Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain State Park

Overview: Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain is a public Jack Nicklaus course in Cumberland Mountain State Park near Crossville, Tennessee. The 18-hole par-72 layout plays to 6,928 yards from the Nicklaus markers and uses the Cumberland Plateau’s elevation changes, flowing brooks, mature pines and natural rock to create a varied woodland round. The course is not dependent on extreme length: narrow corridors, strategic bunkers, water and changing lies make position important, while the tree cover and layered terrain give the holes a strong sense of place.

History: Cumberland Mountain was the first Tennessee course in the Bear Trace collection and opened in 1998. Jack Nicklaus designed the layout around the existing state-park landscape, using the plateau’s folds and streams to create movement between holes. The course became an important part of the Crossville golf community and has repeatedly appeared in public-course rankings, including recognition from Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and Golfweek. Its state-park setting has remained intact: the golf holes share the property with forest, brooks and the recreational landscape around the lake.

Did You Know? The signature seventh hole uses local layered flagstone, also known as Crab Orchard stone, along the front of the green. It is a small architectural detail, but it connects the strategy of the hole directly to a distinctive Cumberland Plateau building material and gives the course a memorable regional signature.