Palmer, Watson, Nicklaus: How to Play Reunion’s Big Three
The only place in the world with signature courses by all three legends. How to sequence them, what supports them, and the access rules to get right before you pack the clubs.
3 minute read
There is exactly one place on earth where you can play a signature course by Arnold Palmer in the morning, one by Tom Watson after lunch and one by Jack Nicklaus the next day without moving your bags: Reunion Resort & Golf Club, 2,300 gated acres in Kissimmee, six miles from Walt Disney World. Reunion’s claim — the only destination in the world with courses by all three — is the resort’s founding idea, and the golf still organizes everything else here.
The three, briefly
Palmer’s Legacy Course is the thrill ride: 6,916 yards of hilly, rolling terrain with elevation changes of up to 50 feet — a startling number in Central Florida — built around risk-reward decisions. Watson’s Independence Course is the thinker: 7,154 yards, par 72, with wide-open greens, rolling fairways and strategically placed bunkers that put a premium on the short game. Nicklaus’s Tradition Course is the examination: a parkland layout of roughly 7,200 yards with elevated tee boxes and greens and smooth, flowing horizon lines that reward precision over power. We profile Palmer’s course in depth in the Legacy Course profile, and Watson and Nicklaus together in Independence and Tradition.
How to sequence them
Play Palmer first. The Legacy’s drama wakes a group up, the elevation makes it feel least like Florida, and its risk-reward holes sort out quickly who in the foursome is feeling brave. Play Watson second, when your short game has a day of Florida greens in it — the Independence is where the trip’s closest matches tend to happen, because its bunkering punishes the sloppy rather than the short. Save Nicklaus for last: the Tradition is the most complete test, and it plays best when you are swinging freely and reading greens well. It is also the natural finale because its clubhouse, with Traditions restaurant and the GOLFZON simulator, is where a golf trip wants to end up anyway.
The support act is serious
Reunion’s golf infrastructure goes well past three scorecards. The Golfzon Leadbetter Academy — David Leadbetter’s operation — runs its world headquarters here, offering instruction with state-of-the-art technology. Club Champion, the custom club-fitting specialist, has a presence at the club. And when Florida weather closes the courses, the GOLFZON TwoVision simulator in the Nicklaus Clubhouse recreates more than 200 courses indoors — including all three of Reunion’s own — with food and drink from Traditions during its hours. Rain days at Reunion are a scheduling problem, not a lost day.
Access: the part to get right
Reunion’s courses are not a public tee sheet. The resort is explicit: guests staying at Reunion Resort & Golf Club, or through its Preferred Rental Program, are eligible to play the three signature courses. Tee times are required, are not guaranteed, and should be booked in advance — the resort takes golf reservations by phone and recommends planning ahead, especially in the October-to-April prime season. If you are renting a vacation home in Reunion through an outside channel, verify that your booking carries golf access before you pack the clubs; membership is attached to specific properties and programs, not to the Reunion address itself.
For the wider Orlando picture — including how Reunion’s trio sits alongside the region’s other heavyweight resorts — see our Best Golf Courses in Orlando rankings. And build the rest of the stay around the golf with the Reunion hub: eight restaurants inside the gates, a five-acre water park for the non-golfers, and a complimentary shuttle stitching it together. Three legends, one resort, no transfers — that is the whole pitch, and it holds up.
All three courses and the rest of the area’s highlights are plotted on our Orlando Top Spots Map.
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