The Bear's Club

If you catch it on the right day, the Bear’s Club is one of the few places in the world where a visit to the range feels like being at a PGA Tour event. It’s one of the most populated clubs in the U.S. for Tour pros, something baked in by the club’s founder and golf course architect Jack Nicklaus. The club opened on December 31, 1999, and was part of an explosion of gated communities north of West Palm Beach.

There is obviously a name-brand glam factor that comes with being the namesake club of arguably the greatest golfer in history. Nicklaus is a regular, and the large clubhouse is littered with wonderful displays of the Golden Bear’s conquests. It also offers a variety of amenities, and the practice facilities are exceptional. The 18-hole course was redone in 2023 with tweaks to each hole and an extensive rebunkering project. The project converted a number of large ice-cream-scoop bunkers into a series of smaller bunkers with a more free-flowing aesthetic, which is en vogue with many modern architects. According to Links Magazine, the redistribution took the bunker count from 70-80 to nearly 340, a wild statistic.

Before I knew the actual bunker total, I felt there were far too many bunkers at the Bear’s Club. Many exist for sightlines, but most of those bunkers only come into play for the average player, and they can be absolutely debilitating given the course’s design. Speaking of the design, the Bear’s Club is a test of precision and restraint. Most holes choke at a given yardage, which leads to a lot of uncomfortable tee shots where you hit less than driver to a set point. Restraint is one of the key skills here. This design, which uses water and bunkers to create those chokepoints, makes it quite difficult for average players. Those who land in a sightline bunker have to splash out to a spot short of more bunkers or water, leaving a long approach in. For the high-level player, this type of design is fairly interesting because the chokepoints lead to long approach shots into the greens. It’s a design that widens the skill gap. Expect great players to score and average players to really struggle because of the intimidating tee shots and challenging long approaches.

The standout holes at the Bear’s Club are the par 3s, in particular Nos. 7 and 16, which are striking golf holes. The relatively featureless site allowed the Nicklaus team to go HAM in a few places, and the par 3s are the best examples. In general, the Bear’s Club is quite an enjoyable experience, but a lackluster golf course.