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Rio Pinar Country Club

Club information
Location in the United StatesShow map of the United StatesLocation in FloridaShow map of Florida
Coordinates	28°31′30″N 81°15′54″W / 28.525°N 81.265°W / 28.525; -81.265
Location	Rio Pinar, Florida, U.S.
Established	1957, 67 years ago
Type	Semi/private
Total holes	18
Events hosted	Florida Citrus Open Lady Citrus Open
Designed by	Mark Mahannah (1957) Lloyd Clifton (1995)
Par	72
Length	7,001 yards (6,402 m)
Course rating	73.9
Slope rating	130

The Rio Pinar Country Club is a semi-private golf club located in Rio Pinar, Florida, a suburban subdivision of Orlando.

The golf course at Rio Pinar was initially designed by Mark Mahannah in 1957, and featured medium-sized greens, strategically placed bunkers and narrow fairways framed by pine and oak trees. Lloyd Clifton was hired by the club in 1995 to give a refresh to Mahannah's then forty-year old design. Clifton put a focus on enlarging the greens and reshaping bunkers while staying true to the original vision for the course.

Florida Citrus Open

Established in 1957, the golf course was the original site of the Florida Citrus Open (now Arnold Palmer Invitational) on the PGA Tour from 1966 through 1978. with the initial purse being $110,000, with a $21,000 cut for the winner. The winner's share increased to $40,000 by 1975.

In the 13-year span that Rio Pinar hosted the Open, the tournament was a popular stop on the PGA Tour, with winners of the event including Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin, Julius Boros, and Arnold Palmer, all of which are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Palmer's win in the 1971 Citrus Open was his first of four wins during the 1971 PGA Tour, which would be his final tournament wins as a solo player. After purchasing the nearby Bay Hill Club and Lodge in 1974, Palmer lobbied PGA officials to move their Orlando tournament to his course, which they did in 1979.

After the departure of the PGA, Rio Pinar was the site of the LPGA Tour's Lady Citrus Open from 1979 to 1982 until the tournament moved to the Cypress Creek Country Club in 1983. The event was dropped from the LPGA schedule altogether after the 1984 tour season. Plaques commemorating winners of both tournaments and other course record-holders sit just outside the club's pro-shop.

Scorecard

Tour winners

PGA Tour

Year	Player	Country	Score	To par	Winner's share ($)	Purse ($)
Florida Citrus Open
1978	Mac McLendon	United States	271	−17	40,000	200,000
1977	Gary Koch	United States	274	−14	40,000	200,000
1976	Hale Irwin	United States	270	−18	40,000	200,000
1975	Lee Trevino	United States	276	−12	40,000	200,000
1974	Jerry Heard (2)	United States	273	−15	30,000	150,000
1973	Buddy Allin	United States	265	−23	30,000	150,000
1972	Jerry Heard	United States	276	−12	30,000	150,000
Florida Citrus Invitational
1971	Arnold Palmer	United States	270	−18	30,000	150,000
1970	Bob Lunn	United States	271	−17	30,000	150,000
Florida Citrus Open Invitational
1969	Ken Still	United States	278	−10	23,000	115,000
1968	Dan Sikes	United States	274	−14	23,000	115,000
1967	Julius Boros	United States	274	−10	23,000	115,000
1966	Lionel Hebert	United States	279	−5	21,000	110,000

Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
Sources:

LPGA Tour

Year	Player	Country	Score	To par	Winner's share ($)	Purse ($)
Orlando Lady Classic
1982	Patty Sheehan	United States	209	−7	22,500	150,000
Florida Lady Citrus
1981	Beth Daniel	United States	281	−7	15,000	100,000
1980	Donna White	United States	283	−9	15,000	100,000
1979	Jane Blalock	United States	286	−6	15,000	100,000

References

1. "Course Rating and Slope Database™: Rio Pinar CC". USGA. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
2. "Rio Pinar Country Club: A fixture on the Orlando golf scene for more than five decades". OrlandoGolf.com. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
3. "Dickinson takes lead in golf". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. March 19, 1966. p. 12.
4. Lenoir, Bob (March 6, 1978). "McLendon dream pays off - $40,000". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1C.
5. By (1996-07-14). "TWO GOLF COURSE COMMUNITIES BUILT ON COW PASTURES HAVE RICH HISTORIES". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
6. Revell, Jay (2018-05-24). "A Small Slice of Paradise". Medium. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
7. "Rio Pinar Country Club - Detailed Scorecard | Course Database".
8. Arnold Palmer Invitational - Winners - at www.pgatour.com
9. Arnold Palmer Invitational - Winners Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine - at www.golfobserver.com

External links

• Official website

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