Hey, gang!
Jim Hill here. Our Mr. Pontius is far too modest to toot his own horn. Which is why I’m here today to do it for him.
Earlier this month, Larry’s book — “Waking Walt ” — was singled out for recognition by the Florida Writers Association. Cited as being the best speculative fiction book of the year, “Waking Walt” was then awarded the 2003 Royal Palm Award.
This is a really big deal, folks. Which is why — on behalf of the rest of the staff here at JimHillMedia.com — I’d like to offer our heartiest congratulations to Mr. Pontius. Way to go, Larry!
So now — with any further ado — here’s that award-winning author, Larry Pontius …
I guess everyone who’s interested in golf has heard that Vijay Singh won the Funai Classic this October. For those of you who don’t know a Vijay from a blue jay or a tee from a tea, the Funai Classic is the PGA golf tournament that’s held each year at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Well, that’s not exactly right, either.
This was actually the first Funai Classic. You see, Funai (a Japanese company that sells electronics under the Symphonic, Sylvania and Emerson brand names) is the new sponsor of this annual event that goes all the back to the opening of Walt Disney World in October of 1971.
Over the years, the tournament has had other sponsors — National Car Rental and Oldsmobile — and different formats. For a while it was called the Walt Disney World Team Championship and the golf pros played in two-man teams. The venue has also changed. Originally, it was played on the Palm and Magnolia courses at the Golf Resort. Then in 1986, it was switched to the Palm and Magnolia courses at the Disney Inn. Since 1994, the event has been played on the Palm and Magnolia courses at Shades of Green which is owned by the U.S. Army.
And with that brief history and rather strained attempt at humor, we get to the real subject of this column: what happened to the Golf Resort? Why did it morph into the Disney Inn and then end up being sold? Every year when the Classic comes around in October I scratch my head over that question. Before I scratch myself bald I’m going to lay out my take on it.
I think the Golf Resort was a conundrum (a paradoxical, insoluble, or difficult problem; a dilemma) from the beginning.
As far as I know, it wasn’t part of the original plan for Florida. The Palm and Magnolia golf courses were completed in 1971, but the Golf Resort didn’t open until 1973, two years after the grand opening of Walt Disney World. When I arrived as director of marketing in 1974, I heard the story that the golf courses and the Golf Resort were afterthoughts — plugged into the plan at the last minute by the “golfers” in California.
I have no idea whether the story is true or not, but I do know that there were several avid golfers among the top executives of the company at that time and they had to foresee spending a lot of time in Florida. With all that undeveloped land, it’s easy to see why they might have warmed to the idea of a golf facility on the property — especially one that was up to PGA standards.
Another detail might be construed to fit that theory: the Golf Resort opened with only 125 rooms and all of them felt like suites, with at least 450 sq. feet of space. Not exactly what you think of as “tourist” accommodations.
However, the clearest evidence that it was a last minute idea, and one of the clearest problems the Golf Resort would have, was the location. Take a look at any early Walt Disney World plan (there were a lot of them) and you’ll see that some things remain constant. There is a Ticket and Transportation Center across a lagoon from the Magic Kingdom. And there is a looping monorail connecting these two and any numbers of resorts on the shores of the lagoon.
The Golf Resort was literally out of the loop; almost a quarter of mile away from the nearest monorail stop at the Polynesian, down at the end of a two lane road that went nowhere.
Walt Disney World has changed dramatically since that time, with resorts spread all over the property today, and while the location may not seem a big deal now, believe me it was a major stumbling block in those days. It put the Golf Resort in the same boat as the Lake Buena Vista hotels, with most travel agents and tourists considering it not really a “Disney” resort. That was part of the reason that occupancy at the Golf Resort hovered from 60% to 75% while the Contemporary and Polynesian were essentially completely booked 365 days a year. In fact, as I recall, the Golf Resort was used as an overflow for the other two resorts. Otherwise, the numbers might not have been that good.
Of course, that also meant that there was always a room for the “golfers” from California. But I wax cynical here. I don’t for one minute think that Disney top management added the Golf Resort to the plan merely for their benefit. I’m sure they thought it would be an advantage to Walt Disney World, too. A magnet for serious golfers and for the millions of weekend duffers that would be bringing their families to visit Disney’s new theme park in Florida.
I mentioned earlier that I came aboard as the new marketing director in 1974. And, as you might expect, the Golf Resort “problem” was one of many high priorities that I found waiting on my desk. But I must admit that I broke my pick on this one. Despite an advertising campaign in several golf publications, the enormous publicity from the annual PGA tournaments, special mailings to travel agents, and a broad effort to include it in all of our marketing programs, the Golf Resort remained the weak sister of the Disney hotels on site — including the campground at Fort Wilderness.
