ORLANDO, FLORIDA – It probably wasn’t a good idea for the operators of St. Lucie Trail and Rio Pinar to have those courses open in the immediate aftermath of the 63rd PGA Merchandise Show. Both had been pelted with two-plus days of rain while the show was in progress at the Orange County Convention Center.

Even in marginal playing conditions there was still plenty of interest in playing these courses, which have joined the fast-growing list of one-time private facilities that are now open to the public.

That was especially the case at Rio Pinar, which was in its heyday one of the most famous courses in the United States. It was one of the first courses to host tournaments on both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.

Rio Pinar, in Orlando, opened in 1957 with a course designed by Mark Mahannah. It hosted the PGA tour’s Florida Citrus Open from 1966 to 1978. When the men left the women came in immediately. The LPGA’s Women’s Citrus Open was played there from 1979 to 1982.

Both tournaments had an impressive list of champions, the men’s featuring Arnold Palmer (1971), Lee Trevino (1975) and Hale Irwin (1976) and the women’s including Jane Blalock (1979) and Beth Daniel (1981) before Patty Sheehan closed out the course’s rich pro tournament history with her victory in 1982. Champions were awarded coveted orange jackets in addition to the prize money and trophies.

Palmer bought another Orlando facility, Bay Hill Club & Lodge, three years after winning at Rio Pinar and eight years after his Citrus Open victory he became the tourney’s host. The Citrus event was moved to Bay Hill in 1979 and is now known as the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Though the club is over 50 years old Rio Pinar isn’t on the Florida Historic Golf Trail because it was closed to the public most of the time. That requirement aside, Rio Pinar is very much a part of Florida’s rich golf history.

Rio Pinar remained a private club until 2013 when it was acquired by Integrity Golf, which opened it to non-member play. Prices are eminently affordable, currently ranging in the $28-$60 range. The course was a busy place during our weekend visit and the players included members of the Rollins College men’s team.

While the Rio Pinar course certainly isn’t what it used to be, the facility still offers touches of the big event feel as you work your way around it. It’s somewhat of a throwback in time, with its clubhouse including memorabilia from those glory years.

The course was re-designed by Lloyd Clifton – like Mahannah an architect with numerous Florida designs — in 1995 and it now stretches over 7,000 yards (albeit by one yard) from the back tees. Its most unusual aspect comes at No. 16. That’s one of the very few par-3 holes designated as any course’s No. 1 handicap hole.

St. Lucie Trail, meanwhile, was private when we spent a very pleasant winter in Port St. Lucie – about 90 miles from Orlando — two years ago. Owned and operated by the PGA of America, it was called the PGA Country Club then.

On Nov. 2, 2014, the course was renamed and opened to the public. It’s now part of a four-course rotation that includes the three courses at nearby PGA Golf Club – the Wanamaker, Ryder and Dye layouts. Tom Fazio designed the Wanamaker and Ryder and Pete Dye created the other course.

Designed by Jim Fazio, St. Lucie Trail is greatly enhances the PGA Golf Club offerings and is much more of a challenge than Rio Pinar largely because of its speedy, tricky greens. They were tough to deal with, even in soggy conditions.

LAKE WALES, Florida – I can’t think of a much more pleasant golf experience than playing a Donald Ross course on a crisp, sunny day. That’s what we thought we were doing when we visited Lake Wales Country Club, which is about 40 miles from Orlando.

Lake Wales is managed by Chicago-based GolfVisions, and we found it a well-conditioned, nicely designed layout that clearly had the feel of a Ross course. The club proclaims it a Ross design in its website and uses a likeness of the legendary architect in its most recent logo.

There’s only one problem.

Ross was involved in the course’s creation for sure, but recent research suggests he wasn’t the only architect and may not have even been the main one. Another almost-as-famous architect, Seth Raynor, was involved as well.

