Bear's Best Atlanta

Wow. My wife and I have played many courses in the Hilton Head / Atlanta area while on vacation over the last two years. This was the most outstanding course we have played in these two areas. The greens were great and played fast but not on the silly side of fast. Loved this collection of holes. Every hole was a challenge and unique. This is a must play course when in the Atlanta area.

A great course to play, conditions are great, they really take pride in keep the course in pristine condition. Yo can recognize many of the holes if you ever watch any golf on TV or played any of the course holes replicated. While an exact match would be nearly impossible to achieve, they've come very close. Only bad thing I can think of is that they charge you to hit a handful of balls before you tee off. Courses with class and high tee time prices offer free range balls, they seem to have dropped the ball on this point. The range balls were Titleist NXT Practice and were in good shape, so you can't complain there.

This is an excellent course that is in great condition and is a good challenge. The pace of play was pretty slow the day I played, but the course itself is a must play in the Atlanta area.

Only surprise is the fact that a couse of this caliber charges extra for range balls.

Course was absolutely beautiful! Tee boxes, fairways, greens all immaculate. The only problem I had was with pace of play. First,
they had a junior tourney walking ahead of everyone. I think they should have made this aware if you were booking a tee time on that day. Second, tee times were 8 minutes apart, thats just not enough time for foursomes.

Had a friend in from out of town and took him out for a great day of golf. I just played here for the first time last week (wrote previous review), but knew this was the place to bring him for a GREAT round of golf. It was cold and windy but that didn't slow us down. The course is in FANTASTIC shape and the facilities in general are fantastic. If you haven't been to Bear's Best - you are missing out. Get out there!

If you have not played Bear's Best, then you are MISSING OUT! Got on the course for less than $50 thanks to GolfNow - and what an incredible bargain. I have not played a public course in GA that is better maintained than Bear's Best - and have found my new favorite course. It's the middle of winter and the fairways are in immaculate condition. You WILL NOT find a better course for the money, and oh, it's a challenging one!

We played 1st week of Feb and it was 70* without a cloud in the sky...That alone was fantastic! The course was in excellent condtion, top holes recreated from Jack's designs were challenging! Good greens and the fairways are overseeded with some type of rye (not sure) but no dormant burmuda here! High Marks, look for a "hot deal" listing!! You won't be disappointed!

Was a great round. The course was in great condition for being February. Difficult but still forgiving as long as you were not too far off track.

I played this course on 2/2/2013. For winter time, the course was in excellent condition. The fairways and greens were super green. The rough and bunkers were well kept too (there were a few bunkers on 18 that needed a little attention though... looked like some soil had gotten in there and it was hardened a bit.

The staff was very friendly... especially the cart girl. The service at the club house was equally friendly. The practice facilities were nice... though the driving range turf that we hit on was a bit sandy and divot-filled. Had to find a good patch of grass to hit from.

The course was top notch... I'll definitely go back... maybe when it's a bit warmer.

This golf course is a friendly golf course it doesn't beat you up and the layout is great and they overseed and keep it in perfect shape and the staff is great I'll be back.

Course was very nice and fun to play. Great facilities although the driving range was closed so I wasn't able to hit before my round. Well worth the trip from the city to go play a round.

One of my new favorite courses. Course is in great shape.

The course had an hour frost delay the morning of our round, which is not a big deal and most courses handle well enough. The starter, however, couldn't deal with it. He was sending off groups in a seemingly random order. Paired us with a twosome who was supposed to tee off 2 hours ahead of us but he made them wait and teed us off behind a twosome who was supposed to start 30 minutes after us. Not a ranger to be seen on the course either. Recipe for a 5 1/2 hour round.

Course was in very good shape with exception to the greens..

The greens had been aerated nearly 5 or 6 weeks earlier but still had not filled in and showed fertilizer.. Seemed they had not been watered enough to absorb the fertilizer and fill in.. They were very disappointing..

I will say the greens are normally in great condition.. But something was amiss since my last visit...

BE WARNED!

Overall the course is amazing yet sadly I can’t say that about the staff or how long it takes to play a round. Frist the staff: After being on the course for 3:47 mins and only played thru 11 holes I called the Pro-Shop from the 12th tee to advise that we needed a marshal on the course as there were 4 Groups currently on the 12th Hole and 2 groups waiting behind the 11th green; not to mention the 3 groups playing the 11th. This had been the story throughout my round of the first 11 holes. The gentleman in the pro-shop said he would “try” and get someone out there and then proceeded to say to me after asking my name “didn’t you have 2 people cancel this morning in your foursome on your tee time? You know I should just charge you for the 2 No Shows since you only advised us this morning”. I said “What does that have to do with anything as you put another twosome with us?” He said “well I’ll just charge you now”. The exchange made no sense as he felt that harassing me was the answer to the slow play and for me calling the Pro Shop.

Needless to say if you call to complain about anything you will be harassed by the staff for complaining. I talked to other groups on the 12th tee box that mentioned that the Staff feels “it’s are gift and we are lucky as golfers to be able to play Bears Best and we shouldn’t complain”. They mentioned that in the past they also had complaints but was quickly “put in place by the staff.

Four groups decided to quit playing on the 12TH tee due to the length of slow play.

Second, the pace of play. If you have at least 5+ hours or even close to six hours to play golf and don’t mind having at least 2-3 groups on each hole, than Bears Best is the course for you.

Overall, I have played the course around 5 times, and the course is great; a true gem! But the staff and the pace of play are unacceptable. At these prices I would suggest giving your money to another course.

The course was in excellent shape but unfortunately the course was extremely overbooked and the staff wasn't as helpful as they should have been. They really needed to have more marshals patrolling the course to ensure an appropriate pace of play.

I felt that this is a very solid course. Greens and fairways were in good condition. However, we had to play after 1:30pm to get a decent price on this course. Even on a Friday at the end of December they were asking $114 to play before that time! When it first opened, I could see paying $120. You got a forecaddy, free rangeballs and they even had buckets with apples on a couple of holes. All of that is gone and they still have the hefty price tag. I feel this is around a $80 course at best.

Even with a 1.5 hour frost delay backing groups up, we still got around in 4:15. The course was in good shape and the greens rolled well.

Very gorgeous golf course. Unfortunately got rained out and only got to play less than 9 holes and staff thought got more than 9 only bec i went around the course to see the holes. But besides that everything was worth it.