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FEATURES |
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Orlando, America's Playground
by Dale Leatherman, daleleatherman.com
My breath whooshes out, sending a cascade of bubbles toward the water's surface. One of the passing sharks turns and cruises toward me, mouth
agape in an exceedingly toothy grin. He's so close I could touch him--if it weren't for the mesh barrier. When he loses interest I swim over to a window, where my next exhalation draws the attention of a family dining at a table six inches from the thick glass. The kids point and wave, and the father raises his glass of wine to toast me. At the sight of food, my stomach gives a hungry rumble, so I head for the surface and shed the scuba gear.
In minutes I'm back in my street clothes and feeling a bit like a
character in a James Bond movie as I stroll in Florida's famous
fantasyland, among the visitors at Epcot's six-million-gallon indoor
aquarium. For $140, any certified diver can go "backstage" to spend
bottom time in the tank with more than 65 species of marine life,
including protected species of sharks, sea turtles and eagle rays. For
$100, non-divers can have a similar experience on the Living Seas Aqua
Tour, using scuba-assisted snorkeling gear. As a well-traveled diver, I
did this as a lark and was impressed at the quality of the marine
environment and the expert handling of the concession by the aquarium
staff. Epcot's DiveQuest is just one of the activities that appeal to
grown-up visitors. Once you've seen some of the other choices, you may
never again look at Orlando as just for kids.
Golf Till You Drop
 There are more than 168 courses in the 100-square-mile Greater Orlando
area and many more in the outskirts. All of them offer warm weather
year-round and lush tropical foliage, and most have an abundance of
wetlands, water, and sand--lots of sand. The Ultimate Golf Experience at
the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center is a good place to begin an Orlando odyssey, especially after a winter hiatus when your home course is snowbound. The extraordinary
Florida-themed hotel has 1,406 guestrooms ringing a 4-acre
glass-domed atrium. Many rooms have balconies overlooking the
climate-controlled interior. Shops and restaurants are set among
tropical gardens with waterfalls, streams, grottos and even an
alligator lagoon.
The Experience begins in the resort's Canyon Ranch Spa Club with a
private stretching session led by Shishir Inocalla, a renowned martial
artist in the sport of Arnis (stick fighting) as well as Tai Chi, Yoga
and meditation. The next stop is the Falcon's Fire Golf Club, where one
of the PGA instructors does a performance evaluation and dispenses tips
on the practice range and over lunch, followed by coaching under fire,
literally, during nine holes of play on the Falcon's Fire
course. The Rees Jones layout flows over
the landscape like the sea on a balmy day, with mounds swelling on the
perimeter and subsiding in gentle fairway rolls. There are several
water carries (some with resident gators) to slick greens. After golf,
the Experience continues with a massage in the resort's Canyon Ranch
Spa by specialists in golf muscles. From the spa, it's a few steps to
the Old Hickory Steakhouse, an Everglades-themed restaurant with
sublime beef and buffalo steaks, an extensive wine list, and flawless
service.
Ginn Reunion Resort, host of the LPGA Ginn Open, is a rapidly growing community with a savvy plan for fine
living. A lot of dirt was moved to create the parkland Independence and Legacy courses. Both have lofty tees and
greens separated by chasms, wetlands and waste areas. Both have a Zen
Garden feel, with flowering shrubs and flowers cascading over banks and
rock gardens. Indigenous plants flourish in the wetland areas. The more
aggressive design is Tom Watson's Independence Course, where rampant
bunkering can punish even good shots. Craters of white sand and
khaki-colored waste areas punctuate the kelly green fairways. The
greens are huge and multi-tiered. Holes 11 through 17 border the
Davenport Creek Preserve's thicket of pine, live oak and cypress.
Watson likes a mix of beauty, variety and strategy, and it's all
here--except water. In contrast, Arnold Palmer's Legacy Course is rife
with lakes and streams. The designer doesn't hold back on sand and
waste bunkers, either, but he is forgiving, with frequent escape
routes. Elevated tees and open fairways invite players to enjoy the
view, pull out the driver and hit away.