A long-time member, Chuck Wolf, played with us on the back nine and alerted us to some revisionist history that was later supported by both staffers at the club, media reports and Internet research. All of it plays out nicely for Lake Wales as well as the Florida Historic Golf Trail. After all, how many courses could justifiably claim both Raynor and Ross as its designer?

We’ve gotten fascinated in recent years by the Florida Historic Golf Trail, which lists 52 layouts in its celebration of the state’s rich golf heritage. All the courses on it opened between 1897 and 1949 and all were open to the public for at least 50 years. We’ve played eight courses on the Trail and will check out a few more in the next month or two. Some have withstood the tests of time better than others but the last two we’ve visited – El Campeon in Howie-in-the-Hills and Lake Wales – are definitely well preserved.

Like many of the courses on the Trail, Lake Wales had a stint as a private club. Circumstances around its opening, though, are where the interesting historical controversy emanates.

Lake Wales started as a municipal course that was built for $190,000 and opened in 1925. Latest research suggests that Raynor designed the first nine holes to open. He had designed the nearby Mountain Lake course, which opened in 1918. (Mountain Lake isn’t on the Florida Historic Golf Trail).

The Lake Wales mayor declared a holiday on January 27, 1925, for the course’s grand opening and over 1,000 spectators turned out for an exhibition match that pitted two local club professionals – Alic Gerard of Mountain Lake and Jimmy Maiden of Sebring – against two Scottish brothers, Dave and Allan Towns, who had moved to the U.S. Dave was the head professional at Lake Wales.

Only nine holes were available for the opening day match, and Raynor died the following January after a bout with pneumonia. He was only 51, and his passing came at a hotel in West Palm Beach where he was staying in anticipation of the opening of one of his other courses.

Raynor hasn’t received all the acclaim that he deserves for his architectural work. He started working with Charles Blair Macdonald, who designed Chicago Golf Club – America’s first 18-hole course. Raynor, who was involved in that project, didn’t venture out on his own until about 13 years before the Lake Wales opening. His portfolio, though, includes some outstanding courses – Fox Chapel in Pennsylvania, Shoreacres in Illinois, The Course at Yale in Connecticut and Piping Rock and Fishers Island in New York.

Apparently Raynor got started on the second nine at Lake Wales but Ross finished it. The second nine opened in 1926. Ross is among the most famous of architects, with Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina probably his most noteworthy creation. He was a long-time Pinehurst resident.

Lake Wales never achieved Pinehurst status, but the course has hosted many qualifying events for U.S. Golf Assn. tournaments as well as the Symetra Tour. It operated as a municipal course until a membership group purchased it during World War II.

The layout underwent typical updates over the years and the present version measures 7,072 yards from the back tees and 4,263 from the most forward markers. Fairways are generous and the green complexes interesting.

Ben Hill Griffin Jr., who had been a caddie at the club during his high school years, took over ownership in 1980 and the present Spanish-style clubhouse was built in 1984 during his ownership period. The University of Florida’s football stadium in Gainesville also bears the Griffin influence, having been named Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 1989.

Private owners purchased Lake Wales in 2013 and it’s become a gated community with a pleasant, well-maintained variety of mediterranean-style homes and condominiums.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – Want to take on a real golf challenge? Try to complete what I’m now declaring the Salamander Slam.

The Salamander Golf Collection includes nine courses in Florida plus another in the company’s home base of Middleburg, Va. Sheila C. Johnson — former Chicago resident, University of Illinois alum and founder and chief executive officer for the Salamander group – has 180 holes under her jurisdiction. Play them all and you’ve completed the Salamander Slam.

Playing them all – and I’m only halfway done – will also expose you to the architectural efforts of three of golf’s legendary players as well as that of the late Larry Packard, who designed four of the courses including the most famous one.

Salamander is the largest independent golf course operator in Florida, and playing all nine of its courses there won’t be easy since you can’t come in off the street at any of them. Only members and resort guests at the various locations can get on the courses, but the experience will be well worth it. Not only will you enjoy a quality golf atmosphere but you’ll also get a sampling of what Florida is all about because the courses are spread throughout the state.

