The Hottest City of Florida Golf Courses
It has been almost 50 years since Arnold Palmer first set a spiked foot in Orlando, then a humble little town that featured a smattering of cozy Florida golf courses, the intoxicating smell of orange blossoms and hundreds of sparkling lakes decorating the sandy, rolling terrain. Palmer had been looking for somewhere to spend his winters and was fast smitten by the pace of the place.
"I loved the quaintness of Orlando in those days," Palmer says. "It was an old farm town, a great place, but not really on the map."
Now it is the center of the golfing globe. Palmer found a personal hideaway in 1969, purchasing the site of this week's Bay Hill Invitational. Ever since, the King has seen his adopted hometown become to golf what Hollywood is to the movie biz, and he can hardly believe the profusion of pros now residing around him.
"Everybody sees what I saw," Palmer says. "There were always a lot of pluses. Now it's the hottest Florida golf course place on earth."
Orlando has become the game's leading Florida golf-pro repository, simultaneously serving as home base and launchpad for professionals of every level, an industry town indulging every golf demand. Once known mostly as the Valhalla of theme-park destinations, dozens of players from around the world have visited O-town and come to a quick conclusion.
Nice place to visit. Would wanna live there.
St. Andrews might be the cradle of golf, but Orlando is where it went to grow up. No fewer than 50 players with status on the PGA Tour were raised in Orlando or have homes in the area, including top guns Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen. Moreover, of the top 15 players on last year's final LPGA money list, six have residences in Orlando, including stars Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak.
"It's getting a bit crowded, isn't it?" says Justin Rose, a native Englishman who is building a home in the Lake Nona community.
Unquestionably, players have migrated to Florida Golf Courses for years, taking advantage of the mild winter climate and lack of state income taxes (see chart, page 40). Orlando also possesses the country's top-rated airport, another benefit to anybody who lives out of a suitcase. But over the past decade, the Orlando infrastructure for tour pros has sprouted like Bermuda grass, feeding almost any golf-related appetite.
Amen to the amenities, they say. "Whatever you need, it's there," says Charles Howell III, who moved to the city four years ago. "If you can't find it, you aren't trying."
Thanks to a spike in upscale, private Florida golf course communities that provide players with the anonymity and accoutrements they prefer, keeping track of the infusion of newcomers requires either a real-estate license or an immigration badge. Last December alone, established winners from three world tours - Christina Kim, Nick Dougherty and Andre Stolz - bought property in the so-called City Beautiful.
Of course, the city's reputation took its biggest credibility leap when Tiger Woods bought a townhouse at Isleworth CC nine years ago, shortly after turning pro. He had played a practice round with club members Mark O'Meara and Ian Baker-Finch as a teenage amateur and enjoyed the outing, despite the fact that O'Meara dropped a tidy little 63 on him. Woods' new management firm believed the California native needed a tax break and someplace to get started.
"They figured that if he didn't like it, he could always move pretty easily," says David Lightner, a tax and investment specialist with IMG. "Turns out, he liked it fine."
Nearly a decade later Woods has relocated to a bigger house and still calls the club home. Though he has toyed with the idea of moving to south Florida to be closer to the Atlantic Ocean, camaraderie and the comforts of home have kept him around. "I have friends there," Woods says. "I have yet to find a place like Isleworth, where I can have peace and quiet as well as a great place to practice and get ready, and some good competition as well with the pros that play down there. We have some great games. So it's always been fun."
For the resident pros, Orlando - whose origin dates to 1838, during the Seminole Wars, when the U.S. Army built Fort Gatlin south of the present city to protect settlers - has become collegial, almost familial. To modify a term, birds of a feathery and all that. Aussie Peter Lonard was lured by mate Paul Gow. Arjun Atwal and Daniel Chopra were recruited by Smriti Mehra, another player with ties to India who lives in town. But make no mistake, the Orlando roster continues to grow unpredictably in terms of geographic diversity. The Lake Nona Florida Golf Course community alone contains pros who hail from The Netherlands, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Germany and Sweden.
From a historical perspective, Walt Disney World Resort's arrival in 1971 started Orlando's economic growth spurt, sending it climbing like a booster rocket from nearby Kennedy Space Center to 1.8 million residents. "Certainly the fact that Disney came enhanced what was happening," Palmer says, wistfully. "But what would it have been if Disney hadn't come? That's a big question." And getting bigger every day, actually. In Orange County, where Orlando is located, the population has grown 180 percent from the 1970 census.
Like anybody else, Florida golf course pros appreciate a decent bargain. Relative to many cities, the cost of living in Orlando is thrice as nice as some far-pricier locales. For instance, when Kim, a 20-year-old native of the San Jose area, started looking for a home to purchase in her native California, she almost croaked from sticker shock. "My uncle found me one listed for $1.8 million," she explains. "Let's just say I didn't want to spend quite that much."
Kim bought a comparable 3,141-square-foot, six-bedroom house with a pool located not far from Bay Hill for $575,000, less than one-third the San Jose home's asking price. The relative cost of living, if not the less-stressful quality of life, were major issues in her relocation. "Plus, there are just so many other girls in the area," she says of her LPGA peers. "It's great to have them all down here to play or hang out with."
For every established professional, there is a handful of would-be stars who trek to a Florida golf course in Orlando to whale away on the mini-tours such as the Moonlight, Hooters or old Tommy Armour circuits. A quarter-century ago, long before there was a PGA Tour-sanctioned developmental proving ground like the Nationwide Tour, the now-defunct Space Coast Tour was ground zero for aspiring pros. Several events were held in central Florida, attracting armies of wannabes. Scads of established pros cut their teeth on the Orlando mini-tours, including veterans Skip Kendall and Bart Bryant, and never left town. Play A Florida Golf Course Today.
