Great Bear Golf Club
About
Great Bear Golf Club in East Stroudsburg offers northeast Pennsylvania's only Jack Nicklaus-designed course. Formerly known as Great Bear Golf & C.C., it changed ownership in 2012 but both the quality and popularity of the course have remained constant since it first opened in 1997. The course has garnered plenty of recognition over the years including being ranked as one of he best golf courses in Pennsylvania by both GolfWeek and Golf Digest. Nicklaus utilized the natural features of the site including the lakes and streams, rolling terrain, and abundant wetlands. In addition to all of the natural hazards, he also added nearly 50 strategically placed bunkers. Great Bear is a fair test but Nicklaus incorporated playability into his design as well, giving it appeal for a wide range of skill levels.
Tee | Par | Length | Rating | Slope |
---|---|---|---|---|
Black | 71 | 7025 yards | 73.5 | 143 |
Gold | 71 | 6537 yards | 71.5 | 139 |
Blue | 71 | 6105 yards | 69.8 | 135 |
White | 71 | 5754 yards | 68.2 | 133 |
White (W) | 71 | 5754 yards | 74.0 | 137 |
Red (W) | 71 | 4949 yards | 69.1 | 129 |
Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Black M: 73.3/142 | 376 | 189 | 455 | 514 | 462 | 436 | 175 | 578 | 373 | 3558 | 460 | 222 | 405 | 199 | 451 | 523 | 191 | 441 | 575 | 3467 | 7025 |
Gold M: 71.5/139 | 339 | 183 | 426 | 495 | 413 | 395 | 157 | 548 | 337 | 3293 | 424 | 196 | 383 | 178 | 437 | 508 | 166 | 417 | 535 | 3244 | 6537 |
Blue M: 69.8/135 | 323 | 162 | 403 | 475 | 393 | 375 | 127 | 503 | 322 | 3083 | 389 | 182 | 362 | 162 | 388 | 492 | 146 | 387 | 514 | 3022 | 6105 |
White M: 68.3/132 W: 73.2/131 | 308 | 155 | 384 | 466 | 375 | 340 | 112 | 483 | 291 | 2914 | 369 | 168 | 341 | 135 | 359 | 477 | 133 | 366 | 492 | 2840 | 5754 |
Red W: 69.0/125 | 279 | 127 | 341 | 437 | 311 | 300 | 96 | 447 | 265 | 2603 | 302 | 153 | 285 | 115 | 211 | 408 | 97 | 327 | 448 | 2346 | 4949 |
Handicap | 11 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 15 | 17 | 7 | 13 | 8 | 14 | 2 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 18 | 4 | 6 | |||
Par | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 36 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 35 | 71 |
Handicap (W) | 12 | 16 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 6 | 18 | 7 | 11 | 3 | 13 | 17 | 5 | 15 | 9 | 1 |
Course Details
Rentals/Services
Practice/Instruction
Policies
Food & Beverage
Bar, Grill, RestaurantAvailable Facilities
Clubhouse, Banquet Facilities, Showers, Lockers, Locker RoomsAvailable Activities
Swimming, BilliardsAvailable Sports
TennisReviews
A Difference
Years ago, I read that Jack Nicklaus's design philosophy was based upon standing on the tee and seeing the hole layout in front of you. Not true here, blind shots abound. Someone cut corners in construction
Great course, every shot needed
Deep rough, but wide fairways.
Beautiful views, and some fun holes.
First Class
This course is wonderful. Great conditions and fair to average to good players. Relatively open fairways for a mountain course, interesting holes. Just a lot of fun to play. Unfortumately,, a group outing on 6/11 left quite a few ball marks on the green. It might pay for the starter to remind golfers to repair their divots and ball marks. Would play again in a heartbeat.
Beautiful place
Loved the layout. Several blind tee shots. Gps on your phone or a yardage book required until familiar. Fast greens and well manicured. We played at 2pm when the price went down, but next time a want to play earlier to hopefully avoid the late day slow play.
Great shape
The course was in terrific condition, with immaculate fairways and fairly quick greens. I loved the layout and if I loved around here I would play here all of the time.
Stormy day
I was unable to get pass the 5th hole. There was a severe weather that came thru a they shut down the course. I'm not sure how to proceed. Great course, but paid my money & did not get to play.
great course
Excellent designed course. All holes different. Conditions were perfect....although an earlier outing had no clue how to repair ball marks on greens. Several tee boxes to pick your distance. Greens were challenging but not difficult. We'll be back again.
A nice course and good response to correct mistakes
We had an outing from Virginia and it is a 4 hours drive from our home. We stayed near the course and played two rounds of golf at this course. Overall the course condition is very good. However, we ran into some course player flow issues.
Before I explained what happened to us, I want to first thank the General Manager, Mr. Manley, who accepted our complaints and offer two unlimited rounds to compensate our loss of playing here first time. I fully appreciated Mr. Manley's sincerity and two of our members will plan to take advantage of this offer. Hopefully their experience will be much different than our experience. So overall I am still recommending this course just because Mr. Manley's attitude to improve.
