Bear's Paw Country Club

Bear's Paw Country Club in Naples, Florida is home to Jack Nicklaus's first Signature Golf Course on the West Coast of Florida, a par-72 layout stretching to 7,067 yards from the back tees. Opened in 1980 as the centerpiece of one of Southwest Florida's earliest residential golf communities, the course features seven sets of tees and the strategic bunkering and risk-reward sequences that define the early Nicklaus design vocabulary.

Bear's Paw Country Club in Naples, Florida, is one of the earliest Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses in Southwest Florida, opening on December 3, 1980, in a ceremony that inaugurated what would become among the enduring private residential golf communities in Collier County. Construction on Bear's Paw began in the late 1970s under the ownership of John Murphy, an oil executive from Columbus, Ohio, who had acquired 245 acres with the specific intention of developing a golf community that would integrate seamlessly with the natural setting. Murphy entered into an agreement with Nicklaus Design to produce an 18-hole Signature course, giving Nicklaus creative latitude to design a layout that would reflect both the architect's standards and the aspirations of a premium residential community.

Nicklaus, working with Jay Morrish and Thomas Pearson, created a parkland-style layout on the Naples terrain that incorporated the water features, native vegetation, and rolling contours characteristic of his early Florida work. The course's 1980 opening made Bear's Paw one of the first residential golf communities in Southwest Florida — a region that was then undergoing rapid development as Naples emerged as a premium coastal destination. The founding membership established the club's character as a private retreat for full-time residents and seasonal members drawn to year-round golf in the Collier County climate.

Bear's Paw operates today as a fully member-owned private club, maintaining the residential character established by Murphy's founding vision. The community's 245-acre footprint has been preserved as a golf-centric residential environment, with the course remaining at the center of club life more than four decades after its opening. The club is located at 2500 Golden Gate Pkwy in Naples, inside the city limits, making it one of the few private club courses positioned within the urban core of Naples rather than in the outlying residential communities that have expanded the city's footprint in subsequent decades.

This central location has made Bear's Paw an enduring part of the Naples golfing landscape across the full arc of the city's growth from small resort town to one of Florida's most affluent communities.