Orlando Golf Trip Recap....The best golf experience of my life.

[kpaulhus]

Let me start off by saying I LOVE a good golf trip away from home with my buddies. Playing multiple rounds over several days with a little betting here and there is what really relaxes me when I need time off of work. I don’t need strippers and getting wasted on booze, but a little fun here and there makes for a great time.

Last weekend was my annual golf trip…(1 of 3 if you ask my wife, but who’s counting) I planned the trip in November along with @GolfLug, who was a competitor in the Newport Cup, @Joe Guastella who is my lifelong friend from Tampa, and 4 other buddies from my country club here in Northwest Arkansas.

I managed to book round trip flights, a rental van, a 6 bedroom house, and 6 rounds of golf over 4 days for about $1300 a man. Not bad IMO. We had perfect high of 75 weather all week and not a single drop of rain.

We started our trip at Orange County National on the Panther Lake Course Sunday afternoon. This is where the annual PGA Merchandise show has all their equipment test as their driving range is a 400 yard circle. There had to have been 10 different tee boxes around this giant circular range. Two my Arkansas friends double bogied the first hole, which solidified their spot in the “Disney Princess” room that the rental house had. The course was in great shape but the greens, while smooth, where a little slow.

Monday Morning we teed off at Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course, which IMO was not worth $100. They were losing some spots on their greens and the course was pretty packed for a Monday morning. The started actually said “you guys have no idea how much of a pleasure it is to see a 4some hit the fairway on their opening tee shots”…I could see why as there were families everywhere and people from all over the world who don’t golf much. No biggie, everyone should enjoy it no matter what your skill level. We finished up in about 4.5 hours and jumped in the car for a 10min drive over to Grand Cypress. Here we ate lunch and played the New Course, which supposedly had 8 or 9 holes that were identical to St Andrews. This place had more of the country club feel, and was in immaculate shape. The first tee box doubled as a practice putting green. It was sort of weird putting a tee into that grass. #1 and #18 fairways run right next to each other, so you literally had 300 yard wide fairway, with the small creek right in front of the green. My buddy Joey was -3 going into #8 then after a bad unplayable drop, and a creek took a quadruple bogey. Kind of felt like watching a rerun this past Sunday with Jordan Speith just ruining a good round on one hole. Either way, Joey finished with a very impressive 75 for the lowest round of the trip.

Monday night we were all exhausted so we headed to Ale House to watch the NCAA National Championship and then checked into Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Boy oh boy we were excited for that Tuesday morning to come.

Tuesday at 8 am my phone started blowing up. All the guys said “Get your ass down to the grill now!” I thought they were all messing with me so I slept for another 5 minutes. Then the texts and calls were incoming so I thought something serious was happening. I got ready quickly and walked downstairs only to see The King, Arnold Palmer sitting at the table 20 ft away from ours. The waitress was kind enough to let us go speak to him and while he may be 85 years old and looking like it, he shook our hands firmly and thanked us for staying and playing at his club. He let us crowd around him for a picture and said “Come on in boys, the water is fine!”  Wow. Just wow. I got to shake Arnold Palmer’s hand! From there we were like little kids in a toy store all lit up with excitement. We headed out to the range and putting green after breakfast and teed off at 10 am. We had a forecaddie who was great for providing direction and helping read putts. The course was probably in the best shape for our trip, considering they just had the Bay Hill Invitational 10 days prior. Lots of grand stands and logos still up so it felt cool to be playing the course in those conditions.

 

We played in 4 hours and had a late lunch on the patio behind the club. The weather was perfect so we had an 8ft putting competition for $10 a man. Things got a little out of control for one guy, but hey, how many “double or nothing” putts could I make. (8 to be exact) haha. After 2 hours of messing around on the putting green someone says, “hey, is that Michael Breed chipping over there?!?!” Sure enough, Mr. LETS DO THIS was at Bay Hill as well doing a preshow for the Golf Channel due to Masters Week. Michael came over and talked to us. Man this guys on air personality is truly real. Super high energy and just loved talking and telling us stories. Over the next 2.5 hours we talked everything from putting to fixing @GolfLug’s swing (I’ll let him post the video) to some crazy betting he has done on the golf course. Another long day in the books and we didn’t want to wear out our stay at Bay Hill so we headed back to the rental house as the sun was setting. All in all this was a fantastic day and made the whole trip…and we still had two other courses to play on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning we headed towards the Orlando Airport to play a course called Shingle Creek. This course was rated the #1 pubic course in Orlando in 2015 (Though I think Orange County National had it beat). It was a normal Florida golf course with lots of water, wing guests and a few decent sized gators. This course played pretty quickly and I thought it was worth the price of admission at about $100. Overall service was great though the cart girl could’ve used another cup of coffee before coming out.

After having a Publix Sub for lunch (amazing) we headed to our last round of the trip at The Ritz Carlton. I knew the $150 fee was expected, I mean it is the Ritz, but the course wasn’t in any better shape than the other 5 we had played. I would say it was probably 4^th or 5^th best. Another great warm afternoon with lots of wind. As you can imagine after 5 rounds we were all pretty tired and this turned into our drinking beer and enjoying ourselves round before we all headed back to reality.

