Chickasaw Golf Club

Jack Nicklaus's Bear Trace at Chickasaw State Park, opened in 2000 as one of five Bear Trace courses commissioned by Tennessee State Parks, closed for several years in the early 2010s, and reopened in 2015 under the renewed state parks golf operation. The woodland setting has no housing and no roads, a rarity in modern public golf. The par-72, 7,118-yard layout winds through dense hardwood forest with attractive bunkering, scattered ponds, and Piney Creek threading through seven holes. A course rating of 75.1 off the back tees is an honest number, the trees frame corridors tightly enough that long-iron accuracy matters more than length. Player reviews routinely rate it among the best-conditioned state park layouts in the South. Considered one of the best-value Jack Nicklaus Signature courses in the country given state-park pricing. A staple round on the Tennessee Bear Trace trail, pair with Tims Ford, Cumberland Mountain, or Harrison Bay for a full-trail week of Nicklaus.