Perhaps the most treasured birthday present Arnold Palmer received when he turned 80 last fall was the renaissance of his prized layout, the Championship Course at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge

The King recently oversaw a major renovation of Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida, a club he has owned for four decades and where he has hosted a PGA TOUR event since 1979. Once again, many of the game’s best players, including world No. 2 Steve Stricker and British Open champion Stewart Cink, will take on his remodeled creation when the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard returns for its 32nd edition from March 22-28.

“We’re all very excited for this year’s tournament and to have the players come here and play the golf course and see what we’ve done,” Palmer said. “We’ve had numerous players come in here already and play the golf course, and the reaction we’ve gotten is very good. We think it’s going to be an exciting week of golf.”

Even though Palmer believes the ball-striking examination has not altered appreciably at Bay Hill, the course has been strengthened throughout, starting with new tees and greens. Bunkers have been repositioned throughout and the length of the layout has been stretched to 7,381 yards. The most noticeable change is with the bunkers, many of which have been repositioned and made more visible, while some greenside bunkers have been tucked closer to the putting surfaces. Finally, many greens feature runoff areas where rough or bunkers were once in play.

“We haven’t changed the bottom line on what the golf course is, what the shot values are, but a lot of holes we’ve actually strengthened in that regard,” Palmer says. “We’ve created some tougher pin positions, too. We looked at ways to make improvements and make it more challenging. It’s just all-around a better golf course and one that should provide a strong, fair test.”

One more adjustment that Palmer made was restoring tournament par to 72 after a three-year trial playing the Championship Course at par-70. The par-five 4th and 16th holes were converted to par-4s strictly for the tournament, but Palmer decided that he’d rather see the contestants take more risks, perhaps in the manner that he used to do in his prime. “We’ve decided it’s more fun to see the guys go out and try to make birdies and eagles than to see them maybe settling for pars or putting up other scores.”

One of the premier stops on the PGA TOUR, the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard boasts an impressive array of winners, including six-time winner Tiger Woods and other recent winners such as Chad Campbell, Ernie Els, Paul Goydos, Phil Mickelson, Kenny Perry and Vijay Singh.

Palmer says that he has enjoyed watching the early portion of the current golf season unfold and seeing a mixture of young and established players excel on the West Coast. He believes the game remains on a solid foundation. “I think the TOUR is holding its own; it’s doing well,” he says. “I’ve talked to [PGA TOUR commissioner] Tim Finchem, and it’s encouraging what’s happening out there. The consistency is good, and I think we’re going to see more young players do well.”

Apart from golf, several other causes are near and dear to him. “I’m very involved in the Arnold Palmer Medical Center here, and we’re very happy with what’s happening there. I’m also quite involved in cancer research, and we’re doing a lot of work along those lines. That is very, very important to me,” Palmer says.

“We’re also working with Mayo Clinic and MD Anderson, various medical centers … and all of that is keeping me busy, and I like that. I like doing all of that.

“Golf, well, it’s not the big thing on my list anymore. It’s in my rearview mirror for the most part as far as me playing a great deal. But I’ll always have golf in me. I can’t bring it out like I used to, but it’s always in there. It’s always a part of the things that I do and enjoy.

Stricker, who has recently signed with Peerless Golf, a club company that Palmer owned, said: “I’ll never forget that experience, meeting Arnold for the first time, just how nice he was and how helpful he wanted to be. I’ve always appreciated the things that Arnold said to me, the advice he gave, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to know him so early in my career.”

The winner earlier this year at the Northern Trust Open, his eighth TOUR title and the fourth of his last 15 starts, Stricker is looking forward to getting reacquainted with the King later this month. He finished fourth at Bay Hill in 1995 and tied for sixth three years later, but in 11 starts there overall he has missed the cut five times.

Undaunted, the 43-year-old from Wisconsin insists: “I like Bay Hill, but for some reason I haven’t always felt comfortable there with my game. I heard there’s been a lot of changes in the last year. Who knows? That could make a difference.”