Johnson created her Salamander Hotels and Resorts company in 2005. The nine Salamander courses in Florida range from the four at the Innisbrook Resort on the western edge of the state to the two at Hammock Beach Resort on the eastern side. Innisbrook is located in Tarpon Springs, near Tampa, and Hammock Beach is roughly between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach

Packard’s Copperhead course at Innisbrook is easily the best known of the Salamander courses. Arguably the best course in Florida, it has long been a PGA Tour site for what is now called the Valspar Championship. Jordan Spieth will defend his title in that event in March.

Just as the courses all have their unique qualities, so do the resorts where they’re based. Other than offering great golf, there’s been only a minimal effort to make the locations similar.

My suggestion for a starting point on a Salamander Slam would be in the middle – at Reunion, which is in Orlando on the edge of Kissimmee. Though Innisbrook has more courses (four) than Reunion (three), Reunion is the biggest property in the group. It’s built on 2,300 acres and features a 96-suite main hotel topped off by Eleven, a fine dining steakhouse on the top floor. There’s also a water park, boutique and spa, tennis, biking and walking trails and a meeting and conference facility on the premises within a few minutes of DisneyWorld and the other Orlando tourist attractions.

Its place in golf is secure if for no other reason than Reunion is the only location in the world with designs by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson. Those greats of the game parlayed their success as players into successful careers as architects as well.

Not only that, but Reunion is also the home of the Annika Academy, a unique instruction facility organized by another legendary golfer – Annika Sorenstam. Her Academy incorporates fitness and nutrition into the golf instruction.

As for the Reunion courses, Nicklaus’ The Tradition is the longest at 7,240 yards and – with its small greens, narrow fairways and water, which comes into play on nine of the holes – the most difficult as well. It’s probably the best layout there as well, though it has an interesting history. Nicklaus had to create two new holes after a property dispute surfaced, and the course has no clubhouse. A tent has served as an alternative until a clubhouse is built.

Watson’s Independence course was the first Watson design in Florida. It has lots of elevation changes but no water and is probably the easiest of the three layouts.

I’ve played many Palmer courses over the years, but none are as challenging as his Legacy course – at 6.916 yards the shortest of the three Reunion layouts. It’s filled with sand traps and waste bunkers and the elevation changes are not what you’d see at most Florida courses.

Get through those courses and you can decide whether you want to proceed to the west — where the recently-renovated Copperhead layout is joined by the Packard-designed Island, North and South layouts – or go east and test Hammock Beach, another Nicklaus creation, or The Conservatory, which was designed by Watson. Next to Copperhead, The Conservatory is my second favorite of the Salamander courses played so far.

Nicklaus also designed Creighton Farms, the Virginia course that has a connection to the nearby Salamander Resort & Spa.

ST. CLOUD, FLORIDA – The story of the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links started ominously. Its grand opening came two days before the horrendous 9-11 terrorist attack in 2001.

The 18-hole course was known as the St. Cloud Golf Club then, and the designer was Chip Powell. That’s where facility’s connection with Illinois began. Powell was a product of both Danville Community College and Illinois State University before starting his golf architectural business in Florida beginning in the early 1980s.

Powell created the course for St. Cloud’s original owners, who sold it two years later. Then the Illinois influence became much stronger and the outlook for this layout – a 25-minute drive from DisneyWorld – steadily improved until now it’s one of the busiest courses in the Orlando area if not all of Florida.

Royal St. Cloud’s general manager Bill Filson. He grew up in LaGrange, the son of the long-time superintendent at Illinois Masonic Children’s Home. Filson learned his golf from the late Tom Byrd, the head professional at Timber Trails, and – after 4 ½ frustrating years trying to be a competitive playing pro – he joined Trey Van Dyke’s staff at Oak Brook Golf Club.

