Any definite plans for new 18 hole Golf Course at WDW?

k5thbeatle

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 22, 2005
If I'm not mistaken currently WDW has 4 golf courses available for guests (one being a 9 hole beginners the course).

Are there any plans for them to add another golf course and if so can someone please share a link about it if so?

Thanks
 
They sold two of their courses (Eagle Pine and Osprey - my hubby's favorites) to Four Season who combined them into one just a few years back. So, I don't see them going in the "build a new one" direction any time in the future.
 
Overall the number of rounds of golf played annually in the United States has been decreasing in recent years. Based on that I don't see Disney or many other major corporations goading additional courses in the near future.
 


An offshoot question but I wonder how their business is on the courses? Having stayed at old key west in the past you see a fair amount of people on the buena vista course.
 
Overall the number of rounds of golf played annually in the United States has been decreasing in recent years. Based on that I don't see Disney or many other major corporations goading additional courses in the near future.

According to this 2014 Forbes entitled "Think Play Golf is Tough? Try Operating a Course", average net profit margins for privately owned courses has been negative for several years. Perhaps, things have picked up in the past few years. And Disney's courses might do better from having a more solid customer base. Still, it's probably a great revenue source.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sagewo...k-sales-negative-profit-margins/#5628312f63c2

I'm a little less certain about the quality of information from the following site because it's a blog and not a magazine/newspaper. But, it quotes a report stating that net operating profits for 18-hole golf facilities in the United States were about $51,000 in 2009. That's not $51k per month...that's $51k for the year.

http://www.golfentrepreneur.com/2011/01/should-we-invest-in-golf-course-lets.html
 
Sincerely doubt it. I live in what could contend for golf capital of the world (SE Florida), and courses down here are closing left and right, and are being redeveloped into new housing plans. As other have noted, golf is on the decline and not being played by as many folks anymore (particularly young people, due to cost and other time demands/activities).
 


I think one of the issues for a Florida golf course success is the summer heat/humidity. Almost every FL course that I have played offers substantial discounts during the summer months, but not sure it offsets the loss of revenue due to less traffic. Of course, the reciprocal is true as the winter months are in peak demand from what I've seen. So I'd be curious if WDW golf courses see this effect as well.

Of note is that the most of the new home communities I see being built in central Florida are not tied to a golf course like years/decades past.
 
The four seasons has their golf course that the pp aluded too. Disney has three 18 hole golf courses plus the 9 hole course. Also, the Waldorf in Bonnet Creek has a championship course. Then, just outside the property line you have Falcon's Fire, Celebration and like four courses at Orange Lake that borders AK. Lots of golf in the area so I wouldn't expect more to be built on Disney property unless they sell off land to another resort location.
 
An offshoot question but I wonder how their business is on the courses? Having stayed at old key west in the past you see a fair amount of people on the buena vista course.
I doubt that business was very good.
considering they outsourced management of the courses to Arnold Palmer(‘s company)
 
They are actually going on the other direction. They used to advertise 99 holes of golf.

Then they split off Eagle pines to 4S and outsourced management of the rest.

I would not be surprised to see another course go in a few years.
 
I would not be surprised to see another course go in a few years.

I almost wrote the same thing. But, when I looked at where the current Disney courses are located, I decided that wasn't likely to happen. Other than golf, I couldn't think of any decent uses for that land. I'm no expert, however.

That said, I could see Disney giving up the Palm course in a land-swap deal. The Palm course is the one south of Disney's Polynesian Village Resort and west of Magic Kingdom parking. (Bottom-middle in this image.)

magickingdom-golfcourses.jpg

Link to map: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/map/#/golf/id=palm-golf-course/

I believe Disney is required to see a certain amount of acreage "wild". I could see Disney offering to return that golf course land to it's natural state in exchange for developing a more valuable plot of land near to a theme park. Again, I'm not an expert, but I seem to remember reading about that sort of arrangement in the past.
 
Sincerely doubt it. I live in what could contend for golf capital of the world (SE Florida), and courses down here are closing left and right, and are being redeveloped into new housing plans. As other have noted, golf is on the decline and not being played by as many folks anymore (particularly young people, due to cost and other time demands/activities).
One across the street from me just sold and is being redeveloped. People that live on the course are irate, but nothing you can really do.

I think courses were way over built in the late-90s and early-00s, when Tiger took the world by storm. It was a major fad and is dying off. I really don't see many places investing in additional new courses.
 
Our city has something like 15 courses and I am in Nebraska where half of the year you can't golf due to cold, snow, or too much rain. Most courses are walk on because not enough golfers, but one you need to call to get a tee time. That course nearly closed several years ago but someone bought it and made one important change. They reduced the price to golf by about half. Before hardly anyone went there, now it is the busiest course in the area. All the other courses including the city owned keep raising prices and they keep losing golfers. The two best courses in my area (25 mile radius) both have green fees of 60-75 weekday and close to 100 weekend, and are virtual ghost towns. The course that dropped their fees is around 20 bucks.
 
Our city has something like 15 courses and I am in Nebraska where half of the year you can't golf due to cold, snow, or too much rain. Most courses are walk on because not enough golfers, but one you need to call to get a tee time. That course nearly closed several years ago but someone bought it and made one important change. They reduced the price to golf by about half. Before hardly anyone went there, now it is the busiest course in the area. All the other courses including the city owned keep raising prices and they keep losing golfers. The two best courses in my area (25 mile radius) both have green fees of 60-75 weekday and close to 100 weekend, and are virtual ghost towns. The course that dropped their fees is around 20 bucks.

Golf, especially in your area, is definitely heavily on the supply side of supply vs demand. As you said, they need to cut prices but most places aren’t willing to do that. Which is why it doesn’t surprise me that Disney outsourced their courses to a third party
 
Back when WDW was built, golfing was considered part of the resort experience. It was one of the things that divided resorts from mere hotels. The Golf Resort, now Shades of Green, was one of the original three WDW hotels. But nowadays not that many people golf, so a golf course is just not looked at as a necessity like it used to be.
 

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