Arnold Palmer Golf to Operate WDW Golf Courses

Disney is getting out of the golf business and handing over operations of the golf courses at the Walt Disney World Resort to Arnold Palmer Golf. The change is effective September 25, 2011, with the current Cast Members staffing the courses being offered positions elsewhere on property.

As part of the deal the Palm course will be redesigned by the company as a signature Arnold Palmer course in the future. Otherwise operations at the on-property courses should remain mostly the same, with the exception of Osprey Ridge which Arnold Palmer will operate until the Four Seasons resort opens and assumes ownership (tentatively 2014). You can read the full press release at Disney’s news media website.

It’s worth noting that the “Master Starter” position (people who scheduled tee times) for all of the golf courses at Walt Disney World has been, until this point, handled by the Disney Reservations Center (407-W-Disney). The task of scheduling tee times was covered by a subgroup of phone agents Disney called Itinerary Planners who also answered calls for dining reservations, fireworks cruise bookings, and special events. Because this group was fairly specialized and could not book hotel reservations and no other group at Reservations could book golf tee times, we used to suggest that guests “call golf” (407-WDW-GOLF) if you needed to speak to someone on the dining reservations team quickly. In Disney’s call routing system the 407-WDW-GOLF line was prioritized to be answered first ahead of other calls. Whether this advice will remain valid in the future is unknown.