer, of course, would venture out.
The man affectionately know as The King, had a Midas Touch with the city of Orlando, whether it was building the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children or founding the Golf Channel.
Golf was a given for Palmer each day at Bay Hill.
“It’d be hard to say he didn’t put his hands on a golf club every day,” Saunders said.
Following a quick lunch — his go-to was liverwurst slathered in mustard and accompanied by an “Arnold Palmer,” — Palmer would tee off during “The Shootout.”
Surely one of the longeststanding money games going, “The Shootout” is played every day, weather permitting, other than Christmas or during tournament week. Each golfer puts $40 in the pot and three of four scores count per team each hole.
There was a time when Greg Norman, Corey Pavin and the late Payne Stewart were regulars in the game. Palmer’s foursome usually included Dick Ferris, former CEO of United Airlines, and Robert Damron Sr., whose son and namesake is a former PGA Tour pro.
“He loved to play golf,” Saunders said of Palmer. “He liked the competition, the friendships and he loved the walk.”
Palmer also loved to tinker and spent countless hours in his workshop grinding soles, re-gripping clubs and building them from scratch.
Palmer’s iron grip largely was forged during those days. Wrapping leather grips would leave a man’s hands aching with fatigue after the third club, Saunders said.
“He’d do it all the time,” Saunders continued. “He had incredibly strong hands. That was one of the things about Mr. Palmer. His hands were so recognizable.”
Palmer’s last hurrah in golf also came at Bay Hill.
On Nov. 8, 2011, at the age of 81, he hit a 5-iron over a water hazard to a shallow green and found the hole on the 163-yard, par-3 7th hole on the Challenger course — one of three nine-hole layouts at Bay Hill.
Palmer’s 20th career hole-in-one set in motion a celebration — cocktails in the locker room followed by an impromptu dinner party.
“It was almost like he won the Masters,” said Britt, who keeps in his office an empty bottle of Arnold Palmer Wine cabernet sauvignon reserve from that night.
Britt met Palmer as a 12-year-old caddying at Latrobe (Pa.) Country Club, Palmer’s course near his hometown and summer home.
Palmer took to Britt and hired him at age 16 to do odd jobs. Britt joined Arnold Palmer Enterprises after attending Latrobe’s St. Vincent’s College and caddied for Palmer during his final years of competitive golf (1999-2006).
Britt met his future wife while working in Orlando, moved to Bay Hill in 2006 and has an office connecting to Palmer’s office.
Many of Palmer’s friends would migrate to Bay Hill to stay connected to him.
Longtime business manager Mark McCormack had a condominium across the street for Palmer’s place. Friend and harness racing legend Delvin Miller owned the condo next door. Giles, Palmer’s dentist and devoted fan, and Dow Finsterwald, 1958 PGA Championship winner and Palmer confidant, have condos on the floor below.
Like many people born in the Depression era, Palmer enjoyed simplicity and predictability. Yet Palmer’s fame required him be incredibly flexible, even at Bay Hill.
Rarely did a day go by when a member of Arnie’s Army did not approach him for an autograph or photo.
“People would come up and say, ‘Mr. Palmer, I hate to bother you,’ while he was eating lunch,” Giles recalled. “He would always stand up and shake their hand; if it was a lady he would hug her. Most of these pros would blow you off.
“That’s why he was The King: He did things other people don’t do.”
Palmer always made time for visitors to Bay Hill, even though a wall showcasing his enormous celebrity was a bump and run away from the table where he ate.
There are photos of Palmer with Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford — the former president and Palmer looking for Ford’s lost ball. A young Tiger Woods stands between Palmer and Jack Nicklaus in one photo, while Bobby Jones, cigarette holder in hand, is with Palmer in another.
A photo of the Big Three — Palmer, Nicklaus and Gary Player — or shots of Palmer with Bill Murray, Michael Jordan or Yogi Berra are museum material.
As Orlando grew, Palmer was savvy enough to sense a business opportunity. He helped develop Isleworth and its golf course.
Palmer, who died in September, would battle prostate cancer in 1997, but otherwise his winter routine generally was unwavering until December 2014. Heading to a dinner for the PNC Father-Son Challenge, Palmer tripped and fell, badly breaking his shoulder.
“That really stopped him,” Saunders said.
After the injury, Palmer rarely practiced and no longer played golf. He still drove his decked-out, EZGO Executive golf cart around the property to remain close to the game.
With the crush of Orlando’s booming tourist sector less than a mile away, Bay Hill still provided Palmer tranquility.
These days, a left turn off Apopka-Vineland Road into the peaceful development feels like a return to the 1970s. A road winds past homes that are well maintained and understated like The King himself.
Palmer’s footprint at Bay Hill will never fade away.
“He thought he had found a nice, quiet, lovely place — with a golf course.”
Doc Giffin, lifelong friend of Arnold Palmer