Walt Disney World Resort’s Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course will host the GCSAA National Golf Championship Feb. 1-2, 2026. Director of Agronomy Rich Hagen, left, and superintendent Chris Pierce oversee the Florida facility. Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World Resort
Rich Hagen may know the GCSAA National Golf Championships site more than anybody who is headed that way to check out his workplace.
“I came here as a kid. We started coming here in the 1990s,” says Hagen, who grew up in the Clearwater and Tampa communities in Florida. “One year, I saw Payne Stewart (the late golf major champion) out there. Tiger Woods, too. You had to go three holes ahead to see him because there were so many people. It was crazy.”
Little did he know at that time one day he would oversee that facility where a young Tiger Woods competed and won — the same spot in which somebody from GCSAA hopes to triumph.
The 2026 GCSAA National Golf Championships presented by Toro will be conducted Feb. 1-2 on the grounds of the Walt Disney World Resort, at Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. That’s where Hagen, a six-year GCSAA member, is director of agronomy.
Seventy-two players will compete for the title.
There’s more on the way in that area starting Jan. 31. Four-Ball is scheduled that day. Disney’s Magnolia GC along with two other courses will stage Four-Ball; Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate has the National and International courses.
On Feb. 1, Reunion Resort & Golf Club of Orlando in Kissimmee and the Arnold Palmer Company-designed Disney’s Palm Golf Course (Hunter McGaugh is superintendent at the course that features shimmering lakes, tropical sands, sloping greens, nine holes with water and, of course, palm trees) will host the Scramble. On Feb. 1-2, both courses at Omni Orlando ChampionsGate will welcome the GCSAA Golf Classic.
Disney’s Palm Course No. 2 is part of the Scramble event in the GCSAA Golf Championships.
Making their own type of history
Whoever prevails at Disney’s Magnolia GC will join some rather stellar company.
To say that Magnolia GC is historical might be an understatement. From 1971 to 2012, it hosted the PGA Tour’s Walt Disney World Golf Classic. Overseen by Arnold Palmer Golf Management, Disney’s Magnolia GC is a par 72, more than 7,500 yards from the tips and has TifEagle bermudagrass greens. Jack Nicklaus won the first three titles there. From 1974 to 1981, it was a team championship until reverting to its old format in 1982 through its duration.
During that span, Hagen got that glimpse of Woods, who, as a young phenom, notched his second PGA Tour title in 1996 at age 20. Woods won it again in 1999. Named for its majestic magnolia trees, this course features elevated tees, spacious greens and challenging water hazards. Wide fairways invite golfers to hit the ball and hit it long, but beware — 11 of the 18 holes boast water hazards, and dozens of sand bunkers dot the landscape. Massive waste bunkers aren’t uncommon. Neither are undulating greens. The course was extensively reimagined in 2023. Changes included teeing grounds and redesigned greenside and fairway bunkers, as well as newly recontoured bermudagrass greens. Oh, the magnolias are in abundance.
To celebrate Disney’s Magnolia GC’s 50th anniversary in 2021, each hole was named after a classic Disney storyline and paired with an inspirational quote spoken by Arnold Palmer or Walt Disney themselves, on opposing holes. In keeping with the Disney theme — not including the No. 6 hazard with the Mickey Mouse-inspired shape, otherwise known as “The Mouse Trap” — the most significant focus of the extensive reimagination was the introduction of “Grumpy’s Gauntlet.” The demanding stretch of holes 14 through 17 will bring shot selection and strategy challenges to golfers of all skill levels.
Disney’s Magnolia GC includes the Mickey Mouse-inspired No. 6.
Course designer Ken Baker created a unique experience from one hole to the next at each of those four holes at “Grumpy’s Gauntlet.” The 14th, “The Backside of Water,” has a green that slopes away from the center on each of its sides, leading to difficult approach shots. The par-5 15th, “The Dinglehopper,” is 560 yards (which once upon a time was a par-3), and No. 16, “An Element of Fun,” is a 454-yard par-4. It has two bodies of water along the left side, resulting in a true test. Hole No. 17 is a par-3 that also has water on both sides and a green that severely slopes in various directions. Enough to make you grumpy? We’ll see.
