Disney Golf Courses

Walt Disney World Resort Golf Courses For A Fun Vacation

For the avid golfer who resides north of the forty-ninth parallel in North America, October and November means frost-covered fairways or, if on the west coast, rain-soaked tee-boxes. Just as the Canada geese know when it’s time to fly south, the human variety known as Snow Birds, starts to wend its way southward as well. The Walt Disney World Resort located in Orlando, Florida is the home to four 18 hole golf courses and one 9 hole course and makes for a warm and friendly golf getaway for winter weary Northerners.

Orlando, in the heart of Florida, arguably known as the golf capital of the world, is one of the favored destinations for the Snow Birds. Orlando, and its neighboring towns, is the home of who’s who in the world of international touring golf pros. At the head of the list are two former number one golfers in the world, Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam. Arnold Palmer, affectionately known as the “King”, owns the Bay Hill Club & Lodge and hosts the annual Arnold Palmer Invitational. They no doubt, act as a catalyst for other world class touring pros who wish to call this area their home. The Arnold Palmer invitational gives the Snowbirds an opportunity to rub shoulders with the King as well as the touring pros.

For the Snowbirds, Walt Disney World is where his golfing should start. He can try his luck at the Magnolia Golf Course, the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course, the Palm Golf Course, the Osprey Ridge Golf Course or even practice at the 9 hole Oak Trail Golf Course.

We have played Disney’s Palm and the Magnolia golf courses and can vouch for the Chamber of Commerce benedictions given to these courses. The Palm is the easier of the two courses running at a little under seven thousand yards from the blue tees and a comfortable five thousand two hundred and sixty yards from the shortest tees. The Palm sports nine water holes and ninety-four bunkers. The elevated greens and the alternating water hazards and woodlands areas, make just the act of walking enjoyable, let alone the golfing.

The Magnolia golf course, considered by the pros as the more difficult of the two courses, is a bit longer at seven thousand four hundred and eighty-eight yards from the Black (pro) tees. There are five tee boxes that allow for a range of talents down to five thousand one hundred and twenty-seven yards. The course has wide fairways, ninety-seven bunkers and the magnolia blossoms lining the fairways. Both of these courses contain many water hazards, along with an occasional alligator sleeping on the banks. Wildlife abounds as sightings of turtles, deer, sand hill cranes and osprey are common during the round of golf. Both of these courses, the Palm and the Magnolia are the home of the annual Children’s Miracle Network Classic that has been going on for forty years. This tournament is considered by the pros to be one of their favorite venues.

As time permits, you may want to look beyond Disney’s golf courses for some additional golfing. Almost every little town in the surrounding area of Orlando has an eighteen-hole golf course. Some with intriguing names as Kissimmee, Celebration and Yeehaw Junction, all welcome the visiting golfers. Some of the courses will have orange trees dotting the fairways and during the season, can be picked and eaten during the round. There are dark, forbidding swamp lands along many of the courses with always the ubiquitous alligators dozing on the grassy banks.

You will probably spend as much time away from the golf course as on, as there are so many places of interest to visit and see in this Orlando area. First and foremost, just a few miles on the eastern seaboard is the Kennedy Space Center; up north on I-95 about one hundred and fifty miles, is the World Golf Hall of Fame …“if you love golf, you’ve got to go!…”. The headquarters for the LPGA is at Daytona Beach just off the same I-95. Immediately southwest of Orlando is the city of Tampa Bay and just south along the world famous causeway, is St. Petersburg, a vacationing Mecca for many tourists.

A trip to the Disney resort area of Orlando is a must go destination for the avid golfer. The added benefit of being able to visit the Disney World theme parks, the Kennedy Space Center, the Disney resort hotels and the World Golf Hall of Fame should exhaust any golfing enthusiast, including the Snowbirds. If it didn’t, then he didn’t do Orlando properly!

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