On Location: Four Seasons Orlando at Walt Disney World

During PGA Merchandise Show week in Orlando, I spent an afternoon playing golf, enjoying lunch at the clubhouse and taking a brief tour of this luxury resort property.

Opened in August 2014, the Four Seasons Orlando at Walt Disney World has been creating lots of buzz, especially among leisure luxury travelers, golfers and business meeting groups.

While Orlando has more than 115,000 hotel rooms, its upscale, luxury offerings are somewhat limited and the Four Seasons is a welcome addition for those who like a 5-star resort experience on and off the fairways.

GOLF

Originally built in 1992 and designed by Tom Fazio in Disney's portfolio of courses (named Osprey Ridge), the resort's Tranquilo Golf Club was re-designed by Fazio as well.  His enhancements included renovating bunkers, expanding and re-positioning landscaping to enhance visibility and airflow and creating a completely new hole.

I liked the course as Osprey Ridge and like it even better as Tranquilo Golf Club. The golf experience encompasses varying elevation changes, some elevated tees, protected wetlands and numerous Southern live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. Fazio is one of my favorite designers because he has mastered the technique of making courses enjoyable for all skill levels, not just for power hitters and scratch players.

All the greens have been resurfaced with Tiff Eagle Bermuda grass. The new hole is the par three 16th, which measures 163 yards from the back tee. Interestingly, the course concludes with a 217 yard par three fronted by a large bunkers and a pond to the left.

The 6,901-yard course is a par 71 with four sets of tees to accommodate all skill levels.

"I am very proud of the transformation of the Tranquilo Golf Club golf course," says Tom Fazio. "Since the course opened more than 20 years ago, it has been considered among the best courses in the region, and the recent upgrades and improvements to the course will surely solidify that reputation for many years to come."

ACCOMMODATIONS/AMENITIES

Designed in a Spanish Revival architecture style, the hotel has 443 rooms (including 68 suites). The lobby and common areas are luxuriously appointed with beautiful art, flooring and furniture.

The guestrooms feature tasteful soft, elegant colors (beige, teal and orange) with white furnishings. In the evenings, you can view the Magic Kingdom's nightly fireworks from your room.

Guestroom amenities include:

--Twice daily housekeeping service
--Hypoallergenic bedding
--Thick terry bathrobes
--Flat screen television
--Device charging station
--Marble mosaic bathroom with deep soaking tub, a separate oversized glass-walled shower, a separate WC and in-mirror T.V.

Resort amenities include:

--Adult-only pool
--Family pool with lazy river
--Full-service spa
--5-acre Explorer Island family playground with rock climbing wall, two water slides, sand volleyball and more
--3 Har-Tru tennis courts
--On-site Tom Fazio designed 18-hole championship course
--37,450 square feet of meeting space

DINING

For those tired of the same ol' hamburgers and wings at the clubhouse grill, the Four Seasons Orlando responds with Plancha, a Cuban American restaurant located at their golf clubhouse.

On my visit, I dined on empanadas, smoked bacon and black bean soup and marinated chicken followed by Tres Leches cake and a chocolate banana torta. My dining companions raved about their selections: The La Plancha burger with chorizo, maduro and smoked gouda cheese and the classic El Cubano grilled sandwich.

A unique touch is the outdoor smoking lounge area where you can enjoy an "apres golf"
cigar.  Better still, you can purchase a Plancha Cigar, which are hand-rolled and made exclusively for Tranquilo Golf Club. They also offer additional cigars from Davidoff, Padron and Romeo Y Julieta from their humidor.

Other dining options, include:

Capa--A 17th floor rooftop steakhouse bar with an open-kitchen and wood-burning grill.

Ravello--Features modern Italian cuisine, including pizza made in a wood-burning oven.

PB&G--A pool bar and grill with smokehouse grilled favorites like pulled pork sandwiches and smoked brisket burgers.

THINGS TO DO

--It's only minutes away from Disney's theme parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom).
--Downtown Disney with Cirque du Soleil, House of Blues, Planet Hollywood and an AMC 24-screen theater is a five-minute drive.
--Other golf options within a 10 to 15-minute drive are Grand Cypress Resort, Marriott's Grande Pines, Celebration Golf Club, Falcon's Fire and Disney's other courses.
--Luxury shopping at Mall at Millennia is 15-minute drive away.

LOCATION

Four Seasons Orlando is situated in Golden Oak, Disney's new, private, luxury, residential community of upscale, custom homes. Hotel address: 10100 Dream Tree Boulevard, Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32836.

GET THE SCOOP

For more information, click to Four Seasons Orlando at Walt Disney World or call 407-313-7777.

