White Bear Yacht Club

Set on heaving glacial ground above the northeast shore of White Bear Lake, the White Bear Yacht Club’s golf course plays across some of the most animated inland terrain in the Upper Midwest. The club is private and centered on a “Golf House” separate from the lakeside clubhouse, a quirk of the property’s split-campus layout. Today the course presents at a compact 6,471 yards from the back tees, par 72, with an unusual mix of five par-3s and five par-5s that accentuates the rises and swales of the site. Recent agronomic and architectural work has widened fairways, exposed long views, and reconnected bunkers to fairway lines, yielding firm, running conditions that emphasize placement and speed control. The routing returns to the Golf House after each nine, and the greens—often elevated on natural shoulders or perched across hollows—define much of the day’s challenge. Members encounter a course that is strategic rather than long; wind off White Bear Lake, the diagonal angles into targets, and pronounced interior contours (notably at holes such as 1, 12, and 14) keep scoring honest. Beyond golf, the club maintains an active racquets and sailing culture, anchoring its identity on both lakefront and upland facilities.