So, what was going here? You’ve got a beautiful resort with two of the finest golf courses in the country located at the most popular tourist destination on earth — and nobody wants to stay there? Call me a “duh!” but I think that’s exactly right. Nobody wanted to stay there. The serious golfers that were supposed to be drawn to the Golf Resort had too many other quieter places to play in Florida, without tourists crawling all over the place (not that there’s anything wrong with tourists). Not to mention the Mickey Mouse stigma that many “serious” people abhor. And pity the weekend golfer who brings his family to Walt Disney World and puts them up in an out of the loop hotel so he can play a few rounds of golf. No, it simply didn’t have a market. And, frankly, I couldn’t figure out how to solve the problem.
Then, near the end of my tenure at Disney in 1980, I suddenly thought I had a possible solution. There was talk circulating that the company might build a third course at the Golf Resort. It would have to be different, I thought. Not just another 18 holes. Maybe it could be the answer; something that would attract every kind of golfer, a fantasy come true like the Magic Kingdom, but for golfers.
And that quickly the idea popped into my mind. I knew that the Imagineers at WED could design and build almost anything. So, what if we got together a committee of great golfers and had them select the greatest 18 holes of golf in the world. The greatest first hole (from Ireland perhaps). The greatest second hole (maybe from South Africa), and so on. Whenever possible we’d use the original designers of the holes as advisors to make sure we got things right. And we’d call it The Fantasy.
I still believe that any golfer who is still breathing in an out would have an itch to tee off on that course. It wouldn’t matter what your score was, but that you played “the game.” However, the powers that be pooh-poohed the idea and it was never really considered.
Instead, to appeal to more than golfers (as the releases noted), the Golf Resort became the Disney Inn in February of 1986 and was remodeled with a Snow White theme, and the addition of 150 rooms.
Since I’ve been an outsider, I have no idea of the thinking behind the other developments at the Golf Resort — aka Disney Inn — but I can report that a new golf course was added in 1992. The Oak Trail, a walk-only 9-hole course, is described as “for novices and better golfers who want to stretch their legs.”
I assume that these changes and additions didn’t work because in 1994 the Disney Company agreed to lease the Disney Inn to the U.S. Army for three years. And Disney management must have been flabbergasted when the resort almost immediately produced an occupancy rate of 95 per cent. Two years later the Army purchased it for $43 million and re-named it Shades of Green.
Part of this amazing turn-around is undoubtedly due to prices. In the early 1990s Disney was offering stays at its Snow White themed Disney Inn with room rates ranging from $195 to $500. The 2003 rates at Shades of Green range from $95 to $105, with suites that sleep 8 people available for $225 per night. The fact that Shades of Green is one of the few vacation facilities specifically for military personnel is also key. But the big reason may be a lot simpler than that. Shades of Green give thousands of military kids and their families the opportunity to live their fantasy of visiting Walt Disney World. And most of them don’t give a *** about golfing.
I watch golf sometimes now, but I’m not really into it. Still. I have a couple of great memories of the Golf Resort. One is from the Disney Team Championship tournament in 1976 won by Woody Blackburn and Bill Kratzer (I didn’t remember those names, I had to look them up) Long after it was all over, the awards given out, the champagne glasses clinked, and airline connections caught, I was walking through the Trophy Room restaurant. To my surprise, I saw Card Walker, the president of the Disney Company, sitting at a table all by himself. I thought at first — Nah! But then, why not? So I walked over and asked Card if everything was all right. He invited me to have a drink. And before the night was over I had agreed to move to corporate headquarter in Burbank with new expanded responsibilities.
My best memory, however, is from the Disney PGA tournament in 1999. The story begins with the fact that my 85 year-old mother has for some years been a golf fanatic. She can tell you the scores of most of the players, but her favorite is Tiger Woods. So, when the 1999 Classic approached I thought — what a great idea! Unfortunately, I had been an outsider by then for almost 20 years, with no access to any goodies. However, by hook and wife — who works for Universal — I was able to purloin two tickets.
And so, on the first day of the tournament, after parking frustrations and a long, tiring walk, we found ourselves in the crowd on one of the spectator mounds surrounding the 9th hole of Magnolia course close the club house. I couldn’t see what was happening, but when my mother said, “Someone’s coming!” I told her, “Pretend you’re an old lady — push to the front.”
And she did. And it was Tiger Woods, the winner of that year’s Classic.
Special thanks to Walt Dated World for providing additional research materials for this article.