Bear Dance Golf Club

Bear Dance Golf Club in Larkspur was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 2002 as a par-72 layout stretching 7,268 yards through the ponderosa pine forest of Douglas County. The Nicklaus Design team created a course that flows naturally through the pine corridors with minimal tree removal, preserving the forest character of the Black Forest terrain.

Bear Dance Golf Club in Larkspur, Colorado, opened in 2000 as a dramatic design carved through the ponderosa pine forest of Douglas County — a course that uses the natural terrain of the Palmer Divide to create a playing experience that emphasizes the interplay between forest corridors, exposed meadows, and the elevation changes that the transition zone between Denver's suburban plains and the Front Range foothills provides. The course was designed by Rick Phelps and his brother Roy Phelps, continuing the Colorado golf course architecture tradition that their father Dick Phelps had established through his prolific career designing mountain and Front Range courses throughout the state. Rick Phelps brought to Bear Dance the family understanding of Colorado terrain that Dick Phelps had accumulated through decades of work at courses including the original layout at what became the Raven at Three Peaks and numerous other Rocky Mountain designs. The Phelps brothers' routing at Bear Dance accepted the site's natural character — the ponderosa pine coverage, the terrain variations, and the exposure of the Palmer Divide — rather than clearing the forest to create a more open design.

That decision to work with the trees produced a course with defined corridors that reward accurate driving and penalize wayward shots with recovery challenges among the pines. The course plays to par 72 at approximately 7,175 yards from the back tees at elevation — yardage that combined with the Palmer Divide's approximately 7,200-foot elevation plays considerably shorter than sea-level equivalents. The Douglas County setting, roughly 35 miles south of Denver on the I-25 corridor, positions Bear Dance between the Denver metro's southern suburbs and the Castle Rock community that serves as Douglas County's principal city. The residential communities along the Palmer Divide — including Larkspur, Palmer Lake, and the area's various rural properties — provide the local market that supplements destination play from the Denver metro.

The Palmer Divide is a significant geographical feature separating the Arkansas River drainage to the south from the South Platte drainage to the north — a watershed divide that creates the distinct terrain character of the Larkspur area. The ponderosa pine forests that cover much of the Divide above approximately 6,500 feet give Bear Dance its visual character and its primary design challenge: tree-lined corridors that require straight driving and precise angle management from the tee. Those same trees provide shade during summer play and create the dappled light conditions that change the visual character of the course throughout the day. Golf Digest recognized Bear Dance among Colorado's best courses in its annual state rankings, acknowledging the combination of Rick Phelps' design quality and the Douglas County forest setting that gives the course its distinctive character.

The recognition reflects a design philosophy that uses natural forest terrain rather than manufactured visual interest — an approach consistent with the minimalist tradition that Colorado mountain course designers have developed through decades of working with sites that offer natural drama requiring only thoughtful routing to reveal. For Douglas County golfers who want a forest golf experience without traveling to the mountain resort communities, Bear Dance provides an accessible and genuinely distinctive alternative within the Denver metro's southern corridor.