Bay Hill Club

As all happy endings have in common, the tract of land that would become Bay Hill began with a problem – a fluke of nature of sorts. This large tract of land located in Central Florida, a state known for its sweet produce, with natural hills and valleys, lakes and streams would not grow citrus. The land was lacking enough nutrients or the water holding capacity to grow citrus economically. This unproductive raw land was part of the vast holdings of Dr. P. Phillips, a Tennessee physician who settled in Central Florida in 1897 and moved to Orlando in 1905. He became the world’s largest individual grower of citrus and the producer of the first acceptable canned orange juice. The land was however, surrounded by the some of the finest citrus spreads in Central Florida, and one of the largest tangerine groves in the world.

In 1954, Dr. Phillips sold his holdings to Granada Groves, a subsidiary of the Minute Maid Corporation, and retained only the raw land. Phillip’s son took over the task of developing the raw land in hopes of finding a productive purpose. The wheel had now been set in motion for the beginning of Bay Hill, but it was not until 1959 that two key men became involved, one with the life-long dream of creating a championship golf course. Tom Barnes, a native of Minnesota, took an option on the land with his partner, Tom Dore, a Michigan businessman who surveyed the land and saw an immediate vision of what this land could become. It was this partnership that broke ground on the golf course in 1960 and christened the area “Bay Hill” for the bay that touched the Northwest boundary and for the hills that surrounded the lakes and wetlands.

In September, 1960, another group of businessmen from Nashville, TN exercised the option on the land from Dr. Phillips and now all of the resources were gathered to make Bay Hill a reality. There would be no overnight transformation as the 60’s was a decade of slow development and calculated growth, so it was late in 1961 when the 18-hole golf course opened. The contractor for the first 18 holes as well as the original streets was Frank Hubbard, Hubbard Construction Company; the original golf course architect was Dick Wilson.