We closed out the trip at a great seafood place called Big Finn which is near the Dr Phillips area of Orlando. I thought it was a great success as nobody missed a flight to or from Orlando, we had great weather…and you know, meeting Arnold Palmer and Michael Breed was icing on the cake!

 

[jgreen85]

wow, if you didn't have the pictures I wouldn't have believed you. this is almost like one of those TPC commercials where the average joe's locker is next to a tour pro and said pro walks in.

[saevel25]

@kpaulhus, Sounds like an awesome trip. Meeting Arnold, what a once in a lifetime opportunity. Awesome stuff man. 

In 2013 and in 2015 I played in Orlando. I played OC Panther in 2015 and in 2013 I played Shingle Creek. I thought OC-Panther was a better course as well. Shingle Creek we played when it was wet and cart path only. I didn't find the course to warrant the top public course. It was good, but not that good. 

It's a bit of a trek, but if you are ever down there again give Southern Dunes a try. It's about 30 minutes south of Orlando. It's one of my favorite golf courses to play. 

Thanks for putting up a recap. This is going to make be break out my camera for my trip to Pinehurst next week. 

[Golfingdad]

Great read Kyle!  Thanks for the stories and pictures!!

[David in FL]

Glad you had a great time while you were here.

 Thanks for taking the time to tell us all about it!  

[kpaulhus]

Next time we are in Orlando I'll give you a shout @David in FL

[Joe Guastella]

awesome read @kpaulhus. while I did manage to get an 8 on a par 4 and still go on to shoot 75 you forgot to mention your major melt down on #18 at bay hill (which I recorded). Also you forgot to mention that we had a bet on all 6 rounds for total strokes for the week. Going into the last round I was up 25 strokes. Now I know you like to forget these minor details from the trip, but do not worry I do not forget and I am delighted to share them with the members of the sand trap.

[kpaulhus]

^ like I said...life long friends lol

[Golfingdad]

31 minutes ago, Joe Guastella said:

you forgot to mention your major melt down on #18 at bay hill (which I recorded).

Go on ...... :)

(If you need help posting video, there are a number of us here that would love to assist) :P

[k-troop]

What a great trip! Thanks for sharing. 

[RandallT]

12 hours ago, jgreen85 said:

wow, if you didn't have the pictures I wouldn't have believed you. this is almost like one of those TPC commercials where the average joe's locker is next to a tour pro and said pro walks in.

@GolfLug is doing the rounds, because I just met/saw him to play a couple rounds this past weekend up here 850 miles farther north near DC, and when he pulled out the photos of Palmer (and the personal lesson from Breed) and told similar tales, I was similarly struck with a bit of disbelief at first. Very cool story at Bay Hill, and great trip overall!

[Marty2019]

Wow, that sounds like one of the great trips of all time.  

[Hardspoon]

9 hours ago, Joe Guastella said:

awesome read @kpaulhus. while I did manage to get an 8 on a par 4 and still go on to shoot 75 you forgot to mention your major melt down on #18 at bay hill (which I recorded). Also you forgot to mention that we had a bet on all 6 rounds for total strokes for the week. Going into the last round I was up 25 strokes. Now I know you like to forget these minor details from the trip, but do not worry I do not forget and I am delighted to share them with the members of the sand trap.

This made me laugh out loud. I could totally see one of my friends creating an account on a site just to post something like this.

Sounds like an awesome trip!

[jamo]

Sounds like an awesome trip!

9 hours ago, Joe Guastella said:

awesome read @kpaulhus. while I did manage to get an 8 on a par 4 and still go on to shoot 75 you forgot to mention your major melt down on #18 at bay hill (which I recorded). Also you forgot to mention that we had a bet on all 6 rounds for total strokes for the week. Going into the last round I was up 25 strokes. Now I know you like to forget these minor details from the trip, but do not worry I do not forget and I am delighted to share them with the members of the sand trap.

Welcome welcome!

 

 

[DaveP043]

@kpaulhus, sounds like a great trip.  Like @RandallT said, we've already heard just a little of it, I'm glad all you guys had fun.  

[djfajt71]

Awesome, that sounds like a dream trip!  Thanks for including us in the recap!

[kpaulhus]

10 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

Go on ...... :)

(If you need help posting video, there are a number of us here that would love to assist) :P

The swing videos of me chunking then topping two balls into the lake on 18 have been deleted and shall never be seen lol.

[GolfLug]

...So after my two weeks of a whirlwind golf + work trips I am back to some normalcy. Just wanted to drop in thank @kpaulhus for arranging a fantastic trip. The courses were absolutely top notch, the group was sturdy and fun and the experience was worth memories of a lifetime.  

Of course, cannot say enough how much of a pleasure was it meeting Mr. Arnold Palmer. Certainly will treasure the moment forever. Also, met Michael Breed of Golf Channel fame and an impromptu diagnosis (courtesy of my new friends who threw me up to him for nothing more than entertainment purposes.. ha ha) of how my crazy-ass swing address and move worked. A genuinely nice fellow to meet in person.   

@kpaulhus,I am looking forward to more adventures next year!