Filson quickly went from assistant pro to teaching professional and one of his students was Hinsdale resident and successful Chicago businessman Tom Butler. They decided to buy the St. Cloud course, and Filson ended an 11-year stint at Oak Brook to move to Florida and become the face of the then renamed Royal St. Cloud Golf Links.

A PGA professional for 24 years, Filson’s role is much broader than that of the usual GM. First order of business when he arrived at the facility was rebuilding the original 18 holes. Filson did that while working with Powell.

Next came the addition of a new clubhouse, which opened in November of 2008 with its popular Stone Bridge Tavern & Grill. Blessed with plenty of open space for expansion, Butler and Filson didn’t see the need for a second 18-hole course but opted for a third nine. Filson, again working with Powell, designed it and they had it up and running in 2009.

The original 18 was then marketed as the White and Blue nines and the new one became the Red nine. It’s clearly the most challenging. The White is generally regarded as the easiest, but all three nines are comparable and the mixture leads to a nice variety of playing options.

Just the fact that it has a links feel sets Royal St. Cloud apart from the other courses in the area, and having the luxury of three nines adds to that.

Each of the nines is a par-36 and only 43 yards separates the shortest (on the White course) from the longest (on the Blue). The fairways are generous throughout but there are special touches. Each hole has a name, some examples being Wake Up, Mouse Trap, Nesse’s Back, Brent’s Bridge, Hookenfacher’s Nose, Gauntlet of Palms and Oliver’s Field. Their stories are told on unique signs, which provide reading material throughout the course.

Then there’s the Deli Tele – authentic British shiny red phone booths that golfers can use to contact the clubhouse to place food orders. A member named Tom, who became a most pleasant playing partner, said the food is great. We didn’t have time to find out on this visit.

Special touches aside, it’s not hard to see why golfers like Royal St. Cloud. For one thing the price is right. (The highest 18-hole fee is $35 in this first month of the winter tourist season, cart included).

We played on an overcast Saturday, waited on most every shot and had no reason to complain. Tom said a packed course is commonplace, whether it be on weekdays or weekends. The course design kept your attention, the conditioning was good and the service friendly.

“We believe in making our course second to none in the (Florida) public market,’’ said Filson. “We give prices that are significantly better than fair and we treat everybody exactly the same. The condition is always extremely good and we’re real friendly people.’’

Filson reported Royal St. Cloud had 77,000 paid rounds in 2015 and that impressive number was up by a full 11,500 from the previous year. Membership plans are available, but Royal St. Cloud is a stand alone golf facility. Unlike many of Florida’s better courses, it’s not part of a housing complex.

“This course was built by a golfer for golfers,’’ said Filson, who is turned off by reports of his sport’s struggles in recent years.

“There are 28 million people still playing our game,’’ he said.

Chances are there wouldn’t be many negative industry reports if there were more Royal St. Cloud Golf Links out there.

“We’re a success story in the golf business,’’ said Filson. “Every year we get better. We’re growing the game.’’

HAINES CITY, Florida – Though I’ve belong to a Chicago area private club for about 30 years I still consider myself more of an avid public course player. Wherever I go, I’d rather play a wide variety of courses rather than a select few.

When away from Chicago the ideal combination is in an area where the courses are well-designed, the greens fees are affordable and the tee times plentiful. That’s certainly the case in this town about 30 miles south of Orlando. There’s a catch, though, when you visit Grenelefe Golf and Tennis Resort here.

The golf may be a good deal, but you can’t make a visit here without wondering what the place was like in its heyday in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Grenelefe was once one of the premier destinations in Florida, if not the entire United States – and not just for golfers. Tennis was big, too. Present-day greats Venus and Serena Williams trained on the Grenelefe courts in their early years.

For golfers Grenelefe had three 18-hole courses and another, independently owned Diamondback, was across the street. All four had quality designers. The architect for the East Course at Grenelefe was Arnold Palmer/Ed Seay Design. For the South Course it was a joint effort by Andy Bean, a former Western Open champion, and prolific Florida architect Ron Garl.

