The par-three 17th hole at Bay Hill in Orlando
I took warm-up swings on the driving range between PGA Tour player Daniel Chopra and LPGA Tour star Suzann Pettersen. But neither was the biggest golf-world celebrity I saw during a recent visit to the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla.
That distinction belonged to Arnold Palmer, the legend who has owned the golf club since 1975 and makes his winter home there.
I bumped into Palmer, now 84, as I was going into the locker room and he was coming out. He stopped, exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and shook my hand with his big leathery mitt before sauntering off to his golf cart, which carried two giant tour bags crammed with probably three dozen clubs. (When you're The King, as Palmer is known, it's okay to exceed the limit of 14.) I saw him again twice in my two-day stay, both times at dinner in the lodge's dining room, where he often takes his meals from his favourite table near the bar.
As an avid golfer and golf watcher who understands Palmer's place in the history of the game, I was thrilled to meet him. But my encounter with the still-charismatic icon was merely a bonus on top of a magical 48 hours on the property. (For a golf nut, Bay Hill is Orlando's true Magic Kingdom.)
The other highlight was playing Bay Hill itself, a course Palmer has gradually transformed into one of Florida's best. The club plays host each year to a PGA Tour event now known as the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Tiger Woods has won the tournament a staggering eight times.
One of golf's charms is that regular, recreational players like me can tee up on exactly the same courses as touring professionals.
Beer league hockey players won't get many (if any) opportunities to skate at Madison Square Garden and Slo-Pitch participants won't get onto Wrigley Field for a game, but golfers of all levels (even the hackers) can walk many of the same fairways as the pros and hit (or at least attempt) all the famous shots they've seen on TV highlight reels.
There's definitely a heightened excitement and cachet when playing where the pros play.
I didn't enjoy as much success at Bay Hill as Woods – I actually played quite poorly by even my own modest standards, with the low point coming on the sixth hole when I hit two balls into the water and posted a 10 on my scorecard. (Pro golfer John Daly once scored 18 on the same hole so I didn't feel too bad.) But I could not have enjoyed myself more. Bay Hill is thoroughly fair and fun, the two features I admire most in a golf course.
The opportunity to play PGA Tour venues in Florida does not end at Bay Hill, though.
Florida offers a rich list of options for those with big-league courses on their bucket lists.
All five of the PGA Tour stops in the Sunshine State are accessible to the public. No other state has as many. (California has the same number of official PGA Tour tournaments, but one is played on a private course.)
The others in Florida are the Copperhead course at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor (near Tampa), TPC Sawgrass's Stadium course in Ponte Vedra Beach, PGA National Resort and Spa's Champion layout in Palm Beach Gardens and the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral in Miami.
My favourite of the five, notwithstanding my recent excellent adventure at Bay Hill, is Copperhead at Innisbrook.
The home of the Valspar Championship is not your typical, flat Florida track. It's plotted on a surprisingly rolling piece of land that features lots of elevation changes and tree-lined fairways.
Again, it's fair and playable. Tee shots don't have to be laser straight or long (if you're playing off the correct tees for your ability) but it's no pushover and requires strategic thinking, especially through the closing three holes that are known as the Snake Pit.
A golfer can't walk in off the street and play Copperhead, Innisbrook's other three courses or Bay Hill. You must be a guest at the resorts to book a tee time.
But don't take that as a barrier – take it as an opportunity to enjoy two of Florida's most unique and charming resorts. With their guest rooms in lodges (Bay Hill has a 70-room lodge and Innisbrook's property is dotted with clusters of smaller buildings) and their decor dominated by dark wood, they take on a more northern feel. Both are luxurious without being gaudy and neither will break the bank. (Bay Hill, for example, has a package this fall that ranges from $171 to $263 a night per person, golf included.) Innisbrook has the added benefit of being oriented to families.
PGA National, home of the Honda Classic, also requires you to be a guest to get on the Champion or its four other courses. TPC Sawgrass and the Blue Monster – which is closed for a multimillion-dollar renovation commissioned by new owner Donald Trump but is expected to be open in time for winter play and next year's Cadillac Championship – both have spiffy accommodations on site but invite non-guests as well – or at least those with enough money in their wallets to cover the green fees, which, in both cases, have a rack rate of more than $400.
TPC Sawgrass's Stadium course is likely the most famous of the five, largely because it has the island green on the par-three 17th hole.
Designers Pete and Alice Dye's signature hole is short by anyone's standards but its watery surroundings make it a nervy test. Many fail the test. Sawgrass estimates 140,000 balls get rinsed on that hole alone every year, some by the touring pros who compete in the Players Championship each spring.
So don't worry if your tee shot at the 17th ends up wet. It's all part of the experience of playing where the pros play.
I'm not alone in my excitement about playing PGA Tour venues, especially those in Florida. Here are a couple of Canadian avid golfers to whom I spoke to get their first-hand impressions of two of Florida's finest.
Michael O'Pray, TPC Sawgrass
Michael O'Pray has challenged the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass's Stadium course a few times. He hit his tee shot into the water once at the par-three, whose green is almost completely surrounded by water. He stayed dry the other times. A respectable record.
