Bear's Best one sure thing in Vegas

Courtesy of Bob West
Port Arthur News Sports Editor

If Jack Nicklaus builds it, sooner or later I'll come.

Although my golf game doesn't fit the prototypical Nicklaus design style, I've always had an affinity for anything Nicklaus. And I have seldom been disappointed.

That's why, on a recent trip to Las Vegas, a Nicklaus creation called Bear's Best was as much a lure as catching Don Rickles' show at the Stardust. From the day I first read about the concept -- Nicklaus delivering 18 replica holes from layouts he's crafted in terrain similar to the desert look of Vegas -- playing his newest Sin City track was a high priority.

It was, I figured, the closest thing to a sure thing I could find in Vegas.

Nicklaus, I had been told, put as much planning and preparation into the Bear's Best project for ClubCorp as anything he's ever done. With the use of computer technology, he painstakingly matched up topography, design strategy and shot values to come eerily close to the originals.

Much closer, for instance, than the designers of the Tour 18 courses in Houston and Dallas were able to come with their replica layouts that created quite a stir in the 1990s.

Located about 10 miles above the Vegas strip -- you go west on Flamingo Rd. -- Bear's Best was everything I expected and more. Even on a day when the temperature peaked at 107 degrees. But, remember, it's a dry heat.

Proof of how much I liked the golf course was underscored by the heat. With little arm twisting from long-hitting Jim Tennant, who was to have been my forecaddie but wound up being my playing partner, I went for 36 holes.

Six hours after we teed off at 8 a.m., I was less wasted and weary than I normally am after 18 holes in Southeast Texas. Yes, sports fans, the lack of oppressive humidity does make a difference.

As for the golf course, it was pretty much what I anticipated -- one memorable hole after another surrounded by spectacular desert vistas. Like virtually all Nicklaus courses, the fairways were wide, the bent grass greens were fast, the lies were perfect and there was an abundance of sand. Seventy-five bunkers to be exact.

Six of the holes were copied from Nicklaus layouts in Arizona, four were from California, three from Mexico, two from Montana, two from New Mexico and one from Colorado.

The Colorado hole, a replica of the 640-yard 14th at Castle Pines where the PGA Tour is playing The International this week, was the most unusual in the desert setting. And it illustrated the lengths to which Nicklaus went for accuracy.

Surrounded by lush evergreen vegetation, and sunken to where the desert wasn't in view, the hole actually had the look of Colorado. Its length was even adjusted to compensate for the difference a golf ball carries in the light air of the mile high elevation of Castle Pines.

Probably the most intriguing holes to me were the two -- No. 4 and No. 11 -- from the Old Works Golf Club in Anaconda, Montana. Surrounding the greens on both holes were traps filled with the same black sand from a deserted mine in Montana that Nicklaus used at Old Works. Talk about an unusual look.

The most spectacular views at Bear's Best were on the incoming holes on the back nine. The outgoing nine starts a trek upward to the Red Rock Canyon area of Spring Mountain. Once you turn for home, at the 461-yard 14th -- No. 1 at Las Campanis in Sante Fe, N.M., -- you can see all the way to the strip hotels. It's quite a dramatic setting.

For the average player, the golf course's most redeeming feature is its playability. Big hitters can rip away at ample driving areas without fear. Other than the two holes with water -- No. 1 and No. 18 -- you really have to hit a bad shot to lose a golf ball. Adjoining desert areas are open and accessible and Tennant told me he's never seen a snake.

Although the course handicap maintains the 438-yard, 5th -- No. 10 from Cabo Real, Mexico -- is toughest, my vote goes to the dogleg right, 463-yard, 18th -- No. 18 at PGA West Resort in LaQuinta, Calif. It plays uphill, into the wind and has water nearly the length of the hole on the right. Par here is like making birdie for most players.

Throw in the expansive practice area, the excellent customer service and the overall pristine condition of the golf course, and there is an awful lot to like about Bear's Best. Hell, they even have TV sets tuned to ESPN over every stall in the men's room.

Far as I'm concerned, Jack Nicklaus has hit another grand slam. My man Rickles was pretty nifty also.