The architect for the West Course, said to be the best of the trio and a former Top 100 Course in the Golf Digest rankings, is somewhat of a mystery. It was apparently Robert Trent Jones Sr., though Grenelefe doesn’t list an architect for that one and its not listed in the late Jones’ course portfolio, either. All three Grenelefe course opened in the late 1970s.

As for Diamondback, it was a creation of Joe Lee – the same architect who designed the Dubsdread course at Chicago’s Cog Hill.

Now those four courses are down to two. Grenelefe’s West Course, which was the site for the PGA Tour Qualifying School Finals four times, faded away in the late 1990s, a victim of changing economic times. It wasn’t in use when present owner Westgate Resorts of Orlando took over Grenelefe in 2002 after its Japanese owners had filed for bankruptcy. The purchase price was $12.75 million.

Diamondback, which had a course that measured 6,684 yards from the back tees, was in operation for 19 years before closing on May 27, 2014. The property is overgrown now and up for sale. It’s not a pretty site, and its future is very much in doubt.

Much to Westgate’s credit, the South and East courses at Grenelefe are in operation and said to be improving after some down times. We played both. The greens on both were just fine, but the overall conditioning was much better on the East than it was on the South.

What was good, from a traveling golfer’s perspective, was the fees – in the $30 range, cart included. We never found courses of this quality in that price range in our previous five winters in Florida. Also appealing is the fact that Grenelefe is away from the busier courses in the immediate Orlando area. You can actually play a casual round here in the heart of the winter tourist season.

Our rounds came in 80-degree weather on weekdays at the brink of Florida’s tourist season. We played basically alone on the South Course. We finished our round at 5 p.m. and ours was the only cart in the parking lot. On the East we teed off behind a threesome of regulars and ahead of a foursome. The threesome was out of sight after the front nine and we never saw the foursome. In essence, we felt like we were playing alone again.

Grenelefe has plenty other amenities on its 1,273 acres – a big clubhouse, a conference center, a fitness facility, marina, tennis courts, a spacious practice range and an inviting pool area. The homes and lodging around the course created a pleasant atmosphere, as well. Given all that, this is a place that merits consideration as a place worth re-discovering.

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Florida – Its name may not suggest that of a full-fledged golf destination, and neither does the town in which it’s located, either.

Make no mistake, though. Mission Inn Resort & Club, located in central Florida 35 miles southwest of Orlando, is all you could want in a golf resort. It has two well-decorated 18-hole courses and the Gary Gilchrist Teaching Academy plus a lot more.

The 1,100-acre resort has 176 guest rooms and suites, four restaurants, two lounges and a poolside cabana bar, a 54-slip marina, eight tennis courts, a fitness center and a spa. You name it, and Mission Inn probably has it. The golf, though, is special because the courses come from two very different eras.

El Campeon, built in 1917, is believed to be the fifth-oldest course in Florida and was named the state’s Course of the Year in 2009 by the National Golf Course Owners Association. Based on our visits around the state over the last five years it’s also the premier course of the 52 listed on the Florida Historic Golf Trail, a list that all traveling golfers would be wise to check out. Don’t let its age fool you, El Campeon is still very much relevant for any level of golfer.

The other course at Mission Inn, Las Colinas, is in its 23rd season and – like El Campeon — has been consistently listed among Florida’s Top 25 in the various polls. That’s saying something, since Florida is rich in golf courses with well over 1,000 in operation.

A nominee for Best New Resort Course by Golf Digest magazine in its early years, Las Colinas was designed by Gary Koch, a veteran PGA Tour player, in 1992 and renovated by the respected Ron Garl in 2007. The Beucher family, which has operated Mission Inn for over 50 years, is particularly proud of the many collegiate events that have been played there.