New and Improved Golf Courses for 2015

Trump Golf Links Ferry Point, Bronx, NY (photo: courtesy Nicklaus.com)

Do you want to broaden your horizons and tee up at some different courses in 2015?

Of course you do...

In elf-like fashion, the Guru has been working diligently this holiday season to compile a list of new and recently improved and renovated layouts. It's his gift to every travel-loving golfer out there in cyberspace.

So, thoroughly clean out your bag for the New Year, stock up on your ball inventory and prepare yourself to play some of these gems in 2015 and beyond:

Cabot Cliffs (Nova Scotia, Canada)--This magnificent Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw layout on Cape Breton Island will be the most talked about course in 2015. Expected to open in July, Cabot Cliffs will be the sister course to Cabot Links, a phenomenal golf complex developed by Mike Keiser, who brought us Bandon Dunes in Oregon. Cabot Cliffs will be a moveable feast of rolling sand dunes and soaring cliffs. The front nine is routed through low lying dunes around wetlands and back nine features cliffs up to 100 feet high. My nomination for the most dramatic hole is the par 3 16th, which requires a tee shot over ocean to a green rimmed by jagged cliffs.

Cape Wickham (King Island, Australia)--Set on an island off the southern Coast of Australia, Cape Wickham, scheduled to open in 2015, is being designed by American golf architect Mike DeVries, who's known for his work in northern Michigan (Greywalls and Kingsley Club). Predicted to be one of Australia's top ten courses, Cape Wickham will have eight holes framed by ocean as well as five others rimming the tee or green.

Dye's Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass (Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida)--Following a 7-month enhancement program in 2014, the course improved its overall playing conditions with a new irrigation system, reconstruction of all green, tee and green-side bunker complexes, replacement of fairway turf and the expansion of the drainage network. Opened in 1987, the course was designed by Pete Dye in collaboration with Bobby Weed and PGA TOUR player Jerry Pate.

El Cardonal (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico)--Opened in December (2014), this is a Tiger Woods design at Diamonte, a residential resort. The course is routed on a stunning piece of land with views of the Pacific Ocean and Sierra de la Laguna Mountains in the distance and arroyous, native dunes, cacti and mature vegetation.

Ford Plantation Golf Club (Richmond Hill, Georgia)--Pete Dye and Tim Liddy essentially bulldozed a course Dye designed and built in the mid-1980's to create Ford Plantation Golf Club. The new layout near Savannah has a parkland-like front nine with several dogleg holes, lakes and Spanish moss dripping from trees and a back nine with no trees and a links-style feel.

Full Cry at Keswick Hall (Charlottsville, Virginia)--Iconic course designer Pete Dye, who brought us gems like the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island and the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, recently debuted Full Cry, a new layout at Keswick Hall Golf Club/Resort. Interestingly, the course was routed atop a former Arnold Palmer design. Set on beautiful rolling terrain, the course has creeks, forests and open areas.

Gamble Sands (Brewster, Washington)--Known for his great work at Bandon Dunes in Oregon, architect David McLay Kidd's newest design is Gamble Sands in Brewster, which is about a three hour drive east of Seattle. Built on a giant sand ridge about 1,000 feet high, the course rewards players with spectacular panoramas of the Cascade Mountains and Columbia River. Large, wide fairways and flat greens make the course thoroughly playable for all skill levels. True to its name, though, there's lots of sand to contend with at Gamble Sands. The public-accessible course is slated to open a small lodge by 2016.

Poppy Hills (Pebble Beach, California)--If you love the Monterey Peninsula, you'll be glad to know the Poppy Hills Golf Club, a scenic, affordably priced Robert Trent Jones Jr. design owned by the Northern California Golf Association, recently received an extensive makeover with new greens and other design enhancements.

Quivira Golf Club (Los Cabos, Mexico)--Jack Nicklaus designs have been synonomous with Los Cabos golf. The Golden Bear's latest masterpiece is Quivira Golf Club, a stunner with 350-feet of elevation change in the rolling desert foothills about 10 miles from downtown Cabo San Lucas. Sheer granite cliffs, massive windswept dunes, arroyos and mountains dominate the golf experience. A Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, it has jaw-dropping vistas of the Pacific Ocean.

Rams Hill Golf Club (Borrego Springs, California)--Set in the center of the Anza Borrego State Park, this new Tom Fazio design is sculpted from desert hillside and encircled by mountains. Post card beautiful, the course has numerous elevation changes and all sorts of water features like streams, waterfalls and lakes. Rams Hills is located about a 90-minute drive from San Diego and a 60-minute drive from Palm Desert. The long term plans are to take the club private, so you might want to play this gem sooner rather than later.

