Disney World has completed a renovation of its Magnolia Golf Course with four reimagined holes on the back nine that have been given a very Disney name: Grumpy’s Gauntlet.
The multi-year renovation to the course in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, which originally was designed by Joe Lee and opened in 1971, was led by One Club Limited and designer Ken Baker. Hole Nos. 14-17 – the newly named Grumpy’s Gauntlet – now feature massive waste bunkers, new doglegs and some of the course’s most undulating greens, Disney announced in a media release. Other work to the course includes new greens and renovated fairways and greenside bunkers. The course stretches to 7,560 yards off the back tees with a par of 72. Details from the media release include:
- No. 14 transitions from a par 5 to a par 4 with a new green location.
- No. 15 has been moved and goes from a par 3 to a par 5 with a dogleg to the right.
- No. 16 shifts to a different location and now has a dogleg to the left.
- No. 17 changes from a par 4 to a par 3 with new tee box locations.
- A new cart bridge runs through the forest to connect holes 16 and 17.
Also new are signs at every tee box announcing a Disney theme, complete with a quote from either Walt Disney or Arnold Palmer. The facility’s 18-hole putting course at the clubhouse also has been named The Greatest Green Ever Played in honor of the Walt Disney Pictures movie “The Greatest Game Ever Played” that was released in 2005 and told the story of golf legend Francis Ouimet. The putting course is available to players at any of the three courses – Magnolia, Palm and the nine-hole Oak Trail – the clubhouse serves.
“We’ve assembled an incredible team that has created the best possible experience for our guests from around the globe who travel here for a championship-caliber golf vacation,” Bruce Gerlander – general manager of Arnold Palmer Golf Management, which operates the Walt Disney World golf courses – said in the media release. “For more than four decades, Disney’s Magnolia served as a favorite stop on the PGA Tour, and we have been methodically planning for this massive project for years.”
The Magnolia Course is located near Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and along with the Palm Course it hosted what became the PGA Tour’s Walt Disney World Golf Classic (among several other names) from 1971 to 2012. Winners of the event included Tiger Woods, David Duval, Vijay Singh and Payne Stewart. Former World No. 1 Jason Day played the Magnolia shortly before it reopened on his way to Bay Hill for this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been here,” Day said in the media release. “I remember a lot of the holes, which were fantastic. The course looks phenomenal, so congratulations on that because, you know, it seems like you guys are coming into really nice weather here, and the course and the way that the grass has come in is fantastic, too. Yeah, I mean, overall, we had a lot of fun.”
Arnold Palmer Golf Management has invested extensively in all the Disney World courses in recent years. The Palm Course was renovated in 2013, Oak Trail saw changes in 2014 and 2018, and the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course – situated nearer Disney Springs – received improvements in 2018. The Magnolia Course also saw an extensive bunker renovation in 2015.
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