Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge, which has served as the host of the Arnold Palmer Invitational since 1979, is a monstrous golf course and has long been viewed as one of the most difficult tracks on the PGA Tour schedule.
The greens are firm and lightning fast, the rough is thick and lush, and there seems to be a disaster waiting at every turn as numerous holes wrap around large ponds.
Bay Hill also possesses the most difficult finishing hole on the PGA Tour, which creates all kinds of high-stress situations down the stretch during the final round.
Let's have a closer look at Arnie's Place.
Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge is an extremely difficult course that poses danger in a variety of ways from start to finish
Memorable Holes: 9.0
One quality that Bay Hill possesses in droves is excitement.
Several par-4s feature fairways that bend around lakes guarding severe greens. Some of these lakes, as seen on the dogleg-left par-4 third (more on this hole in a moment), extend all the way from tee to green. There is no more unique and memorable hole on the golf course—and possibly on the PGA Tour calendar—than the par-5 sixth.
At 555 yards, this hole is basically a horseshoe wrapped around a vast body of water. It doglegs to the left so significantly that the green can be seen across the water, pointing in the complete opposite direction of the tee box.
With favorable wind conditions, players like Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau have actually driven the ball directly over the lake and near the green to leave a short pitch for their second shot. John Daly once made a 15 on this hole, the highest score ever recorded during the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Interest: 7.5
Some of the doglegs around water do feel redundant, but overall, this is a very interesting golf course both to watch and play.
This layout requires shot-making, plain and simple. It forces golfers to stand up and execute, and if a mistake is made, the ball will find deep rough, a bunker, or a watery grave. As a result, there is a feeling of importance with every shot that heightens the anxiety.
The 434-yard par-4 third is an interesting hole. It's a sharp dogleg left around a lake, but the tees are angled to the right of the fairway so that the player feels as though they are aiming at the water on the tee shot.
Par-3s: 6.5
The par-3s are the weakest aspect of Bay Hill, as they are not particularly inventive and lack variety. That said, each of them is very difficult and demands strong iron play.
The 231-yard second is the longest of the bunch and features a very long and narrow green that sits at an angle from the tee. Believe it or not, the 199-yard seventh is the shortest hole on the course and also likely the least interesting, as the green slopes from back to front and is guarded on all sides by four bunkers.
The difficult 14th measures 215 yards, and with four bunkers left and long, hole locations tucked in the back-left portion of the green are quite challenging to access.
Finally, the 221-yard 17th is brutally difficult, with a shallow green guarded by bunkers long and water short. There used to be a huge beach bunker wedged between the front of the green and the water, but that was removed, and the water was brought tighter to the green's front edge.
This is disappointing, as much of the recognizability has been taken away from a hole that now is not much different from any ordinary par-3 over water.
Difficulty: 10.0
As I discuss on my podcast, Linksworms, Bay Hill's greatest merit is its brutal toughness.
It never lets up, from the healthy opening hole to the daunting finisher. The rough is gnarly, and the huge greens are slick. There are a plethora of strong par-4s, a great example being the 460-yard eighth.
This sharp dogleg right has a narrow landing area, and a pond sits in front of the large green. It's easy to play a safe shot past the hole, but then golfers are faced with a terrifying putt or bunker shot straight downhill toward the water.
Finish: 9.0
The final three holes at Bay Hill begin with the easiest hole on the course followed by a terrifying one-two punch.
The par-5 16th is only 511 yards, and though the green sits just beyond a small waterway, this hole is feasted on by PGA Tour players.
But the fun stops there as players make their way to the intimidating 17th, the most difficult par-3 on the course.
Then, one of the most difficult finishing holes in golf awaits, as the 458-yard par-4 18th has a narrow ribbon of fairway leading to a boomerang-shaped green that curves around one last lake.
There is basically nowhere to miss on this final approach shot as the green pitches alarmingly from back to front, so any shots that miss long or left will result in a knee-trembling chip from sand or rough back toward the glittering wet grave.
Overall: 8.40
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