The challenges are varied through the course of the 18 holes. On the 383-yard 12th, a well-hit drive can kick forward off a slope, but the green is hidden by a false front that runs dramatically away from the line of play, often causing what seems to be a great shot to end up in a bunker behind the green. The par-5 13th has a roller-coaster fairway that gives way to a narrow approach, while the back nine’s other par 5, the 16th, has a tight driving area.

The course has been altered a bit over the years. The club has removed bunkers and planted hundreds of spruce trees in the 1960s and ’70s, no doubt a result of the “beautification” movement that swept across much of American golf during that era.

In some cases, Ross’ offset tee boxes were squared to the fairway and on the picturesque 189-yard 8th, a member of the green committee cleared an oak-filled hollow below the tee one winter during the early ’60s, eliminating what had been a blind tee shot.

Led by former golf chairman Mark Hallberg, the club recently restored the course to Ross’ original design. Working with Tom Doak and using pictures from the ’40s, the club has rediscovered lost bunkers and removed many spruces. But for the most part, the committee has left intact the greens, which Doak calls “the most severely undulating greens Ross ever designed.”

In more than the putting surfaces, White Bear is a throwback—nearly everyone walks the course as Ross intended, braving steep hills that can tax even the best-conditioned golfers. Ross designed each hole for
maximum beauty and challenge, and the course provides just as formidable a test today as it did for Hagen and Vardon.

Members like to tell the tale of a guest who spent the day bedeviled by the terrain to which Ross hewed so closely nearly a century ago. Coming off No. 18, the man stormed up to a member and complained that he’d had “only one flat lie all day!”

“Where?” the member asked. “I’ll have to have that fixed.”