Bear's Best Becomes Amara: Summerlin's New Private Golf Club

For more than two decades, Bear's Best Las Vegas was one of Summerlin's most distinctive public offerings: a full 18-hole course at 11111 W Flamingo Road, inside The Ridges, where every hole was a hand-selected replica of a Jack Nicklaus design from somewhere else in the world. Golfers who couldn't make it to Cabo del Sol, Old Works in Montana, or Muirfield Village could play echoes of those layouts in the Mojave desert. That era ended in mid-2025, when the course shut its gates to public play for the last time. What is rising in its place is an altogether different proposition — Amara Golf and Social Club, a strictly private, members-only development that represents one of the most significant transformations in Las Vegas golf real estate in years.

The course Bear's Best was

Bear's Best Las Vegas opened in 2001, making it one of the first entries in Nicklaus's "Bear's Best" concept, which assembled what the designer considered his 18 finest hole creations from across his global portfolio. Rather than designing a conventional course for the site, Nicklaus and his Nicklaus Design team studied holes from the 270-plus courses he had built worldwide and recreated 18 of them in the Las Vegas desert. The result was part museum, part championship test — each tee featured signage explaining which original course and design philosophy the hole was channeling.

Distinctive black-sand bunkers, replicating the copper-smelting slag used at Old Works Golf Course in Anaconda, Montana, were among the course's most photographed features. Holes drawn from courses in Mexico (Cabo del Sol, Palmilla), the American Southwest (La Paloma in Tucson, Las Campanas in Santa Fe), and Colorado (Castle Pines) gave the layout an unusual geographic range compressed into a single round. From the back tees, the course stretched past 7,100 yards at a par 72, with a slope rating of 147 — a serious test that went well beyond novelty.

The course earned consistent recognition from Las Vegas readers and golf publications, and its location within The Ridges — the guard-gated luxury enclave on Summerlin's southern edge — gave it a setting that felt closer to a private club than most daily-fee operations in the valley.

The sale and the plan

In 2024, Bear's Best Las Vegas was acquired by Mulligan Holdings LLC for $30.5 million, according to reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The buyers are Andrew Pascal — co-founder and CEO of PlayStudios and a former president and COO of Wynn Las Vegas — and Mike Mixer, co-founder of Colliers International's Las Vegas operation. The property spans more than 200 acres west of the I-215 Beltway.

The new owners announced they would not renovate — they would rebuild entirely. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Club + Resort Business, the project carries a reported total investment of $300 million. The figure encompasses the complete demolition of the existing clubhouse, a full redesign of the golf course in collaboration with golf course architects Jackson Kahn Design, the construction of a new two-level clubhouse, and a residential component consisting of 15 boutique villas. The $300 million figure has been cited consistently across multiple news outlets and attributed directly to the owners; we are reporting it as stated.

The public course took its final rounds in June 2025. Redevelopment of the site began in September 2025, according to real estate and industry reporting.

What Amara is being built to be

The new club is being branded Amara Golf and Social Club — or simply Amara — and is positioned as a health, wellness, and golf destination rather than a traditional country club. The rebuilt clubhouse will include a spa and fitness center, wine lounge, fine dining restaurant, business center, and banquet facilities. Outdoor amenities are reported to include a family pool with cabanas, four pickleball courts, a sports lounge, volleyball, and a large event lawn.

On the golf side, Jackson Kahn Design is redesigning the championship 18-hole layout from the ground up, and a new six-hole par-3 course and indoor simulators are also planned. This is a complete departure from the Bear's Best concept: where the original course was defined by imported Nicklaus replica holes, Amara's golf product will be an original design built for members rather than visiting public play.

Membership is capped. Ownership has stated a limit of 250 general memberships, with an additional 15 memberships reserved for purchasers of the on-site villas, for a total of 265. The initiation fee has been reported at $250,000, with monthly dues reported at approximately $4,000 covering family access including dependents to age 25. The initiation fee is reported to increase at each threshold of 50 memberships sold. We are reporting these figures as stated by the developers and widely cited in the press; prospective members should verify current pricing directly with the club.

The 15 villas — ranging in size from approximately 2,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet — are expected to be completed by the end of 2027, according to reports. The club's golf and social facilities are targeting an October 2026 opening, though that date has not been independently confirmed outside of developer statements and secondary reporting.

What it means for The Ridges and Summerlin real estate

The Ridges is already home to The Summit Club, one of the most exclusive private golf communities in the American West, and proximity to guard-gated amenity infrastructure has long supported premium pricing in the surrounding neighborhoods. The addition of a second private golf club within or adjacent to the same enclave — one with a wellness and social orientation rather than a purely golf-centric model — deepens the area's amenity stack in a way that few comparable suburban communities in the country can offer.

For buyers already in The Ridges or considering it, the conversion removes a public-access golf course from the immediate area and replaces it with a private facility. For those who held Bear's Best tee times as a neighborhood amenity, that access is gone. For those focused on the long-term trajectory of luxury real estate values, the addition of another highly curated, low-capacity private club to the neighborhood calculus is, broadly, a tailwind.

Whether Amara ultimately delivers on its stated vision — and whether it opens on the reported October 2026 schedule — remains to be seen. The site is active, the investment is substantial, and the ownership group has Las Vegas hospitality credentials. What is already settled is the fact that one of the valley's most beloved public golf courses has permanently closed, and nothing quite like it will exist in its place.

Sources

Verified facts and figures in this article are drawn from the following primary and secondary sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal — Bear's Best sells for $30.5M; Las Vegas Review-Journal — course to become private club; Las Vegas Review-Journal — owners share $300M vision; Club + Resort Business — $30.5M sale; Club + Resort Business — $300M vision; Nicklaus Design — Bear's Best Las Vegas course page; PGA of America — Amara Golf and Social Club facility profile.