Opening in 2002 with a charity event featuring national sporting heroes Wayne Gretzky and Mike Weir, Northern Bear Golf Club gained immediate exposure to the Canadian golfing public through national television coverage of the tournament.
Situated a half an hour’s drive from downtown Edmonton, Northern Bear is a trademark Nicklaus design, constructed on flat forested land within a residential development that also boasts a clubhouse which has its own 30-foot waterfall.
Northern Bear was only the fifth Canadian course to be built by Nicklaus Design – after Glen Abbey (1976), Nicklaus North (1996), James Island (1997) and Okanagan-Bear (1999) – and its tight tree-lined fairways, strategically placed bunkers and USGA standard greens are laid out around five lakes located on the property.
The course can play from a tame 5.800 yards up to a monster 7, 400 yards from the back tees and water features on around the half the holes on the scorecard. Players who can draw the ball might flourish here as most of the par four and par five doglegged holes are shaped from right to left.
The most defining feature of the layout though, is the abundance and placement of the bunkers. There are well over 50 treacherously placed throughout