--- Now back to our issues --
The first round were play on 9/17 8:30AM with two tee times. Right before we are heading out to the 10th tee to start from the back-9, the starter inserted a group of four ahead of us playing very slow. The round takes 5.5 hours to complete, which force us to delay our second round in another golf course. The second day tee time also at 8:30AM which was also booked 2 months before along with the hotel package. For this round, the course told us to complete by 11:30 (a 3 hours round? are you kidding me) because they have taken a 120 people short-gun tournament starting at 12NOON. Also, we all play white tee. But because of the tournament, they moved all the white tee to the same tee-off location as red tee. Before we complete 17 hole, all tournament players are rushing in to our un-played holes which cause all the hassles to finish our last two holes and the remaining sentiments after the trip.
Fun course
Played Sunday 130. Pace of play non issue. Course was fun to play excellent mix of holes all different and separate from each other. Played the blues and course was kinda short and definitely don't need to use driver on most holes. Staff was friendly....had a burger at the restaurant and it was pretty good. $65 I felt was a good price for this course. Can't wait to go bad and give it another go.
great test of golf
We cashed in our 39 dollar vouchers to play Great Bear for the 1st time this past Sunday. Regular Sunday rate was 95, so we had a great deal. The course was not busy and we never had to wait a second to hit a shot.
Great Bear starts out with a medium length par four and a mid iron par 3 and then the teeth of the course kicks in. The 3rd hole is a bear of a par 4 with elevation changes and a long 2nd shot. The 4th is a twisting par 5 that really requires shaping your shot. The 10th hole requires hitting your tee ball over a lagoon and environmental area and its super easy to hit a bad one and have to re tee. That hole and the twisting par 5 18 are both toughies.
The course can only be played by taking a cart as there are big drives between holes. The layout is superb and each hole is private and you cannot see other golfers playing other holes. The bunkering is very well done and you'll have to be very accurate on your approaches to avoid them.
The conditioning of the course is good but not great. The greens were a bit spongy with quite a few ball marks and that could be a result of recent rain. The fairways and tees were good but not pristine as you might expect from a course that charges 95 dollars on a weekend.
Practice facilities here are very good and there are 3 practice greens in various spots. The staff was professional and very nice.
I'd certainly come back to play here if I got another great deal as this is certainly a course that challenges all parts of your game.
Challenging track but playable for all levels
Beautiful Easter Sunday weather so I was fortunate to enjoy this track on a day which wasn't busy. Conditions were fantastic for this early on the season. Typical Nicklaus design with various blind shots requiring target golf thinking. From the back tee boxes, this course can be a challenge for just about anyone. Got to play this track on the Shawnee Inns stay and play package. Great value if you plan on playing at both facilities.
Best kept secret in the poconos
Well-worth the ride up 209 past a few other golf courses (though Fernwood, even playing quirky, is a lot of fun). $45 twilight in the summer with a cart for a Nicklaus course, you really can't complain. It is a really tough little place to play. This is my third or fourth trip this year. As a "guest" (it is semi-private), you can actually play up to 6 times a season. You'll know when to go for it and when to lay up very quickly on this course. most of the greens are VERY well guarded.this is what makes scoring tough. the Par 5's on the front are tough, and 3 shot holes.
The clubhouse is beautiful (full locker room, shower, everything but the razor) and i'm glad they re-opened this place. 18th is a great finishing hole. I actually saw a baby black bear walking across 18's green as I approached for my third shot.
Poconos Gem
Beautiful golf course, great layout. Very generous fairways make for playable tee shots but challenge is still there with shots to greens.
What a course!
A great course which I suggest to play to anyone who happens to be in the area. A great surprise for me as I have played many courses in West NJ. I usually don't love the Jack Niklaus design but I have to admit this is a great design. All holes are "unique" also because you never see another hole from the one you are playing. Every hole is surrounded by a wonderful forest. Conditions of the course were very very good and even if the greens were aereated only a couple of weeks ago they were among the fastest I ever found around here. If you are in the area do not miss the opportunity to play such a nice course at a very decent price ($75 for an 8am tee time on a weekday)
Great course but
This course is absolutely beautiful but two things my group of 8 golfers arrived for lunch before the round and we were greeted by a lady who I think was the manager we asked if there were any specials on drinks for the July 4th weekend she said yes all draft beers are $2 we said great so she told us the options and we all decided on Stella well when the bill came were charged a lot more I think 5 or 6 dollars when we brought it to her attention she said no I said yeungling draft none of us heard that but it didn't let it ruin our round until the 14th hole when one of our drives hit a cart path and was about one foot off the course when I approached the ball a rude elderly man went nuts and started yelling at me calling me names and telling me to get off his property and telling his wife to get mase to spray us I thought it was a joke cause we were that close to the cart path so if you do play this course 14th hole keep it right of the fairway if you don't wanna get pepper sprayed its to bad cause loved the actual course.
Very nice course. Maybe a $25 premium to play a Nicklaus' designed course
Very nice course cut through an upscale development that did not intrude on the course. You were not concerned about shelling a 500K home! Very wide fairways, plenty long with multiple tee boxes to choose from. Course was in nice shape. Good speed on greens that had reasonable undulation. $90 on a Saturday afternoon a bit pricy. Enjoyed lunch before the round.
Great course over priced.
That price I would have rather played at Bethpage black. Way to much waiting after every hole. They should at least give you a sleeve of balls or a bottle of water . It's a very challenging course and something that you have to play a couple of time to get the hang of it. Overall it was nice for maybe one a year. To expensive plus travel gas food your going to be looking at a $250 day.
Every hole was unique
A very challenging course while still being playable for the average golfer.
Good design
Course played fair (I played the blue tees)
Greens were aerated but for the most part didn't affect play.