Crystal Springs Resort

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.

We drove out from Manhattan and I am a little disappointed that I never got any notification that the greens had just been aerated. It was basically a sandtrap on the greens and made it nearly impossible to putt. We made a trip out of it and both Wild Turkey and Cascades were basically both sand, which is a shame because I would love to go back and play the courses but we paid full price and the greens were just unplayable.

We also were late to our tee time because after finishing round 1, we asked if there was any place to get food quickly between rounds and the staff said that there wasn't anything open yet. We ran to a local place to get a sandwich and then found out that the clubhouse at the turn was open and food was available. We also never once saw a cart girl, despite being told we weren't allowed to bring a cooler or anything on the course because cart girls were out at the time.

Got their no carts had a reservation had to wait,

Sand traps no sand, Rocks,

No supervision at the course, no rangers other golfers driving on greens with cart, tried to call the clubhouse to inform no answer, Have been here before, was good, now you can see they are not taking care of course very shameful, very disappointing

Very enjoyable round. Considering it's been a week since 10 inches of snow, conditions were great. Got a great price, staff was friendly.

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!