By Len Ziehm
For over 40 years, Saddlebrook Resort has been a golfing haven, with two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses.
There’s more to the Saddlebrook story than just great golf, however.
Owner Tom Dempsey, who made his mark in the publishing industry in Cleveland, was a member at Palmer’s Bay Hill Club in Orlando, when he gained ownership of Saddlebrook near Tampa. The facility only had one 18-hole course designed by Dean Refram, who had played on the PGA Tour.
Palmer was hired to remodel the original Saddlebrook Course, after Dempsey took ownership and later designed a second track, the Palmer Course. The Saddlebook Course measures 6,510 yards from the back tees and the Palmer maxes out at 6,273 from the tips, which are both considered short by today’s standards, but make them perfect for resort play. 
In Saddlebrook’s early years, the highest-profile athletes on the grounds were tennis players. Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Jennifer Capriati and Monica Seles were among big-name tennis stars, who trained there in the 1980s and 1990s. Legendary tennis coach Harry Hopman was in charge until selling to Dempsey in 1986.
Now named the Tampa Tennis Academy, it includes 45 courts, including surfaces from all four of the Grand Slam tournaments.
“We still do well with that,’’ said Pat Farrell, Saddlebrook’s director of golf sales, “but American tennis isn’t what it used to be.’’
The glory years of Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Chris Evert are long gone.
As it pertains to Saddlebrook, however, the athletes enjoying the golf courses are now hockey players. That all started in 2018 when USA Hockey chose Saddlebrook to host the U.S. women’s team when it was preparing for the Winter Olympics.
“The team stayed for seven months. They trained in the morning, then come back here and play golf in the afternoon,’’ said Farrell.
Saddlebrook provided a ‘gold-medal’ training experience, as the women’s team claimed the gold.
Due to Covid, hockey players are back at Saddlebrook. More than 600 young hockey players from 50 U.S. Premier Hockey League teams have created a bubble and filled empty rooms at the resort from January through February. They held practices and games at the nearby Tampa Bay Lightning training center.
“Of the 540 rooms in our rental pool, they take up 470,’’ said Farrell. “We’re very fortunate because a lot of other (resorts), from a room perspective, are dying on the vine.’’
Saddlebrook also includes a Preparatory Teaching Academy is on the premises. It has high-school age students from 20 countries starting at the age of 13. Classes are limited to 12 students with 30 instructors on staff.
A unique aspect in the design of the resort requires guests park their cars upon arrival and are transported via shuttles to their rooms and around the resort.
During the PGA Tour’s shutdown in March, April and May, Sungjae Im stayed at the resort and practiced daily. Golf academy students benefitted from having a PGA Tour pro on the grounds and he seemed to enjoy working with the junior golfers.
The par-70 Saddlebrook Course, has a stunning 429-yard finishing hole but its trademark is the cypress trees, some of which have grown to nearly 100 feet in height.
The par-71 Palmer Course has generous driving areas with lots of humps and bumps to add to the challenge. The greens are firm, fast and undulating with a rare par-3 as its finishing hole. Both courses are undergoing a structured improvement program that started in 2016.
There’s also a 16-acre training center for the golfers that was designed by Mike Angus, the architect for the Phil Mickelson Golf Course Design Company.
Saddlebrook makes the perfect resort to host any size event. It has a variety of meeting rooms that can accommodate large, or small corporate gatherings, weddings, or other events. The dining options are all delicious and the culinary staff can handle any event size, as well.
Saddlebrook has seen the good times and bad. It has a wide variety of amenities and dining options to satisfy any traveler looking for an upscale resort.
To learn more about Saddlebrook’s packages visit: https://www.saddlebrook.com/