"I loved the quaintness of Orlando in those days," Palmer says. "It was an old farm town, a great place, but not really on the map."
Now it is the center of the golfing globe. Palmer found a personal hideaway in 1969, purchasing the site of this week's Bay Hill Invitational. Ever since, the King has seen his adopted hometown become to golf what Hollywood is to the movie biz, and he can hardly believe the profusion of pros now residing around him.
"Everybody sees what I saw," Palmer says. "There were always a lot of pluses. Now it's the hottest Florida golf course place on earth."
Orlando has become the game's leading Florida golf-pro repository, simultaneously serving as home base and launchpad for professionals of every level, an industry town indulging every golf demand. Once known mostly as the Valhalla of theme-park destinations, dozens of players from around the world have visited O-town and come to a quick conclusion.
Nice place to visit. Would wanna live there.
St. Andrews might be the cradle of golf, but Orlando is where it went to grow up. No fewer than 50 players with status on the PGA Tour were raised in Orlando or have homes in the area, including top guns Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen. Moreover, of the top 15 players on last year's final LPGA money list, six have residences in Orlando, including stars Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak.
"It's getting a bit crowded, isn't it?" says Justin Rose, a native Englishman who is building a home in the Lake Nona community.
Unquestionably, players have migrated to Florida Golf Courses for years, taking advantage of the mild winter climate and lack of state income taxes (see chart, page 40). Orlando also possesses the country's top-rated airport, another benefit to anybody who lives out of a suitcase. But over the past decade, the Orlando infrastructure for tour pros has sprouted like Bermuda grass, feeding almost any golf-related appetite.
Amen to the amenities, they say. "Whatever you need, it's there," says Charles Howell III, who moved to the city four years ago. "If you can't find it, you aren't trying."
Thanks to a spike in upscale, private Florida golf course communities that provide players with the anonymity and accoutrements they prefer, keeping track of the infusion of newcomers requires either a real-estate license or an immigration badge. Last December alone, established winners from three world tours - Christina Kim, Nick Dougherty and Andre Stolz - bought property in the so-called City Beautiful.
Of course, the city's reputation took its biggest credibility leap when Tiger Woods bought a townhouse at Isleworth CC nine years ago, shortly after turning pro. He had played a practice round with club members Mark O'Meara and Ian Baker-Finch as a teenage amateur and enjoyed the outing, despite the fact that O'Meara dropped a tidy little 63 on him. Woods' new management firm believed the California native needed a tax break and someplace to get started.
"They figured that if he didn't like it, he could always move pretty easily," says David Lightner, a tax and investment specialist with IMG. "Turns out, he liked it fine."
Nearly a decade later Woods has relocated to a bigger house and still calls the club home. Though he has toyed with the idea of moving to south Florida to be closer to the Atlantic Ocean, camaraderie and the comforts of home have kept him around. "I have friends there," Woods says. "I have yet to find a place like Isleworth, where I can have peace and quiet as well as a great place to practice and get ready, and some good competition as well with the pros that play down there. We have some great games. So it's always been fun."
For the resident pros, Orlando - whose origin dates to 1838, during the Seminole Wars, when the U.S. Army built Fort Gatlin south of the present city to protect settlers - has become collegial, almost familial. To modify a term, birds of a feathery and all that. Aussie Peter Lonard was lured by mate Paul Gow. Arjun Atwal and Daniel Chopra were recruited by Smriti Mehra, another player with ties to India who lives in town. But make no mistake, the Orlando roster continues to grow unpredictably in terms of geographic diversity. The Lake Nona Florida Golf Course community alone contains pros who hail from The Netherlands, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Germany and Sweden.
From a historical perspective, Walt Disney World Resort's arrival in 1971 started Orlando's economic growth spurt, sending it climbing like a booster rocket from nearby Kennedy Space Center to 1.8 million residents. "Certainly the fact that Disney came enhanced what was happening," Palmer says, wistfully. "But what would it have been if Disney hadn't come? That's a big question." And getting bigger every day, actually. In Orange County, where Orlando is located, the population has grown 180 percent from the 1970 census.
Like anybody else, Florida golf course pros appreciate a decent bargain. Relative to many cities, the cost of living in Orlando is thrice as nice as some far-pricier locales. For instance, when Kim, a 20-year-old native of the San Jose area, started looking for a home to purchase in her native California, she almost croaked from sticker shock. "My uncle found me one listed for $1.8 million," she explains. "Let's just say I didn't want to spend quite that much."
Kim bought a comparable 3,141-square-foot, six-bedroom house with a pool located not far from Bay Hill for $575,000, less than one-third the San Jose home's asking price. The relative cost of living, if not the less-stressful quality of life, were major issues in her relocation. "Plus, there are just so many other girls in the area," she says of her LPGA peers. "It's great to have them all down here to play or hang out with."
For every established professional, there is a handful of would-be stars who trek to a Florida golf course in Orlando to whale away on the mini-tours such as the Moonlight, Hooters or old Tommy Armour circuits. A quarter-century ago, long before there was a PGA Tour-sanctioned developmental proving ground like the Nationwide Tour, the now-defunct Space Coast Tour was ground zero for aspiring pros. Several events were held in central Florida, attracting armies of wannabes. Scads of established pros cut their teeth on the Orlando mini-tours, including veterans Skip Kendall and Bart Bryant, and never left town. Play A Florida Golf Course Today.
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