Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 15, 2012 18:44:36 GMT -5
Black Bear Golf Club is located in Eustis, FL about an hour north of downtown Orlando. It's a Pete Dye design and hosts many mini-tour events during the winter. From the back tees, it plays to 7,100 yards.
The Black Bear community is fairly large, but it's another Florida community that was hit fairly hard by the economy. No, it's not a ghost town. But, it's a community that has quite a few foreclosed or abandoned houses, right next to a family home that is doing well.
Personally, it appears like the club is hurting for money as all of those little things that courses with money do, you don't quite see at Black Bear. I had been the Black Bear once before, back in August 2010 at a golf clinic held by Dan Carraher. It seemed to be doing better back then than it's doing now.
Going into the course, I didn't know who had designed the course. Then I got on the back nine and noticed it was a Pete Dye design and it all made sense.
This is a T-O-U-G-H golf course. If you looked at an aerial view, you would think the course was wide open with the lack of trees and no water on the course. But in reality, it's extremely tight because it's filled with moguls and undulations and the fairways are as narrow as it gets.
Generally, I liked the course from tee to the green. I just had a problem with the typical Pete Dye infatuation with blind fairway bunkers or hazards off the tee. Nothing sucks the fun out of the game than nutting a driver right where you want it, only to find it is in a fairway bunker that you never saw from the tee.
But I didn't like the design of the greens. Some of the greens were too small for the length of the approach into them. Holes like #11 and #18 have gi-normous greens that can easily leave you with a 120 foot putt thru a bunch of mounds.
I thought the best holes were #9, #10, #12 and #18. It seemed like every hole was tough. But in general, I found the back nine easier than the front nine.
I would say that Black Bear is a typical Dye design in not only its difficulty, but you can warm up to it if you have played it a few times. For the winter vactioner, they may want to get in a cheap round and then get a little experience as to how to play the course. That's what we were able to do, getting 4 people at $22 a person. My dad actually liked the course. I was lukewarm to it, but was content with only paying $22 and one friend has no desire to return at any price.
3JACK