Overall, playing at black bear is good, but just that. The 135$ greens fee is a little incongruent with the course quality specifically. Most tee boxes are overgrown, unlevel, and have no provisions for fixing divots. The bunkers greenside and fairway are either way too soft (resulting in plugged lies 8/10 times) or equivalently hard to asphalt. There is little else to complain of course wise, except for the carts which are in need of desperate need of refreshing.

The last time I played this course was over 20 years ago and I have to say this is in the top 30 public courses in NJ. The course was in excellent condition and the staff was outstanding. It is very hard to find any negatives to say about this course other than maybe the price. $127 for a Sunday in the summer season is about “Par for the course” (pun intended). We will definitely come back and play this course and it won’t be another 20 years.

The pace of play was 4.5 hrs for 18 holes. The tee box, fairway and greens were in great condition. However, the sand traps were less than desirable, you can call them "mud pits" really. Greens were supper fast and rolled true.

Wk NB