 Unlike the severe hills of Legacy and Independence, the new Jack
Nicklaus-designed Tradition Course is smooth and flowing, with long
horizon lines and elevated tee boxes and greens--as deceptive as it is
beautiful. If you manage to emerge from Jack's deep bunkers, huge waste
areas, and water on nine holes, firm, generous greens await. Also just
opened at Reunion is Annika Sorenstam's Academy of Golf and Fitness,
where the LPGA star's long-time golf coach, Henri Reis, emphasizes
cardio-core training along with swing techniques.
The 11-story Reunion Grande stands adjacent to the golf clubhouse, and
you can rent 1- to 3-bedroom villas, suites or condos. or one of the
5-8 bedroom courseside homes; all art artfully and comfortably
furnished and have decks or balconies overlooking fairways or gardens.
The resort development is stunning in scope, with a spa and fitness
center, pools, stables, a water park, and a tennis complex, as well as
miles of trails.
Bob Cupp, Jr. redesigned Joe Lee's 1986 layout for the Hawk's Landing
Golf Club. Forming a horseshoe around the
2,000-room Orlando World Center Marriott, the 6,800-yard track runs through 200 acres of flowering foliage and tall grasses. Fairways dogleg frequently and are armed with deep
bunkers. Water comes into consideration on all but three holes, and the
entire back nine is riddled with it. It's an intense but pleasurable
gauntlet with a memorable flourish at the end. The eighteenth hole is a
565-yard, par 5 with a drive over water, a second shot threatened by
sand and water, and a green positioned among mounds, palms and more
water.
The Shark Strikes Again
I can see echoes of Australia's famous sandbelt layouts in the
International Course at ChampionsGate. That's no surprise, with Aussie Greg Norman at the drawing board. The 7,363-yard, links-style course is open and somewhat stark. Dune-like mounds rising to 40 feet provide views of fairways looping back and
forth, with flags snapping in a brisk wind unobstructed by large trees.
You almost expect to see golfers in plus fours pulling trolleys. The
fairways are hard and fast and studded with 225 pot bunkers--conditions
that would make any Aussie--or Brit--feel at home. The National Course
here is so different that it's hard to believe the two came from the
same designer and opened the same year, 2000. The National is a
traditional American-style layout set in woods, wetlands and orange
groves. Its springy fairways are shaded by mature trees, and its
calculated greens are guarded by 100 rambling bunkers.
 The golf complex includes the headquarters of the David Leadbetter Golf
Academy and a multi-faceted golf clubhouse with an extensive pro shop,
fine restaurant and 250-person function space.
But the piece de resistance of the 1,500-acre, four-diamond resort is
the 750-room Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate. It's a
stunner, with spacious, elegantly appointed common areas; a
10,000-square-foot European spa; five unique restaurants; tennis,
volleyball and basketball courts; a nine-hole par-three course; and a
watersports park with a quiet pool, an active pool with waterslides,
and an 850-foot-long lazy river.
The pros play a lot at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, Grande
Lakes, within a 500-acre resort that encompasses two hotels--the
584-room Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes and the 1,000-room JW Marriott Orlando, Grand Lakes. The Grande Lakes layout is also the work of Greg Norman, who tiptoed
through the fragile ecosystem of cypress and native oaks on the front
nine and used aggressive mounding on the back nine, which lay in a
flood plain. Caddies are de rigueur here. The luck of the draw gave us
John Bigelow, III, who may very well be the father of the next Tiger
Woods. His four-year-old son, John Bigelow IV (nicknamed "Four"), is
a self-taught natural who has appeared on "Oprah", the "Today Show",
and the pages of major golf magazines. His growing cadre of fans,
including Tiger, follow his career via his website, www.jbfour.com.
According to Bigelow III, Tiger has said that Grande Lakes has the best
greens in the state. They were stimping about 11 for us, so we had
trouble keeping balls on the often small or shallow putting surfaces.
The course is tough, with lots of water and cagey bunkering. It's also
very natural. The layout borders the Everglades, so native plants and
birds abound--along with a few alligators. Elevated wooden bridges wind
through wetlands and trees draped with Spanish moss.
