#1 – White Bear Yacht Club, DellwoodAnd then there was one!
White Bear Yacht Club comes in at the #1 position on our list of the Top 30 courses in Minnesota.
White Bear Yacht Club was originally founded in 1899 as a yacht club for members whom had summer cabins on White Bear Lake, ten miles north of Saint Paul. It wasn’t until 1909 that the club decided to add a golf course. What started as a rudimentary 9-hole course, was expanded to eighteen holes in 1915.
There is some dispute as to whom is most responsible for the design. Willie Watson, who was responsible for early designs at Minikahda and Interlachen, is given a share of the credit by some. While Donald Ross is credited by many as the primary architect of record, based on 1916 news reports which had Ross visiting the club while in town laying out Woodhill and reworking Minikahda. Not to be underestimated is the potential involvement from Tom Vardon (brother of Harry) who was the head professional at the club but was also a golf course architect having laid out the University’s golf course as well as Stillwater CC.
White Bear Yacht Club is also the basis of one of the most famous American novels, The Great Gatsby. Saint Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda rented a room for the summer of 1921 in the clubhouse. During his time there he wrote the short story “Winter Dreams,” the basis of Gatsby which took place in Black Bear Lake, Minnesota.
In the 1990’s Renaissance Golf was retained to create a master plan for the golf course which included restoring green sites, reclaiming mowing lines, removing trees, and building an entire new 8th hole. For the past eight years, Jim Urbina has continued to consult with the club on further improvements to the course.
The golf course is defined largely by its very severe set of greens and extremely rolling fairways. It’s those slopes that have made White Bear into something of a “cult” golf course, as Tom Doak once described it in his Confidential Guide to Golf Courses.
With that, please enjoy the following photos of the golf course which were taken by Jon Cavalier last summer.
Holes to NoteThe 1st hole is a 401 yard par-4. The first tee is located just off the golf house and is connected to the club’s practice putting green, separated by just a flag pole. The tee shot is downhill, followed by an uphill approach shot to a green that is partially blinded by a large single mound. The green slopes both away from the mound, as well as back-to-front at its rear.
The tee shot at the 1st
The approach at the 1st with the large greenside bunker looming on the left
The green at the first
Steps from the 1st green is the largely downhill 429 yard par-4 2nd where the player first come in contact with the wild fairway slopes of White Bear.
The approach to the 2nd:
The 3rd hole is a 133-yard par-3, which is typically a short iron or wedge, but to a small green surrounded by a pulpit bunker short right, a bunker long right, and a steep fall off left. A poor swing often results in a difficult up and down for par.
The tee shot at the 3rd
The 3rd from behind
The 4th is the longest par-5 on the golf course at 552 yards. The tee shot can either be played conservatively to the left toward a large bunker and away from out-of-bounds, or an aggressive player can attempt to carry the dogleg to set up a shorter approach shot. The 2nd shot is dictated by a massive swale in the fairway, which if carried results in an 80-yard pitch or a 150 yard, blind, mid-iron from the bottom of a swale.
The tee shot at the 4th
The green at the 4th
The 5th is a difficult 440 yard par-4 which the player hits his tee ball over an active highway to a very extreme fairway. There is a large hump on the left of the fairway which will deflect a tee ball backwards for players playing away from out-of-bounds. The right side of the fairway lends a much easier approach thanks to a flat lie and the ability to see the target. The fun doesn’t end there as the green is very severe with a variety of back-to-front and back-to-front slopes.
The tee shot on the fifth
The second shot into the fifth
Looking back at the fifth
The 6th is a downhill 150 yard par-3 that plays into a corner of the property and looks fairly straightforward at first glance, but in reality is surrounded by a number of greenside bunkers and two water hazards left and right.
The tee shot at the sixth
A more revealing look at the hazards surrounding the sixth
The tranquil scene on the sixth green 
The 7th is a short par-5 that plays anything but short. The tee shot must skirt tall grass and bunkers on the right, setting up a roughly 200-240 yard second shot. The green is incredible complex and severe, with a knob on the right side which can cause a 3 putt in the blink of an eye or for a player who leaves a careless pitch for their 3rd, a potential double bogey.
