The Bear's Club is Jack Nicklaus' personal golf club in Florida. He is the course designer and he has created a masterpiece. Make no mistake, the club is ultra private. I was only able to play through a special invitation.

The club is located off Donald Ross Road in Jupiter, Florida next to the Ritz Carlton Golf Club (another Nicklaus Design). I am still puzzeled as to why it is deliniated as Jupiter, when it clearly lies in Palm Beach Gardens. Oh Well, big deal.

The course plays to 7,189 yds from the tips. The course rating is 75.6; slope 148. The member tees (3rd set) are 71.1 and 135 respectively. Getting a picture?

The course is in a residential community, but you don't see too many houses. The ones that you do see are beautiful.

Fairways are cut tight and have strategically placed bunkers to catch errant drives. Water and sand surrounds several of the greens. The greens roll fast, and have the collars shaved, so it is very possible to putt off of the green if you are on the wrong side of the slope. Greenside bunkers have coarse sand.

#18 can be played as a 414 yd par 4 or as a 551 yd par 5. You will need a huge drive to get on in two as the green is 75% surrounded by water and has protective bunkers. Ball position is everthing, and I noticed that it is wiser to play a fairway wood from some of the tees rather than a driver as it can create some very difficult angles to the green. The best advise I received was to play up one club on approaches due to the illusion created by an elevated green.

The course has a lot of natural areas and crushed gravel cart paths (no relief). The Bear's Club is not full of flowers around the tee boxes and back of the greens like some other famous courses, nor does it have the usual stone markers describing the hole number and layout. It's all about golf.

Too bad The Bear's Club does not host a PGA Tour event. It would not be very practical from a crowd control point of view, but what a venue it would be! Great job Jack.

Customer Service

Beautiful 2-story Mediteranian style club house with full restaurant and bar. Fore-caddies and bag caddies.