Black Bear Golf Course

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Black Bear earns ranking as one of top new golf courses
Golf Digest Magazine rates course #7 in nation

Just 17 months after welcoming its first players, Black Bear Golf Club has been named as one of the top new golf tracks in the United States in the annual rankings of Best New Courses by Golf Digest magazine.

Black Bear Golf Club, located in the upper-northeast corner of Louisiana and developed as part of Poverty Point Reservoir State Park, was designed by the Austin, Texas-based Bechtol-Russell team and offers an on-site RV park, waterfront cabins and marina. The course opened for play in July 2006 and was rated as the nation’s seventh-best new golf course with green fees less than $75.

Golf Digest's annual survey of America's Best New Courses is conducted by a panel of more than 800 golfers who considered nominees that had opened (or reopened after a remodel) between May 1, 2006 and April 30, 2007. The magazine’s panelists rated courses on their shot values, design variety, resistance to scoring, memorability and aesthetics.

Black Bear Golf Club is a member of Louisiana’s Audubon Golf Trail. The 7,256-yard, par-72 track sets atop 300 acres of the Macon Ridge, where there are elevation changes that are uncommon in almost all Louisiana golf courses. Although technically in the Mississippi Delta region that is characterized by flat terrain, Black Bear is like an oasis as it winds up and down and through wooded creek bottoms and provides golfers with a feeling of isolation and a kinship with nature.

The Bogzag and Cypress Creeks bisect Black Bear Golf Club and offer significant wetlands features. The routing of the course generally follows, then crosses, the creeks and offers passes through the heavily treed creek bottoms. The result is a course that weaves from tree-lined holes to open opportunities and sports expansive Tif Eagle greens, lush fairways and native grasses in all non-play areas.

The golf course, which was constructed by Weitz Golf International, takes its name from the Louisiana black bear which are often sighted on or near the reservoir. Bechtol even left in place
a tree behind the 15th green that was previously used by the bears in the winters to hibernate.

The course hosted an Adams Golf Pro Tour Series in early October, the same week it officially opened its expansive, new 6,000-square-foot clubhouse. Word of mouth about the golf course has spread in recent months, and the tee sheet has filled daily as a result.

Bechtol and Planned Environments, Inc. also designed and planned the 3,000-acre, man-made lake and park master plan that is the centerpiece for Poverty Point Reservoir State Park. The reservoir and golf course offers visitors an outlet for fishing, a variety of watersports activities and now championship golf.

Located on the park grounds are a new state-of-the-art RV park complete with 54 pads and 50-amp service as well as 12 two-bedroom lodges, some set above the water.

The Poverty Point site is named for the nearby Native American National Historic Landmark Area. Dubbed the Poverty Point culture, its people settled on the banks of Bayou Macon, near what is now the community of Epps, between 1,400 and 700 B.C. Park guests are only 20 minutes away from Poverty Point State Historic Site for day trips to what has become a focal point for archaeological research since the mid-20th century.

“This ranking of our course by Golf Digest means people will come to this part of the state for golf and end up staying a few days more for fishing or other water recreation on the reservoir, or perhaps visit the historic site up the road,” said Mike Thompson, Black Bear and Poverty Point’s administrative legislative director and one of the prime forces for the region’s development. “What Roy has built here has made a huge difference to our community and our region’s perception and way of life.”

Poverty Point Reservoir State Park has proven to be highly successful with one of the highest occupancy rates of any of Louisiana’s state parks. The RV park is also very popular.

“We have built and will continue to grow partnership opportunities between the Black Bear Golf Course and the park,” said Eric Kasper, who directs all the Audubon Trail golf courses from a central office at Black Bear. “Plans are also in the works to build lodges on the golf course for golfers to stay overnight. Part of the transfer agreement between the state and the Poverty Point Reservoir Economic Development Commission included another 100 acres – 32 acres at the course and 68 acres on the lake. Our goal is to develop the 68 acres into a retirement community through a partnership between our department and a private developer.”

Black Bear is stamped with Bechtol’s signature design: there are long par-4s and short par-4s, there is target golf and swing-away wide fairways and there are reachable par-5s and monster par-5s, all in a track that is bracketed by environmentally sensitive wetlands and a strict adherence to nature and the significance of the course’s historic surroundings. Black Bear plays to a rating of 74.6 and a slope of 141 from its back tees. After four rounds of play in the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series, the average 18-hole score for the competition was 73.98, proving to the pros that competed in the event that Black Bear belongs on the short list of Louisiana’s best Golf Courses.