Once the 9 holes at Disney’s Lake Buena Vista were complete, my golf playing appetite was satisfied and it was time to turn my attention to phase 2 of the day’s golf adventures. The Arnold Palmer Invitational has been one of the most popular and highest rated PGA Tour events in all of golf. Tiger Woods, who was notoriously picky about the events he played, made this a staple of his schedule every year for over a decade and then famously chose this event as his comeback appearance from knee surgery following his victory at the 2008 U.S. Open. Boasting one of the strongest fields and played on one of the most cherished courses in pro golf, this event consistently draws the attention of millions of TV viewers and swarms of spectating fans hoping to be in arm’s reach of some of the world’s best athletes. For me, I had been watching this event on TV for years and had never fathomed the possibility that I would ever get to walk the fairways of this course in real life. Yet here I was, in the same city, during the same week as the biggest golf event leading up to the Masters. There were really only two objectives: how to get there and how to get in. Lucky for me, both were for free…
As far as transportation, one of the coworker’s rented a large SUV to drive us around town that week. Sure, I could have taken a cab or paid for an Uber… but that has never been my style when there was the possibility of a free ride. Fortunately, I called him before he had taken off to Tampa. As I waited for him in the lobby, I checked the event’s website for spectator prices and special considerations. It turned out that admission was slightly, but not surprisingly, more expensive than other PGA events I had attended in the past. I watched the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines for around $30 per spectator, the Shell Houston Open at Redstone for $25, and the Hero World Challenge at Sherwood was given to me and my dad as a gift. In contrast, the Arnold Palmer Invitational was going to cost me $50. Ordinarily, this price would be a little steep but I was willing to make an exception for such a rare opportunity. Then I noticed there was a veterans’ voucher for half off the regular spectator price! I printed the voucher and the generous coworker drove me to Bay Hill Club & Lodge where I had planned to spend the rest of the afternoon.
At some point on the drive to the ticket booth, our vehicle was directed away from the main entrance and toward the spectator parking lot. This made for some awkward chats with volunteers who kept trying to direct us to park despite my coworker’s plea that he was just dropping me off. Every volunteer would just tell us to follow the other cars who were parking. Eventually, I asked my coworker to simply pull over anywhere and that I could just walk with the rest of the spectators from the parking lot to wherever the entrance was. He pulled over, I got out, and I followed the rest of the crowd toward a metal detector. One worker was scanning everyone’s spectator badge that I did not have, but there was a ticketing trailer nearby. I showed to the guy working the ticket trailer, hoping it would cut my admission fee in half. But the man simply handed me a spectator badge, thanked me for my service, and pointed me toward the metal detectors. Just like that, the $50 fee I was willing to pay to enter Bay Hill and watch the Arnold Palmer Invitational vaporized away into the Florida sun.
Protected: My Luckiest Day, Part 5: Golfer’s Paradise
Fatherhood and Marriage 