Bear Trace at Harrison Bay State Park

Overview: Bear Trace at Harrison Bay is a public Jack Nicklaus Signature course inside Harrison Bay State Park near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The 18-hole layout follows a wooded peninsula beside Chickamauga Lake, with broad Bermuda fairways bordered by pine and hardwood corridors. The current gold-tee profile lists par 72 and 7,111 yards, while water touches twelve fairways and several greens remain open in front to give players more than one way to approach them. The combination of lake views, forest and rolling ground makes Harrison Bay one of the most naturally scenic courses in the Tennessee Bear Trace collection.

History: Harrison Bay opened in 1999 as the second course in Tennessee’s Bear Trace series, a group of Jack Nicklaus designs created for state-park settings. Nicklaus routed the course through the existing woods and around the lake rather than treating the property as a conventional inland parkland site. The park context remains central to the experience, and the course has continued to serve public play while developing a strong environmental identity. Maintenance work has reduced intensively managed acreage and improved water use, allowing more native grass and buffer habitat to remain part of the property.

Did You Know? A pair of bald eagles built a nest near the tenth green in 2010, leading to an Eagle Cam that made Harrison Bay unusually visible beyond Tennessee. The course’s environmental program also removed more than 50 acres of highly maintained ground and reduced annual water use by millions of gallons, according to USGA reporting.