If you want to experience the golf legend Arnold Palmer visit his own facility Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida. Here it’s the Palmer Country cubed - from the doormat to the poker game in the locker room.

Golf connoisseurs usually say that Ben Hogan hit the ball better and that Jack Nicklaus won more but that Arnold Palmer was the most beloved golfer. With its popular image, he is deemed to have also meant a lot to golf's development and emergence at the end of the fifties - and during the sixties.

Arnold Palmer is approaching 80 and the swing's isn’t as powerful anymore but on the other hand, he is a powerful businessman who early on learned to build his own brand.

His business empire draws in more than a billion euros a year. The empire consists of clothing with the famous multi-colored umbrella logo, course design assignments, a golf academy, a restaurant and two golf clubs - Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida, and Latrobe Country Club in Pennsylvania.

It was in Latrobe that it all started, but it’s at Bay Hill that Arnold Palmer has left his mark with a vengeance. He fell in love with the course already in the sixties and bought the course in 1974. As Palmer commutes between Pennsylvania and Orlando, Bay Hill is run by one of his daughters and his son-in-law. It’s an exclusive facility, if a bit shabby, so the renovation that is going on is much needed.

Coming to Bay Hill is like coming to "Palmer Land". Everywhere we are reminded of who owns the place, from the doormat at the entrance to the hundreds of pictures and photos that adorn the clubhouse.

In the bar in the men's locker room is Van. He has worked for Mr. Palmer for many years.

"He's a great man," says Van and pours a beer for a club member in his late middle ages, moreover, a striking impression in terms of the average age at the club.

The locker room also serves as the poker place once a week and then it’s possible that AP himself drops by when he is out walking the dog. Women cannot set foot in this dressing room and poker room and many stories have been told about famous and unknown people over the years, stories that have never leaked outside the room.

The restaurant serves of course, "steak" with mashed potatoes, Arnold Palmer's absolute favorite.

If Bay Hill is worth the trip? Definitely. Here golf's history is almost as powerful as that at St Andrews.

Text and photo: Anders Örnevall