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4.6
103 Reviews (103)
5 Stars
64
4 Stars
34
3 Stars
5
2 Stars
0
1 Stars
0
Conditions
4.5
Value
4.5
Layout
4.7
Friendliness
4.7
Pace
4.1
Amenities
4.2
96.1%
Recommend this course
99 out of 103 reviews
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2 Stars
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Layout
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Pace
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Amenities
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About

Holes 18
Type Semi-Private
Par 71
Length 7025 yards
Slope 143
Rating 73.5

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.

Course Details

Year Built 1997
Fairways Bent Grass
Greens Bent Grass
Golf Season April - November
Architect Jack Nicklaus (1997) David Heatwole (1997)

Rentals/Services

Carts Yes - included in green fees
Clubs No

Practice/Instruction

Driving Range Yes
Bunker Yes
Golf School Academy Yes - "Bird Golf Academy"
Teaching Pro Yes
Pitching/Chipping Area Yes
Putting Green Yes

Policies

Credit Cards Accepted VISA, MasterCard, Amex, Discover Welcomed
Metal Spikes Allowed No
Fivesomes Allowed No
Walking Allowed No
Dress code Collared shirt required

Food & Beverage

Bar, Grill, Restaurant

Available Facilities

Clubhouse, Banquet Facilities, Showers, Lockers, Locker Rooms

Available Activities

Swimming, Billiards

Available Sports

Tennis

Accolades

Reviews

4.6
103 Reviews (103)
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Overall Rating
Recommended
Handicap
Age
Type of Golfer
Gender
Played On
Reviews 3
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Hot weather
Used cart

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

Conditions Good
Value Average
Layout Poor
Friendliness Average
Pace Good
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Great course, every shot needed

Deep rough, but wide fairways.
Beautiful views, and some fun holes.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Played On
Reviews 21
Handicap 20-24
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a month
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Poor
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 4
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Layout Average
Friendliness Good
Pace Poor
Amenities Poor
Response from on 06/06/2018:
Hello, thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to review your experience with us, we truly appreciate your feedback and will certainly pass it along to our team. We hope to have another opportunity to welcome you back to the 5-star experience that you deserve.
Played On
Reviews 7
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 11
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Previously Played
Used cart

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 1
I Recommend This Course
4.0
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

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.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Average
Friendliness Average
Pace Good
Amenities Average
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 26
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
First Time Playing

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.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Good
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 139
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Pennsylvania Advisor
Top 100 Contributor
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

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.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
Played On
Reviews 161
Handicap Don't know
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Top 100 Contributor
New York Advisor
First Time Playing

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.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 30
Handicap 10-14
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Used cart

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 18
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Poconos Gem

Beautiful golf course, great layout. Very generous fairways make for playable tee shots but challenge is still there with shots to greens.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Played On
Reviews 21
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
First Time Playing

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)

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
First Time Playing

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Poor
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 12
Handicap 20-24
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
First Time Playing
Used cart

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 4
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
First Time Playing

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.

Conditions Excellent
Value Poor
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Poor
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
Played On
Reviews 4
Handicap 20-24
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser

Every hole was unique

A very challenging course while still being playable for the average golfer.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Average
Pace Excellent
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 9
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser

Good design

Course played fair (I played the blue tees)
Greens were aerated but for the most part didn't affect play.

Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Friendliness Average
Pace Good
Difficulty Moderate
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