Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, the annual site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard on the PGA Tour, opened in 1961 with a design by Dick Wilson. Arnold Palmer took over the property on lease in 1970, bought it in 1975 and made adjustments to the course multiple times over the following decades.
Bay Hill, which has been the site of the Tour event since 1979, ranks No. 5 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in each state. It also ties for No. 196 on Golfweek’s Best list of all modern courses in the U.S., and it ties for No. 53 on the list of all resort courses in the U.S.
Bay Hill will play to 7,466 yards with a par of 72. The layout is one of the toughest on the PGA Tour each year. The past two years saw especially high scoring as the layout played incredibly firm and fast, and the relative lack of rain in Orlando in recent weeks means the course again could play difficult if tournament operators wish, especially if winds pick up.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at Bay Hill.