The Hollywood of the Southeast? You might get that feeling if you’re pondering golf community living in the Orlando area. The landlocked but lake-heavy community that sprang from endless orange groves when Walt Disney World opened in 1971, Orlando’s reputation as a home for golfers has exploded right along with the growth of the Disney empire. In fact, like Disney’s other American home in Southern California with its exclusive Brentwood, Bel Air and Malibu enclaves, Orlando’s private golf communities are better known than any of the area’s 125 courses. Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill development has hosted a PGA TOUR event since 1979 and the Tavistock Cup, which matches residents of the Isleworth and Lake Nona communities, annually brings together more star-power than the Ryder Cup.

The area known to the rest of the world for its theme parks, entertainment attractions and convention business is “golf central” for more than just being home to Tiger, Ernie, Sergio, Annika and Faldo. Many of the more than 50 members of the various tours have made Orlando their homes because those homes may cost only one-third of some of the more higher-end digs near the west coast Hollywood, the exceptional weather, one of the world’s best airports, and no personal income taxes. One of Orlando’s negatives can also be a positive, depending on how you look at it. The area’s incredible growth (1.2-million residents in 1990 is now nearly 1.9-million on the way to a projected 2.1 million by 2009) has also spurred homes to appreciate by nearly 30 percent in the past year. Orlando’s size and influx of well-healed visitors from the north have also meant great support for an orchestra, opera, ballet and other cultural endeavors that are the envy of much larger, more established cities.