The tee shot at the seventh
The rolling fairway at the seventh
The seventh green complex
The story goes that the original 8th green was a blind par-3 that was bulldozed by a rouge member with a rented bulldozer in the middle of the night in the 1970’s. That resulted in a green located further down a hill but more conventional in nature. The hole was renovated in the 1990’s by Renaissance Golf. The hole is dominated by a bunker, located higher than the putting surface, short right and a steep fall off to the back left of the green. A difficult 189-yard hole.
The eighth from the tee
Looking from behind the eighth green
Depending on the day, the 9th can play anywhere from 470 to 515 yards. A good tee shot leaves the player the option to reach the par-5 in two, by using a huge slope to the right to propel the ball left toward the green which sits at the base of the golf house.
The scenic view from the ninth tee
The approach on the ninth dominated by the large mound on the right
The greensite at the ninth, with the golf house and first tee in the background
The 11th is a 180-yard par-3 plays over a fronting bunker to a green that slopes hugely from back-to-front and gently from right-to-left. The player must either flirt with the fronting bunker or use the back slope to propel the hole toward the pin.
The eleventh
A tiny tee box for the 383 yard 12th sits directly behind the 11th green, requiring yet another tee shot over a highway to a fairway falling away from the player. The second shot is difficult as the putting surface slopes dramatically front-to-back with bunkers both short and long of the green. A player must land their ball short of the putting surface, or use one of the two humps on the front part of the green to roll the ball toward the pin.
The tee shot at the twelfth 
The approach to the twelfth from the right fairway bunkers
The green from front...
And from behind
The 514 yard 13th is largely uphill on the tee shot, followed by a number of humps and bumps leading the player to a green that sits on a peninsula surrounded by steep falloffs.
The tee shot at the thirteenth
The green showing the huge fall off to the left
The 336 yard dogleg right par-4 14th requires a long iron or metal wood off the tee, which depending on how closely the player hugs out-of-bounds on the right would either results in a 130-150 yard approach shot to a small green which is sharply divided by a ridge that points toward the right side of the fairway. Therefore the more the player bails out to the left the less depth the player has to work with on the green. As the story goes, Pete Dye was called to the club to consult about redoing the green. After being driven out to the green he stood there in silence for a while, with the green committee watching. Finally, someone asked “well, what do you think?” to which Mr. Dye responded “man, I wish I could get my guys to build greens like that” before getting back in the cart and leaving. The green was never altered.
The tee shot at the fourteenth 
Coming around the dogleg
The tiered green from front
And from behind
The 423 yard par-4 15th is the only hole on the course that is defined by one ridge, this one playing diagonally off the tee. This green is also defined by a green which features a left side that is much lower than the right. That day’s pin position (L or R) is shown on a large tree on the inside of the dogleg. The second shot is often blind and at least a mid-iron for most players.
The tee shot at the fifteenth
The green at the fifteenth
The 483 yard par-5 16th can either be played with a conservative long iron off the tee, or a driver played toward (or over) the large bunkers on the inside of the dogleg. If not going for the green in two shots, the layup becomes very important and is dependent on that day’s pin position. The putting surface at the 16th is surrounded by short grass and features a number of humps, knobs, and bumps.
The tee shot at the sixteenth
The beautiful setting at the sixteenth
The green at the sixteenth
The 200 yard 17th is a picturesque par-3 which plays over a pond to a green that is benched into a hillside that is covered in pine trees.
The seventeenth
The 18th is a polarizing one. Some find it to be hugely disappointing, while some find it to be a fitting end to a wild ride. The tee shot is totally blind, played toward a small statue of a white bear. When the player reaches the top of the hill, they are rewarded with a stunning view of the golf house and White Bear Lake in the background. The second shot is often with a short iron or wedge toward a somewhat flat green with a small pond to its right.
The blind tee shot
From the top of the hill
The view toward the eighteenth green
A close up of the green
Largely unheralded for most of its history, White Bear YC has grown in national recognition in recent years. That includes reaching #103 on
Golf Magazine's 2017 list of top courses in the United States, #72 on
Golfweek's 2017 list of Top 100 Classic Golf Courses, and #191 on
Golf Digest's 2016 list of Top 200 Courses in the United States. And now it receives the honor of coming in at #1 on our 2017-2018 Minnesota GCA list.