This whole town of Howie-in-the-Hills is steeped in history, starting in 1916 when Illinois resident William Howey purchased 60,000 acres with the intent of creating the largest horticultural empire in the world. A year after the purchase the 75-room Hotel Floridian was built on the southern border of the Howey plantation and George O’Neil, a Chicago golf course architect, was hired to build the first golf course.

Golf course architecture was a budding profession in those days. O’Neil’s creation was first known as Howey Golf Club, then Chain O’Lakes, Bougainvillea and Floridian before becoming El Campeon (Spanish for The Champion). A Scottish architect, Charles Clarke, updated it after 10 years of use but O’Neil remains the architect of record. More on the course design updates over the years later.

While background information on O’Neil’s career is sketchy, he has been connected to some top level courses. O’Neil is also listed as the designer of Green Acres, a private club in the Chicago area, and South Bend Country Club, in Indiana. He also did some work at Pasadena Golf Club in California and one of the courses at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. O’Neil also spent some time as a golf professional, having worked in that capacity at Beverly Country Club – a premier private club in Chicago.

Fast forward to 1936, when another Illinoisan –Nick Beucher from the Chicago suburb of Wilmette – began his sales career with the Morton Salt Company. Beucher was a successful salesman with a strong spirit for adventure. In 1939 Beucher – then just 22 years old — and a friend, Tex Bunteen, spent 39 days riding 1,400 miles on horseback from Del Rio, Texas, to Mexico City to fulfill a life-long dream.

Eventually Beucher married and started a family that would include six children. One, son Bob, joined him when his spirit of adventure took him from the Chicago suburbs to Howey-in-the-Hills. Nick Beucher decided to buy Hotel Floridian in 1964 and revive its badly neglected golf course.

In 1969 the decision was made to create a Spanish colonial resort, and Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort was born. The name was slightly altered over the years as Beucher brought in an array of other family members to operate the resort. Nick Beucher passed away in 2005 at age 88. Bob Beucher served as president of Mission Inn and, though now retired, maintains that title. His brother Bud handles the day-to-day operation now.

All of Nick Beucher’s six children have worked in some capacity at Mission Inn. Of those six siblings, three of four brothers-in-law and one of two sisters-in-law are also involved in the operation, as are 16 of Beucher’s grandchildren.

El Campeon (which means The Champion) doesn’t look like a typical Florida course. With 85 feet of elevation changes it offers a most memorable golfing adventure thanks in large part to major design tweaking over the years supervised by Bob Beucher. Some of the original holes were eliminated, others created. Its hardly the course that O’Neil created, but then again few courses built that long ago have survived with their original design.

Now El Campeon has an island green, at the par-4 16th, and the signature hole is No. 17 – a tricky par-5 with a tree in the center of the fairway and a pond fronting the green. Measuring 556 yards from the back tees, it’s the longest hole on the course and been dubbed Devil’s Delight. There are better holes on this layout, though.

The elevation changes and the strategic use of water – it comes into play on 14 holes – makes for a day of interesting challenges. While O’Neil is listed as the architect of record, the revisions made since the Beucher family took over the operation make El Campeon the special course that it is today.

If a serious golfer can play only one course at Mission Inn, it should be El Campeon. Las Colinas (Spanish for “The Hills’’) is a more typical Florida resort layout. It has wide fairways and isn’t quite the challenge that El Campeon can be. Cited by Golf for Women for its Top Fairways award, Las Colinas is player-friendly but still interesting throughout. Its signature hole is No. 12 – a very tight tree-lined par-5 that has been dubbed Alligator Alley.

Every effort should be made to play both courses when you visit Mission Inn, however. The courses are similar in that both are par-72 layouts with one par-5 on front nine and three on the back. Two of long holes on Las Colinas are back-to-back (Nos. 12 and 13). The last par-3, No. 16, was my favorite hole. This tight driving hole is no breather and is a great fit for its place in the rotation.

With two quality courses, Mission Inn has certainly withstood the tests of time. The Beuchers marked the family’s 50th anniversary as owners in 2014 and El Campeon will mark its centennial in 2017.