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Bay Hill/Sawgrass, Florida

2025

This was my bucket list trip to the USA, a new and exciting destination for MOC Golf Travel. The USA is renowned for its golf courses and we played on five of the best courses in the country including Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill and The Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass. These are two of the most iconic golfing venues in the world and host to two of the most famous events on the PGA Tour – The Bay Hill Classic and The Players Championship.

Find out more about the trip

We went to Florida in November which is the best time of year for golf in this part of the world – average daily temperatures were 26 degrees – perfect for golf! This weather is made even better when leaving the cold, wet and darkness of the U.K.! 
 
The group flew from Heathrow to Orlando and spent four nights at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill lodge before heading north to the Jacksonville area to stay at Marriott Sawgrass Resort + Spa for another four nights.
 
We played three rounds in Orlando – 1x Bay Hill, 1x Lake Nona and 1x Disney Palm CC – and then two more in Jacksonville – 1x The Stadium course, TPC Sawgrass and 1x Dye’s Valley, TPC Sawgrass. Five rounds we will never forget!
 
We had a free day at both hotels for some relaxation and sightseeing!

The Golf Courses

This collection of courses was possible the best we’ve every experienced on a trip. Display Palm, Bay Hill and the two Sawgrass courses host PGA tour events, Lake Nona is an exclusive members club which we were very luck to play. All the courses were perfectly manicured with amazing practice facilities and super fast greens.

Bay Hill
Dye's Valley
Disney Palm

Accommodation

Our accommodation was sensational, four nights at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill lodge before heading to the Marriott Sawgrass Resort + Spa for another four nights. They are excellent hotels with superb facilities.  Bay Hill was particularly interesting as it featured a huge amount of memorabilia from Arnold Palmer’s career.

Meet the Team

We had a very talented team hosting this trip.

Michael O'Connor

PGA Professional

Michael O'Connor

Michael has had an illustrious playing career as an amateur and a professional including winning the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Assistant Professional’s Championship and the prestigious Sunningdale Foursomes with Luke Donald, at the time they were the youngest winners in the history of the event.

In 2003 Michael qualified as a PGA Professional. Always a keen student of the game he turned his attention to coaching and enjoys helping his pupils of all ages and abilities reach their full potential. To this end he has acquired many coaching qualifications including Trackman Professional Level 2 certification, NLP Practitioner for Sport, TimeLine and Hypnosis therapy and Explanar swing trainer coach. He is also currently studying the benefits of Pilates for golfers.

He runs a thriving junior academy at The Lambourne Club where he teaches over 100 children every week including pupils from 4 local schools.

Michael has a passion for travelling and has combined this with his desire to coach by forming his travel business. Over the last 15 years he has taken his pupils to many of the premier golf clubs and hotels in the world and given them some experiences that they will remember forever!

He has a broad knowledge of all things golf and completed the PGA’s certificate of golf management in record time and was also a member of the PGA’s rules committee having achieved the highest ever score in their entrance exam.

Finally he’s a good man to have on a trip as he speaks French, Spanish and Italian and even knows a few words in Arabic and Swedish!

Favourite Courses