Bear Trap Dunes Golf Club

Bear Trap Dunes Golf Club features 27 holes of championship golf in Ocean View, Delaware, with architect Rick Jacobson—a former associate of Jack Nicklaus—routing three distinct nine-hole layouts (Grizzly, Kodiak, and Black Bear) across sandy dunes and coastal terrain near Bethany Beach. The three combinations of 18 holes offer slope ratings from 126 to 130, and the course represents the most complete golf experience on Delaware's coastal resort area.

Bear Trap Dunes Golf Club in Ocean View, Delaware, opened in 1999 as a Rick Jacobson design three miles west of Bethany Beach — a 27-hole coastal golf facility built within the Carl M. Freeman Companies' residential development portfolio and sister property to the Bayside Resort Golf Club that the Freeman organization opened in Selbyville six years later. Rick Jacobson, a former associate of Jack Nicklaus who developed a respected independent design practice, shaped three distinct nine-hole layouts — the Grizzly, Kodiak, and Black Bear nines — across the natural coastal terrain of Sussex County.

The three nines allow for three different 18-hole combinations, giving the facility's players meaningful variety across multiple rounds. Winding bentgrass fairways are lined with native wetland grasses that drift into natural sand dunes throughout the property — a coastal character that reflects the Delaware shore's distinctive landscape and gives Bear Trap Dunes a visual identity unlike the inland courses that dominate most of the Delmarva Peninsula golf market. The 700-home Bear Trap Dunes residential community surrounds the golf course, providing the membership base that the facility serves alongside public tee time players.

The community's amenities extend to indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness facility, tennis courts, outdoor amphitheater, and a clubhouse with restaurant and banquet facilities — a full resort lifestyle infrastructure organized around the Jacobson golf design. Bear Trap Dunes has been voted among the top five best courses you can play in Delaware, a recognition that reflects Jacobson's skill in creating a design that feels genuinely challenging from the championship tees while remaining accessible and enjoyable for the recreational players who make up the majority of the Delaware shore golf market. The course is managed by Troon through Carl M. Freeman Golf, connecting Bear Trap Dunes players to reciprocal privileges at Troon Rewards properties nationwide. The combination of 27 championship holes, natural coastal setting, and resort community infrastructure makes Bear Trap Dunes among the complete golf destinations in Delaware's Quiet Resorts region.