Bear Trace at Tims Ford

Bear Trace at Tims Ford sits within Tims Ford State Park near Winchester, playing 6,763 yards over a par-71 Jack Nicklaus layout that winds through Tennessee woodlands bordering Tims Ford Lake. Opened in 1999, the course features five named tee sets — including the Bear and Nicklaus markers — and Bermuda grass fairways that keep conditions firm and fast throughout the warm season.

Bear Trace at Tims Ford State Park is a Jack Nicklaus Signature design at Tims Ford State Park near Winchester, Tennessee, one of three Nicklaus-designed courses on the Tennessee Golf Trail built within Tennessee's state park system.It occupies a peninsula on Tims Ford Lake, a Tennessee Valley Authority impoundment of the Elk River in Franklin County, and the water defines the course's strategic identity: multiple holes play along or across the lake, with the constant presence of water shaping both the visual experience and the risk-reward decisions that the course presents to players. Tims Ford Lake was created in 1970 when the TVA completed the Tims Ford Dam on the Elk River, flooding a narrow valley and creating an irregularly shaped reservoir of approximately 10,700 acres in the Elk River gorge. The lake's shoreline — characterized by limestone bluffs, hardwood woodland, and the coves and peninsulas typical of a river-valley reservoir — provided Nicklaus with terrain of genuine golf character. His routing on the peninsula maximized exposure to the water while using the ridges and woodland of the interior for holes that provided variety from the lakeside holes that anchor the scorecard. Nicklaus's design philosophy at Tims Ford reflected his characteristic approach to lakeside terrain: use the water as a strategic element on multiple holes without making the course purely punitive, ensure that the forward tees offer accessible play to the full range of golfers who would use a state park facility, and create a routing with enough variety to reward repeat play. The resulting course alternates between holes that play directly along the water and those that move through the wooded interior, maintaining visual interest throughout while never allowing any individual hole to feel like a repetition of what came before. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's decision to commission Jack Nicklaus for the Bear Trace series reflected an ambition to bring championship-quality design to Tennessee's state park system — creating a golf trail capable of competing with the resort and private club golf available in neighboring states. Tims Ford's location in the Highland Rim region south of Nashville, accessible via U.S. Highway 64 from the rapidly growing communities of middle Tennessee, positioned it as a destination for Nashville-area golfers seeking a Nicklaus Signature experience within a manageable drive. The broader Tims Ford State Park setting — with lodge facilities, cabins, boat launch, swimming beach, and hiking trails — makes the complex a multi-day destination. Golfers staying in the park's lodging can combine rounds on the Nicklaus course with the full range of outdoor recreational opportunities that Tims Ford Lake and the surrounding countryside offer. This integration of golf into a broader recreational ecosystem was central to the Tennessee Golf Trail's design, and Tims Ford represents that integration at its most complete.