Black Bear Golf Club

Took 5.5 hours to play 18 year on a weekday at 11:30am. Very very slow. No ranger or anything around to speed up the pace. Challenging course with small greens and tight fairways. A few drivable par 4’s and some fun par 5’s. Would play here again but maybe in the off season.

This course will definitely be on my top places to play list.

The layout is very simple and beautiful. Will be coming back for sure.

Nestled in the hills of Northwest New Jersey, Black Bear is a wonderful layout that asks big questions of the golfer’s game and their ego.

There’s no such thing as a flat hole on this jaunt. Every tee box either looks down on a fairway or up a slope. The course plays shorter than its yardage but demands precision to score well. There are doglegs left and right, but not severe. Shot shaping isn’t critical, straight hitters are rewarded. Minor Mistakes are penalized but there is room to recover. Get wild and you’ll find lots of other hapless golfers balls in the woods, never your own.

Points off for atrocious bunkers filled with stony hard sand often more akin to clay, and inconsistent greens. The greens are sloped but could use a rollout, and here like everywhere else, golfers seem oblivious to repairing their ball marks.

You may walk the course, but expect a workout. The distance between some greens and tee boxes is significant and a few are significantly uphill. If you walk you can count on trying to catch your breath on a few tee boxes, and a pair of sore hammys at the end of the day. Inexplicably, the walk from the 18th green to the clubhouse is about a half mile .

There is a putting green and a range whose dilapidated mats could have used an upgrade a few years ago. In addition, you can’t hit driver on the range. Really, what’s the point?

Overall, a fantastic layout with some rough patches with regard to the afore mentioned greens and traps. In their defense, it’s a heavily trafficked course. However, it isn’t a cheap round of golf, one expects a bit more. Snack bar is downright pricey fir this area. It’s billed as a resort course, but falls short of the standard. Black Bear is all about the layout and the views.

Finally, adjacent to the 18 th fairway are two giant satellite dishes , apparently somebody is listening to you curse as you flub your approach into the final hole.

Played there on December 1st not ideal

Weather that day but course is fun and challenging. Staff is excellent and very friendly as well as helpful. Look forward to going back to play in warmer weather!

I played in2 hours and 20 minutes, great conditions including greens, friendly staff.