 The Shingle Creek Golf Club is located on the fringe of the Orange
County Convention Center complex, within earshot of the frenetic
traffic artery, International Drive, in the brand new, 4-diamond rated,
1,500-room Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. The David Harman design gets a lot of traffic from convention attendees, lending lends itself to speedy play, with spacious fairways and
mounding that can bounce balls back into line if you don't stray too
far. The interconnecting waterways of Shingle Creek--once used to float cypress trees to a shingle-producing mill--are a threat on almost every
hole.
Grand Cypress Gold Club is a horse of a different
color. Picture a leopard-spotted Appaloosa
running in the Kentucky Derby. In 1988, Jack Nicklaus paid homage to
St. Andrews Old Course with a layout set in an open meadow among citrus
groves. It's all there--the double greens, the stone walls and bridges,
the severe swales, the burn (creek) coiling like a snake around greens.
The hidden pot bunkers are so deep (up to 12 feet) they have steps into
them. There's even wind sweeping across the open, virtually treeless
expanse. I love all the water and woods Nicklaus incorporated into the
resort's lush trio of nines--South, North and East. Lodging is in the
146-unit Villas of Grand Cypress and the 750-room Hyatt Regency Grand
Cypress. The resort is home to fine sporting facilities other than
golf, such as the tennis club and world-class equestrian center.
Disney Whirl
It's impossible to discuss Orlando golf without including the Walt
Disney World Resort, but it's also
nearly impossible to choose among the five 18-hole courses. PGA pros
say the Palm Golf Course is the toughest of the tournament venues, and
have ranked the finishing hole as the fourth hardest on the PGA Tour.
The Magnolia Golf Course is the longest and arguably the prettiest,
with more than 1,500 namesake trees and more wildlife than the other
four. The Palm and Magnolia are Joe Lee designs with many elevated
tees and greens. Eagle Pines Golf Course, a low-lying venue with water
defining the targets on 16 holes, is Pete Dye's work. Tom Fazio crafted
the hilly Osprey Ridge layout, a player-friendly track through wetlands
frequented by the namesake birds. Lake Buena Vista is a timeless Joe
Lee creation opened in 1972. It's short (6,749 yards) and seemingly
straightforward, but carries a slope of 133 from the back tees.
 After our round at Shingle Creek, we hustled back to the nearby Peabody
Orlando Hotel. We were booked for two nights in
rooms with what may be the world's most comfortable beds (called
Peabody Dream Beds) and access to the private Peabody Club for quick
breakfasts, hors doeuvres and cocktails; but our apres-golf attention
was focused on lunch in the hotel's unique B-Line Diner. The 50s-era
eatery is a stunningly accurate time-warp, right down to the
chrome-trimmed counter and booths, apron-clad cooks and waitresses, and
be-bop classics pouring from a jukebox. The burgers and sandwiches are
much better than any I had in the diners of old.
At cocktail time we
joined other guests near the lobby fountain for the afternoon march of
the famous Peabody ducks. Shortly before 5 p.m. the red-jacketed duck
master unfurled a long red carpet across the marble floor to the
elevator. When John Phillip Sousa's "King Cotton March" began, five
mallards waddled down steps from the fountain where they'd spent the
day, and strode calmly along the spectator-lined carpet and onto the
elevator that took them to their well-appointed pen near the
fourth-floor tennis courts. The 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ritual has taken
place in Peabody Hotels since the 1930s. That evening, as we settled
into our seats at the hotel's Capriccio Grill, we anxiously checked the
menu. No duck, not ever, our waitress assured us. The elegant Italian
steakhouse does have melt-in-your mouth prime steaks and chops, and
seafood delivered fresh daily. After a heaping mussel appetizer, I
hardly had room for the perfectly done beef filet and wine from the
award-winning wine cellar.
Orlando is perhaps as well know for its dining choices as for its theme parks. Every conceivable type of cuisine and setting can be found here. The buffalo steak at the Gaylord Palms Hotel's Hickory Steakhouse was a memorable meal. Unforgettable, too, were the African-spiced meals and fine South African wines at Jiko, the upscale restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.
I have to admit that I also loved sipping a beer and gnawing on a smoked turkey leg from a concession stand during the nightly fireworks show over Disney's Cinderella Castle. It's quintessential Orlando.
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