TPC Baha Mar (Nassau, Bahamas)--Opening in Spring 2015 at the luxurious, $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega-resort is the TPC Baha Mar, a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course design. Stretching 7,189 yards, the TPC at Baha Mar, the first Caribbean golf course in the TPC Network, will feature two very distinct nines. The front offers several high-profile water features and ocean views and the back nine weaves through a lush inland forest. Tree growth on the layout is spectacular with 15 species of native trees, include protected Mahogany, Silk cotton, Caribbean Pine and Buttonwood, as well as Red and Black Mangroves. There are also more than 70 species of birds and other wildlife on the course. 

TPC Cartagena at Karibana (Cartagena, Colombia)--Opened in October 2014, this Nicklaus design is par of the TPC Network of golf courses. The front nine has a natural forest and six lakes and the back nine runs along as magnificent oceanfront.

TPC Scottsdale (Arizona)--Home to the popular and sometimes raucous PGA TOUR's Waste Management Phoenix Open, this high-profile layout reopened in November following an extensive renovation by original architect Tom Weiskopf.

Trump Golf Links Ferry Point (Bronx, New York)--Scheduled to open in 2015, this Jack Nicklaus Signature Design in collaboration with architect John Sanford, will feature stunning views of the Manhattan skyline from most of the 18 holes. Other amenities include a $10 million clubhouse and practice facility with lights for nighttime use. Open to the public, the Irish links-style layout will be nearly treeless with tall native grasses and dunes and tee boxes that rise as high as 55 feet above the fairway.

Trump International Ireland Hotel & Golf Links (Doonbeg, Ireland)--Recently purchased by Donald Trump, this luxury resort (formerly known as The Lodge at Doonbeg) has embarked on an extensive enhancement program. Situated on lush farmland and framed by the Atlantic Ocean, the Greg Norman designed course opened in 2002. Trump has promised to elevate the courses profile and enhance the overall playing experience.

What's New for Golf Vacationers in 2014

If you're sick and tired of the constant drumbeat of gloom and doom economic news, I hope I can remedy that problem for you.

Finally, here's some good news about exciting happenings in the golf travel world in 2014:

Slated to debut early 2014 is a luxury 210-room main lodge at Streamsong Resort in Polk County near Lakeland, Florida. Amenities will include three restaurants and two lounge areas, an indoor pool, outdoor infinity pool, fitness center, full-service spa with multiple treatment rooms, retail shopping, hiking, birding tours, sporting clays and lakefront fishing complex with guides, outfitters and boating equipment. Situated 53 miles from Tampa and 69 miles from Orlando, Streamsong is home to two of golf's more celebrated new courses that opened in 2012. Set on formerly mined land, the courses incorporate hills, dramatic land forms, sweeping sand dunes, ridges and vistas. The two 18-hole courses were designed by Tom Doak and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.


Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, the venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup matches, will debut 10 new luxury lodges in 2014, which is part of a planned development of 60 lodges. The large, multi-bedroom log cabins will be named Hunter Lodges. Offering views of the Usk Valley, the lodges will be situated near Celtic Manor's Twenty Ten Ryder Cup course.



The $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega-resort in Nassau's Cable Beach area (Bahamas) will open its 1,000-room casino hotel in December 2014. Opening late this year or early next year is the property's Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at Baha Mar.



An 18-hole putting course at Pacific Dunes at Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon is scheduled to open in May 2014. Designed by Tom Doak, the highlights of "The Punchbowl Putting Course" include 15 to 20 feet of elevation change and a 100-foot downhill roller coaster putt.


Expected to open late 2014 is the 444-room Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Set in Disney's ultra-exclusive, luxury master-planned Golden Oaks community near the Tom Fazio designed Osprey Ridge Golf course, the $360 million hotel will be dripping with luxury amenities.



PGA Village Resort in Port St. Lucie, Florida has committed to a course conditioning and enhancement program that will significantly improve the overall golf experience at the resort's four golf courses. Veteran superintendent Dick Gray was hired to raise the quality of maintenance and conditioning to unparalleled levels for 2014 and beyond.


The Trump National Doral Miami (formerly named Doral Golf Resort & Spa) is undergoing a massive $250 million renovation and enhancement program. Slated for completion in fall 2014, the transformation will include refurbishment of guest rooms, extensive renovation of the clubhouse and redesign of the "Blue Monster" by architect Gil Hanse. The new "Blue Monster" is scheduled to be ready by early 2014, just prior to the 2014 World Golf Championship/Cadillac Championship in March.

The Indura Resort and Spa on the northern coast of Honduras is scheduled to open early 2014. One of the highlight amenities is an 18-hole golf course designed by Gary Player and managed by Troon Golf.