Arnold Palmer's best golf courses

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:

I've always been fascinated by the design of Bay Hill, Arnold Palmer's home course for over 45 years (although Tiger Woods owns it, competitively-speaking, as he's won there eight times.) For one thing, it's rather hilly, a rarity in Florida (although not in the Orlando market) and dotted with sinkhole ponds incorporated in the design in dramatic ways.

I always thought the wrap-around-a-lake par-5 sixth was Dick Wilson's version of Robert Trent Jones's decade-older 13th at The Dunes Club at Myrtle Beach. Each of the two rivals had claimed the other was always stealing his ideas. But the hole I like best at Bay Hill is the par-4 eighth, a lovely dogleg-right with a diagonal green perched above a small circular pond. OK, I admit that it reminds me of the sixth at Hazeltine National, another Trent Jones product, but I don't think Wilson picked Trent's pocket on this one, as both courses were built about the same time, in the early 1960s. 

Tradition Golf Club was intended to be Palmer Course Design’s answer to the most opulent private courses in greater Palm Springs, such as No. 85 The Quarry at La Quinta and No. 196 Vintage Club (Mountain). Built on the old Hacienda del Gato Ranch, the front nine is routed over rolling desert and through a flood-control basin, while most of the back nine is tucked at the base of the rocky slopes of the Santa Rosa Mountains, with three holes (15th through 17th) curving around a 90-degree bend dubbed the “Coyote Canyon.” Almost every hole here has a distinguishing feature, from desert wash to serpentine waste bunker to double fairway to boulder landscaping to cascading waterfalls. The common overall theme are fields of wildflowers spread throughout the far roughs. During a 2005 Golf Digest Panelist Summit, Arnold Palmer explained he had those flowers planted to appeal to his first wife, Winnie, who loved flora much more than golf.

An exclusive male-only oasis in busy South Florida, Adios is the rare Florida course with no housing. The layout is testy, with narrow fairways among pines and ponds and highly contoured greens. Adios was named one of Golf Digest's "Best Damn Clubs" mostly for being a great hang, but also for its stout course.

Said to have been Palmer’s favorite, Old Tabby is a gorgeous lowcountry layout, with fairways framed by mammoth live oaks and greens edged by lagoons and tidal marsh. It's currently ranked among our Best Courses in South Carolina.

Called “the Pine Valley of the South,” but with its low profile, small, perched greens and vast waste areas, it’s more akin to Pete Dye’s famed The Golf Club in Ohio. It's currently ranked among our Best Courses in South Carolina.

Arnold Palmer and his designers Ed Seay and Harrison Minchew designed an extraordinary mountainous layout as high as 5,400 feet of elevation within the Balsam Mountain Preserve, a 4,400-acre community about 45 minutes from Asheville and an hour from the Tennessee border. Forced carries over ravines and streams on most holes make this a difficult course to navigate for some, but our panelists give the routing top sccores for aesthetics with the tremendous views of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Lauded for its environmental sensitivity, ArborLinks was built in open plains, but this being the hometown of Arbor Day, some trees have been selectively planted for strategic and sustainable reasons. ArborLinks is ranked on our Best Courses in Nebraska list.

Aviara, part of an upscale Hyatt resort, has held the LPGA's JTBC Classic (formerly the Kia Classic) for the past nine years. The only Arnold Palmer design in the area, this resort course meanders through rolling hillsides and is landscaped with native Southern California wildflowers.

Located in the heart of NC State’s Centennial Campus, Lonnie Poole is home to the Wolfpack’s golf teams and their leading PGM and turf management programs—so count on pristine conditions. The Arnold Palmer design tips out at 7,358 yards and offers great skyline views of downtown Raleigh.

A most unusual course, built in sand dunes along the Missouri River with many holes cut through stands of tall cottonwood trees. It was long ranked the top course in the state. Dakota Dunes is ranked on our list of the Best Courses in South Dakota.