Also, a new 18-hole putting green was created. Rather than a largely flat surface area for the practice green, the 18-hole putting course has been graded to give the area new contours and elevation changes to provide a more realistic and challenging putting experience. The lush bermudagrass surface will require the right combination of skill and luck. The putting green pays homage to Disney’s “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” a movie that focuses on Francis Ouimet’s historical U.S. Open victory in 1913. The former caddie and amateur golfer took the title at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
As for all the course changes and additions, Hagen says, “The renovations turned out awesome.”
The GCSAA Class A superintendent on Disney’s Magnolia GC is nine-year association member Chris Pierce.
Ron Baker, director of agronomy keeps busy at Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate with the National and International Golf Courses. Photo courtesy of Ron Baker.
Variety is the name of the game at Omni
The names of the two golf courses at Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate, National and International, seem perfect if you ask Director of Agronomy Ron Baker.
“Two very different courses. The National is an American-style parkland. The International is links style,” says Baker, a 21-year GCSAA member. “It (International) has 131 bunkers (compared to the National, which has 76). The International is great to look at but tough to play.”
The National and International Golf Courses at Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate. Photo courtesy of Omni Orlando
An Ohio native, Baker arrived last year from Desert Mountain’s Renegade in Scottsdale, Ariz. Both of his courses at Omni have Champion bermudagrass greens and GN1 bermudagrass fairways (the International has some paspalum in them). The International had a complete restoration of its greens, and greenside bunker complexes were changed to their original size at the 7,300-plus yards layout.
The National, meanwhile, showcases woodlands, wetlands and scenic water hazards at the 7,100-yard-plus course. The course has 80 sculpted bunkers and includes some holes that result in shots on smaller greens, all of it creating a shotmaker’s challenge.
Baker — whose first job was at Muirfield Village Golf Club — looks forward to GCSAA members tackling the courses. “When you’re going to be in front of your peers, it’s a bit different,” Baker says, “and they’re all going to be looking at your work. It’s meaningful. And it’s fun.”
Andy Maguire is director of agronomy at Reunion Resort & Golf Club. Photos courtesy of Reunion Resort & GC
This is Palmer country
The King — better known as Arnold Palmer — designed Reunion Resort & GC’s Palmer Course that opened in 2004. Nowadays, Andy Maguire takes care of it.
The 22-year GCSAA member is GCSAA Class A director of agronomy at the nearly 7,000-yard course, where the 18th hole, a 420-yard par-4, calls for an uphill finale on an expansive and two-tiered green. Elevation changes that are as much as 50 feet throughout the layout add spice to the test, as do back-to-back par 5s at holes 9 and 10.
Maguire is flanked by a crew that includes Palmer Course superintendent Jim “Jimbo” Harris. They know one another well; Maguire and Harris first worked together 30 years ago, in 1995, at Falcon’s Fire Golf Club in Kissimmee. The staff is kept busy, through outings by Delta and Under Armour, among others. When the GCSAA rolls into Reunion Resort & GC, the maintenance team will be on guard. “The team’s up for the task. We’ll get it done,” Maguire says.
The No. 7 hole at Reunion Resort & GC.
Hagen’s world
Besides keeping an eye on the GCSAA National Championship, Hagen hopes to partake in other Conference and Trade Show options.
“I’m going to try to do some classes, maybe for soils,” says Hagen. For good reasons, he adds. “When it rains, it gets really wet here.”
Hagen and the team will do their best not to let anything dampen their spirits with the GCSAA in their house. “Obviously, we’re happy to have the championship here. We’ll try to get it in the best shape possible,” Hagen says. “We’re a resort course. We’ll do what we always do. That’s keeping it in the best shape possible year-round. Going to work here is special.”
The GCSAA National Golf Championships will be No. 76 for the association and the 32nd presented by Toro.
Could a Florida-based superintendent win it in 2026? A superintendent from Florida has captured the title in five of the last six GCSAA National Golf Championships. GCSAA 24-year member Seth Strickland, GCSAA Class A director of agronomy at Miami Beach Golf Club, has won six GCSAA National Championships, three coming in recent years (2021, 2022 and 2024). Strickland was runner-up by one stroke in 2025 to Mike Gianopoulos, CGCS, from Kent Country Club in Grand Rapids, Mich.
As for the last time the GCSAA National Championships were in Florida, that happened in 2023. Dylan Foster, six-year GCSAA member and superintendent at Heron Creek Golf & Country Club in North Port, Fla., won by five shots at ChampionsGate GC.
Howard Richman (hrichman@gcsaa.org) is GCM’s associate editor.