GolfNewsRI

I had the opportunity to play Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge in the third week of March. 

This was fourth visit to Bay Hill in the past 18 months and I have a strong sense it will be my last for a while, or for good.

On my first visit, on this website, I wrote a glowing review of my Bay Hill experience. Not so much this time.

One of my first visits to the Lodge was a few weeks before the annual Arnold Palmer Invitational. This visit was two weeks after the API tournament.

The easiest way to get a tee time on the course is to stay at the lodge. During the busy season, it is a catch-22. You need to fit the tee time and Lodge stay in a schedule that works for you. Fortunately, we were flexible with our tee time so we grabbed an early afternoon tee time and stayed 3 nights at the lodge.

During this visit, the room rates were $375/night overlooking the course and I felt the service had noticeably dropped.  When America was returning from Covid, the rooms were as little as $200 per night. Unfortunately, the increase in cost was accompanied by a degree in service. 

There was not one thing about our stay that made it bad.  There was not one thing about our course experience that made it bad. But when you hold yourself up to the reputation and memory of Arnold Palmer and you charge a lot of money, you expect a certain standard, and this visit did not measure up.

When we checked in, the woman at the reception desk warmly welcomed us back.  About a minute later, she asked us if this was our first time at Bay Hill.

I have been playing cold RI based golf for a while this offseason so my group and myself wanted to chip a few balls when we arrived.  Much to my surprise, we had to pay $20 a piece to chip balls or use the range since it was the day before our tee time.  

On the day of our scheduled play, I sat on our balcony in the morning with a cup of coffee and watched other golfers warm up on the practice putting green and the chipping area, maybe 25 feet from our overlook. 

With disgust, I watched a member walk up one of the practice bunkers and very much disturbed it for use by other members and guests. 

Four hours later, I saw that no grounds crew had fixed it, I raked it myself.

Another disappointment was that the practice hitting area was mats only.  I thought for a full two weeks after the tournament that would not be the case.

When I called ahead to book my tee time, I asked if our previous caddy was available. Oscar, who is from the Chicago area and also caddies there in the Florida offseason, did another terrific job.  If I have ever had a better caddy than him, I don’t remember it.

For the third time in four visits, we went off on the 10^th hole.  I was very excited to be here on this beautiful sunny Orlando day, with the temperature at 78 at tee time.

On the tee, I remembered the last time I played this hole, I hit a straight tee ball on a hole that requires a fade.  At that time, I hit a near career 7 iron out of the fairway bunker and nearly had a birdie.

This time I choked and hit a ball OB on the right.  My next tee shot went in the near square yard of my prior visit’s tee shot in the left fairway bunker.  Instead of hitting another career approach shot, I chunked it, hit the next shot on the green and carded a 7.

I settled in after that and hit a lot of solid shots.  However the hole locations were tournament tough and I was overmatched. I ballooned to a 95.  If I had played smart, it would have been about an 88, smart is not my game.

A highlight of the day was that this was my first round with the 2023 Titleist Pro Vs.  I hit my tee shots straighter, farther and had more confidence than ever. I hit some great tee shots, I had only 150 yards into the par 5 16^th, but came up a foot short and into the water.

Probably my highlight of the round was the famous 18^th.  I hit a great drive, hit a great approach and had 8 feet for a birdie.  

I was planning on doing my Tiger fist pump (Tiger has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational 8 times ~ with several of them clinched with dramatic birdie putts on 18).  However, I blow my first putt well past the hole and was fortunate to make the next one for par.

I cannot say enough about the layout and it is no wonder Arnold Palmer loved this course so much when he first played it that he bought it and made it his winter home.

Some negatives about the course.

~ Even allowing for the tournament play two weeks ago, there were a lot of brown areas.

~ The greens were exceptionally hard unlike my previous three recent visits.  So much so that chipping it close was nearly impossible for me.

~ My group found many cigarette butts around the tees and in the greenside bunkers.

Some of the off course (minor) issues that had me scratching my head:

~ The cleaning lady came by to clean our room and I told her that we would be leaving for lunch in about an hour and a half and she could come by then.  She came by 20 minutes later to clean.

~ The Lodge staff seemed to have nothing to do and instead of trying to help the guests, they seemed to always be gathering around talking to each other.

~ Our outside phone line was not working so in order to talk to any area in the Lodge, I needed to call from my cell phone to Bay Hill and have the front desk transfer me to the correct area.  We were told that the phone would be fixed while we were playing but it wasn’t.

~ The piece de resistance in lousy customer service at Bay Hill was an issue with a previously purchased golf shoe bag.   On my last visit, my wife purchased an Arnold Palmer golf shoe bag.  It cost $150.  Without the AP label, it’s worth a lot less.   The shoe bag broke and I brought it with me to get it replaced or fixed.  During our visit, I needed to ask four times for them to fix or replace it.  The golf shop staff seemingly didn’t want to fix the issue.  On  the forth try, they fixed it but at that point it left a bad taste in my mouth.  I have to think that Mr. Palmer would have certainly handled this issue differently.

~ As we were leaving, I was approached by a staff member letting me know that I should contact them before my next visit for a discount.  I had called that person prior to our last visit asking for a discount and was told that one is not available.  

As I write this review,  I can say with a high degree of certainly I will not be returning to the Arnold Palmer’s Club and Lodge in the near future.