Isleworth Country Club

Isleworth sits on rolling, lake-laced terrain near Windermere that Arnold Palmer spotted from the air in the early 1980s, recognizing an unusually good championship site in famously flat central Florida. Palmer acquired the land and, with longtime design partner Ed Seay, opened the course in 1986. Palmer sold the roughly 600-acre community to the Tavistock Group in 1993, and Steve Smyers reworked the layout in a 2003 renovation. The club is best known for its gated enclave of touring pros, and celebrity and athlete residents, and it consistently rates among the longest and most demanding tests measured by the Florida State Golf Association. Framed by the Butler Chain of Lakes, it pairs Palmer-Seay strategic bones with resort-grade conditioning behind a very private gate.