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

Every hole at Bear's Best Las Vegas was a copy of a hole somewhere else. For more than two decades the full 18-hole course at 11111 W Flamingo Road, inside The Ridges, gave Summerlin something no other public track had: hand-selected replicas of Jack Nicklaus designs from around the world, so golfers who were never going to reach Cabo del Sol, Old Works in Montana, or Muirfield Village could play echoes of them in the Mojave desert. Gimmick or not, it worked. Then, in mid-2025, the gates shut to public play for the last time. What is rising in its place is a different animal: Amara Golf and Social Club, strictly private, members-only, and one of the most significant transformations in Las Vegas golf real estate in years.

Status check: the October 2026 opening is a reported target, not an announcement. Our dated opening watch records what has and has not been published, and is updated as that changes.

The course Bear's Best was

Bear's Best Las Vegas opened in 2001, one of the first entries in Nicklaus's "Bear's Best" concept: gather what the designer considered his 18 finest hole creations from across his global portfolio and put them on one property. No conventional routing was drawn for the site. Nicklaus and his Nicklaus Design team combed the 270-plus courses he had built worldwide, picked out 18 holes, and rebuilt them in the Las Vegas desert. Signage at every tee explained which original course the hole came from and what the design was reaching for. Part museum, part championship test.

Black sand was the signature. The bunkers replicated the copper-smelting slag used at Old Works Golf Course in Anaconda, Montana, and they were the most photographed thing on the property. Mexico supplied Cabo del Sol and Palmilla. The American Southwest gave up La Paloma in Tucson and Las Campanas in Santa Fe, Colorado sent Castle Pines, and one round covered a lot of map. The scorecard was no joke: past 7,100 yards from the back tees at a par 72, with a slope rating of 147. Novelty got people in the door. The slope sent them home.

Las Vegas readers and golf publications handed it recognition year after year. Some of that was the golf, a good deal of it the address. Sitting inside The Ridges, the guard-gated luxury enclave on Summerlin's southern edge, gave a daily-fee operation a setting that read as private club. Few public courses in the valley felt less public.

The sale and the plan

Mulligan Holdings LLC bought Bear's Best Las Vegas in 2024 for $30.5 million, according to reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Behind that entity sit 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. Gaming money and brokerage money, taking on more than 200 acres west of the I-215 Beltway. Neither buyer is a stranger to what dirt out here is worth.

Renovation was never the plan. The owners said they would tear it down and start over, and according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Club + Resort Business, the project carries a reported total investment of $300 million. That figure covers 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 of 15 boutique villas. Big round developer numbers usually deserve a raised eyebrow. The $300 million figure has been cited consistently across multiple news outlets and attributed directly to the owners, so we are reporting it as stated.

Final public rounds went out 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

Amara Golf and Social Club is the full branding, Amara for short, and the positioning is health, wellness, and golf rather than traditional country club. Inside the rebuilt clubhouse: a spa and fitness center, a wine lounge, a fine dining restaurant, a business center, and banquet facilities. Outside, reportedly, a family pool with cabanas, four pickleball courts, a sports lounge, volleyball, and a large event lawn. Count how much of that list has nothing to do with hitting a golf ball. That is deliberate.

On the golf side, Jackson Kahn Design is redesigning the championship 18-hole layout from the ground up, with a new six-hole par-3 course and indoor simulators also planned. Nothing of the Bear's Best concept survives. Where the original was defined by imported Nicklaus replica holes, Amara's golf will be an original design built for members rather than visiting public play. Whether that trades a real identity for a competent generic one is the open question. The gimmick, for better or worse, is gone.

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. Initiation is also reported to increase at each threshold of 50 memberships sold, a scarcity lever as old as private clubs themselves. Note what that buys today: a stake in a club that does not exist yet. 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.

Villa sizes run from approximately 2,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet, and all 15 are expected to be completed by the end of 2027, according to reports. Golf and social facilities are targeting an October 2026 opening. Treat that date gently. It has not been independently confirmed outside of developer statements and secondary reporting, and schedules on projects this size rarely survive contact with a subcontractor.

What it means for The Ridges and Summerlin real estate

The Summit Club already sits inside The Ridges, and it ranks among the most exclusive private golf communities in the American West. Proximity to guard-gated amenity infrastructure has long supported premium pricing in the surrounding neighborhoods. Adding a second private golf club within or adjacent to the same enclave, this one oriented toward wellness and social life rather than a purely golf-centric model, deepens the area's amenity stack in a way few comparable suburban communities in the country can match.

There is a loss buried in the upside. 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. Anyone who held Bear's Best tee times as a neighborhood amenity no longer has them. For owners focused on the long-term trajectory of luxury real estate values, another highly curated, low-capacity private club in the neighborhood calculus is, broadly, a tailwind. Which one matters depends on whether you are holding the house or playing the golf.

Delivery is the open question. The site is active, the investment is substantial, and the ownership group has Las Vegas hospitality credentials, which many announced projects cannot say. Whether Amara ultimately delivers on its stated vision, and whether it opens on the reported October 2026 schedule, remains to be seen. What needs no forecasting is 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.