Bear Lakes Country Club, West Palm Beach, FL

Very nice course.

This New Yorker played Bear Lakes Links Course on a warm and humid December Tuesday with my wife and a friend who lives in the area. The course is much different than your typical Florida golf course featuring flat holes, plenty of water and bunkers. This course has plenty of water and bunkers too, but it also features mounds, mounds and more mounds that affect all kinds of golf shots. Many of the greens also contain mounds that makes putting very, very challenging.

There are six sets of tees here. The longest measures almost 7,400 yards (course rating 75.9/140 slope)! That is a beast (although that pales in comparison to the related Lakes course, which is a 150 slope!). The red tees measure just over 5,000 yards. The blue tees at 6,100 yards and 69.5/131 were good enough for this 20 handicapper. So the whole family can show up and three-putt the greens!

The course was in great shape. Our friend has a membership at another local club, which allowed us to play Links under a reciprocal arrangement. If you can get on, give this course a play. It is a much different experience than your normal Florida courses. Even though my score was terrible (a 13 carded on the 1 handicap, 2nd hole did not help matters!), it was a fun round and a fun day. Very much recommended.

I played this course 5/8/2010, it was a Golf Channel AM Tour event and they were killing off the greens and tee's to replace them. Course was in great shape, greens were firm and rolling about 14 on a stimp meter. That day I managed to hit the ball all over the course but always ended up on or near the green for a creditable 82, well worth the visit if you can get in.