There are dozens of top championship courses in Palm Beach County, but two of them always stood out for Davis Love III.
“There’s so many great courses down there, but when I was coming down to play Honda and Doral, you would always hear about the Bear’s Club and Bear Lakes Country Club,” Love said Tuesday by phone from Georgia. “And that’s because of Jack.”
Jack, of course, is Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear who designed both of Bear Lakes’ courses – the Lakes and the Links — in the 1980s and his Bear’s Club in 1999.
Love is about to become a lot familiar with Bear Lakes after the West Palm Beach-based club enlisted Love Golf Design to reimagine its Links course. The aim is to create a design reminiscent of the American Links style of courses that include such gems as Shinnecock, National Golf Links and Pebble Beach.
“We want to keep Jack’s original vision, make it architecturally different, memorable and fit the land a little more,” said Love, who will be joined on the project by LGD architect Scot Sherman and Love’s brother, Mark. “We’re looking for a course that features tall, native grasses with very few trees.”
Love never had a problem taking apart golf courses. The 60-year-old Hall of Famer won 21 PGA Tour titles, including the 1997 PGA Championship and a pair of Players Championships. He also is one of the few men to captain the U.S. Ryder Cup team twice and was a Presidents Cup captain.
With injuries limiting his playing schedule the last five years, Love has concentrated on his design business. The LGD team is engaged in master planning at Hazeltine National in preparation for the 2029 Ryder Cup and serves as consulting architect for TPC Sawgrass (home of the Players).
For many, it’s jarring to see a Nicklaus-designed course re-designed by someone other than the Bear, especially when the 84-year-old legend lives 20 minutes from Bear Lakes. Love understands the sensitivity of taking over for the game’s greatest player and ambassador.
When asked if there’s a protocol in this situation, Love said, “It’s new to me, because every course I’ve done, except for Rees Jones, the architect has passed on. I’ve talked to Jack, and I will talk to him again. Every time I have asked Jack an architectural question, he has given me more information than I needed.”
Bear Lakes has served as the final stage of the PGA Tour’s q-school three times. The scope of Love’s work will include re-routing some holes, building new greens, bunkers, tees, rough and a new irrigation system. Love also wants to cut down on the area of the course where maintenance is required.
Charlie Zacharias, president of the Board of Directors at Bear Lakes, approached Love last year when he played in the pro-am at the RSM Classic, where Love is the tournament host. Nine months later, they had an agreement the Bear Lakes membership recently approved. Construction is planned to start in 2026.
“By moving this project forward, we are not just enhancing our golfing experience; we are announcing to the international golf community that Bear Lakes will be a premier destination for golf in Florida,” Zacharias said.
“When Love Golf Design is finished with its work, Bear Lakes will have two distinguished courses crafted by two well-respected golf brands synonymous with the rich tradition of the sport we revere and love to play. We will receive a course that will be both striking to look at, interesting to play, and yet a departure from the traditional parkland style of our Jack Nicklaus-designed signature Lakes course. The result is also intended to be a course that is more efficient to maintain.”
Few players have been more connected to the pulse of professional golf than Love during the last three decades. Besides serving as a team captain three times, he served five terms as player director on the tour’s Policy Board.
Here are Love’s thoughts on the major issues on the PGA Tour:
Love said he doesn’t mind the delay in the PGA Tour completing its “framework deal” with LIV and indicated he hopes it doesn’t happen.
“If I’m commissioner for a day or a year, I would say those guys (who left) put us in a really bad situation,” Love said. “Things are moving along on our side, and I think we keep doing what’s best for our players.
“The game moves on. It moved on without Jack and Arnie (Palmer). It moved on without Davis and Fred (Couples). I miss Dustin Johnson personally, but that’s not going to be the headline at the Tour Championship. It’s going to be can someone run down Scottie Scheffler.
“I think Jay (Monaghan, PGA Tour commissioner) and the board have done a good job of putting their heads down, ignoring the noise and doing the best they can for the future of the Tour.”
Jupiter resident Keegan Bradley probably should have been a captain’s pick for the last U.S. teams in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, but he was passed over each time.
That likely won’t happen next year after the PGA of America made the surprising move of naming Bradley captain for the Ryder Cup matches at Bethpage Black.
“I probably should have picked Keegan for the 2022 (Presidents Cup) team,” Love said. “He was one of the guys who made the 2012 (Ryder Cup) team so great because he plays with so much passion. I want to see him play on both teams the next two years.”
Love says he didn’t know much about the new indoor league that starts Jan. 7 until listening to former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley speak about it recently. Tiger Woods headlines the Jupiter Links Golf Club team that will play its home matches at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens.
“It sounded like so much fun,” Love said. “Not only can they control the conditions, but this is a way, whether you’re watching on TV or at the small arena, where you can hear these guys interact with each other like we’ve never seen before.”
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Davis Love III reimagining Bear Lakes Links course in American Links style
