How to play Bay Hill golf: the Lodge, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the alternatives

To play Bay Hill golf as a visitor, you stay at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge. The club's golf page says its courses are available exclusively to members and to guests staying at the Lodge, and Lodge guests book tee times through the club. Green fees and room rates are not published, and the course closes for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, March 15-21, 2027.

This guide explains how a Lodge stay works, what the files say about the course and the tournament, and what to play nearby if a Bay Hill stay does not fit. Facts were read from the club's pages on November 4, 2026; confirm prices and inclusions when you book.

Quick facts

• Courses: the Championship 18 (Dick Wilson, 1961, refined over decades by Arnold Palmer) and the Charger nine.
• Who can play: members and registered Lodge guests only.
• How to book: reserve a Lodge room and ask the club for tee times at the same time; 407-876-2429.
• Lodge: about 70 rooms (2020 figure), including suites and cottages with kitchens.
• Packages: 2 nights/2 rounds and 3 nights/3 rounds sold by tour operators; prices not read.
• Arnold Palmer Invitational: tournament week March 15-21, 2027; competition March 18-21.
• From downtown Orlando: 22 minutes, 11.8 miles (free-flow).
• Google rating: 4.7 from 1,310 reviews (shared club listing).

How to play Bay Hill golf: the Lodge route

The Bay Hill Championship course is a private club course. The only door for a visitor is Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge, the small lodge on the property. The research gives these details:

Room types run from single king and double queen lodge rooms to one-bedroom junior suites, two-bedroom suites and guest cottages with full kitchens. A two-bedroom suite or a cottage suits a foursome. The official site describes the Lodge rooms as newly renovated.

The practical rule: book the room and ask the Lodge for tee times in the same call, and get in writing how many rounds your rate includes. The research's verdict is that it is the priciest round in the west of Orlando but a real bucket-list one, worth doing once for the course.

The course

Dick Wilson laid out Bay Hill in 1961 in the Butler Chain lakes country, and Palmer refined it over decades. It has water on many holes, deep bunkers and firm greens, and the 18th, played around the lake, is the famous finish. Tee yardages and ratings are not in our files. The Charger nine makes Bay Hill a 27-hole club and is the easy way to add holes on an arrival or departure day.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational

Bay Hill hosts the PGA Tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational every March. For 2027 the tournament has moved two weeks later than usual:

That week now lands on top of US spring breaks and Canadian March break, the most crowded stretch of the Orlando year, and Dr. Phillips and Windermere roads and hotels fill. If you want to play Bay Hill golf, avoid March; if you want to watch, book a room early. More in Orlando golf events and Orlando golf in March.

Is it worth it to play Bay Hill golf?

For most golfers who love the tour, yes, once. Bay Hill is the course you see on television every March, Palmer's own club, and the Lodge is small and clubby. The trade-offs are cost and certainty. Because neither room rates nor green fees are published, you cannot price the trip until you call, and the Lodge's roughly 70 rooms go quickly in season.

It suits three kinds of trip:

• A couple or a foursome on a bucket-list stay: two or three nights, a round each day, and the Charger nine on arrival.
• A group splitting a cottage or two-bedroom suite: the kitchen cottages make a longer stay easier.
• A golf add-on to a family park trip: stay a night or two at the Lodge between park days; Universal is about 15-20 minutes away by the course's estimate.

It suits large buddies groups less. With limited rooms and member priority on tee times, 12 or 16 players will find it hard to get on together. Those groups do better at the Omni ChampionsGate or the Lodge at Orange County National; see Orlando golf resorts.

If you want to play Bay Hill golf on a trip already built around public courses, add the Lodge for the last two nights so the round is the finish rather than the start.

When to plan a Lodge stay

November and early December are dry, with NOAA normals of about 78F in November, and come before peak pricing. January to April is peak. June to September is cheapest, with afternoon storms on 14-17 days a month at MCO, so take a morning tee time. The club did not publish a fall overseed closure on the page read; ask when you book. Bay Hill is about 15-20 minutes from Universal and 20-25 minutes from the Disney parks by the course's estimate, so a morning round and an afternoon park visit is realistic.

Bay Hill alternatives anyone can book

If a Lodge stay does not fit, these public courses are close:

• Shingle Creek: a public resort course near the Convention Center, 7,213 yards at 74.3/137 from the Black tees. See the Shingle Creek course guide.
• Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Grande Lakes: Greg Norman, 7,122 yards at 73.9/139, with caddies; public $299-375 in a 2025 guide. It hosts the PNC Championship in December.
• MetroWest: a rolling public 18 about 17 minutes from the Lodge and close to Universal.
• Rio Pinar: a 1957 club on the east side where Palmer, Trevino, Boros and Irwin won the Florida Citrus Open, the forerunner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It sells daily green fees, from $35 on GolfNow for November 5, 2026.
• Dubsdread: the 1924 city course, 9 minutes from downtown.
• Orange County National: two public 18s in Winter Garden; read the Panther Lake course guide.

The two closest clubs to the Lodge, Orange Tree (7 minutes) and Isleworth (15 minutes), are private, and visitors play them only as a member's guest. See private golf clubs in Orlando.

Bay Hill is one of three famous Orlando names that need a room; the others are Reunion and Tranquilo. Reunion Resort golf explains that route, and the best golf courses in Orlando ranks the courses you can book.

Eating near Bay Hill

The research lists two after-golf dinners on Restaurant Row on West Sand Lake Road: Ocean Prime for steak and seafood, about 10 minutes from Bay Hill, and Seasons 52 at 7700 Sand Lake Rd. Prices and hours were not read.

Plan it on the map

Open the Orlando golf map to see Bay Hill, the Lodge and every public course nearby. The $49 plan can build a trip around a Lodge stay or around the courses you can book on the west side.