"It looks easy because it's short," says the avid golfer from New Brunswick, who carries a single-digit handicap factor. "For me it's a pitching wedge. You sit there and you say, 'Well, I just have to hit a pitching wedge.' You hit it and if you just miss it a little bit, the wind catches it and you're in the water."
But as much as O'Pray enjoyed the nervy fun of one of golf's most famous holes, he has equally strong memories of some of the other lesser-known holes, particularly on the front side.
The front nine doesn't get much attention, most likely because the holes are not featured much on TV broadcasts of the Players Championship each year, but O'Pray feels they are the meat of the course.
"What I realized when I left is that the front nine was just as much fun, and if not harder, as the back nine," says O'Pray, a sporting goods agent who lives in Riverview, N.B., near Moncton.
O'Pray says the seventh, eighth and ninth holes are extremely challenging. "It's insane."
Before his first visit to TPC Sawgrass, he had heard some of the tour pros grumbling about the course and its set-up. But he found none of their displeasure, describing the Stadium layout as a "really cool golf course."
He recommends spending the extra money to hire a caddy and walk. You'll not only avoid the cart-path-only rules, he says, but you'll get expert advice and a guided tour from someone who knows the course, the Players and the behind-the-scenes gossip.
Now when O'Pray watches the Players on TV, he has a more intimate knowledge of the golf and can compare the shots he sees with those that he hit.
"That's one of the attractions of golf, that you can go and play these golf courses," says O'Pray, who has also played the Blue Monster at Doral.
"I've learned over the years that you might as well play the known courses in Florida. I find that the other stuff, the only advantage they have is that it's just warm. They're not what we're used to here in Canada."
Greg Chownyk, Blue Monster
Greg Chownyk was even-par through the first seven holes on the Blue Monster course at Trump National Doral in Miami. On the eighth hole, his caddy noted how well he was playing – uh oh, a jinx for any golfer.
The Toronto-based oil company executive proceeded to make a bogey on the eighth and a double bogey on the ninth. His struggles continued on the back nine, where he shot 45.
But no matter; happens to us all. The round last February, a birthday present from his wife, stands out in Chownyk's mind as one of the most memorable of his life anyway.
His final score of 85 was still quite respectable for a recreational player carrying a handicap factor of 12 at the time, and more importantly he got a taste of a golf course that is frequented by the best players in the world.
The Blue Monster plays host each March to the Cadillac Championship. (It also held the Doral Open for 45 years.) Tiger Woods is a seven-time winner there and the course has produced some of golf's most memorable moments, such as Craig Parry's hole-out from the 18th fairway to win in a playoff in 2004 and the duel between Woods and U.S. rival Phil Mickelson a year later (or 2013 for that matter).
"I do like to play great or famous golf courses, especially if the PGA Tour has made a stop there," says Chownyk, who played the Blue Monster a couple of weeks before the 2013 Cadillac Championship and thus enjoyed the added benefit of having the course in tournament condition and the holes surrounded by ropes and bleachers. "Thus Doral became a natural fit and a chance to test my game on a track with a bit of tour history."
The course has since shut down for a multimillion-dollar renovation commissioned by new owner Donald Trump. U.S. architect Gil Hanse is doing the work.
"I think the experience you get at the facility … is top notch and something I am sure will only remain, if not increase, under the leadership of Trump," Chownyk says. "I'm keen to see how different the course will be when it reopens after the renovations."
But even the old Blue Monster put enough excitement into Chownyk.
If his back nine didn't go quite according to plan, he still enjoyed the anticipation of heading toward the final hole.
He says he was looking forward, especially, to the approach shot on the par-four 18th hole, with water down the left side of the fairway.
"Having seen it on TV a number of times with tour players having both success and heartbreak, I was keen to see how intimidating that second shot really is," he says.
Chownyk's approach was headed for the water but his ball hit a couple of rocks and stayed dry. He chipped on and missed the long downhill par putt. But a bogey still left him satisfied.
"[The bogey was] suitable for my back nine but nonetheless some excitement to finish."
Other Florida courses that welcome professionals and amateurs alike:
TPC Sawgrass, Dye's Valley course, Ponte Vedra Beach
The home of the 2013 Web.com Tour Championship is the less-famous (but still strong) sister course of TPC Sawgrass's Stadium layout.
Tiburon Golf Club, Gold course, Naples
Guests of the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort have access to the Greg Norman-designed track that this fall holds both the LPGA Tour's CME Group Titleholders and the Franklin Templeton Shootout, an exhibition featuring 24 top PGA Tour players.
LPGA International, Champions course, Daytona Beach
Located at the headquarters of the LPGA Tour, the course is used for the circuit's annual qualifying school and the lower-tier Symetra Tour's season finale.
Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Orlando
The PNC Father/Son Challenge, an exhibition featuring touring pros and their kids, will be held there in December.
Abacoa Golf Club, Jupiter
The Golfslinger Tour is among the mini-tours that have made stops here at this under-recognized public gem.
Jeff Brooke has written about golf for The Globe and Mail since 2006. He played courtesy of the courses.