The White Bear Yacht Club (WBYC) added a 9-hole course in 1912 and expanded to 18 holes in 1915. Club records credit William Watson with “lay[ing] it out” and state that in 1915 Donald Ross was engaged both to redesign the original nine and to add a second nine. A contemporaneous surveyor’s map of the 18-hole course—still displayed in the Golf House—corroborates that the bunkered 18 opened that year. Within a year the club hired Tom Vardon (1916–1937) as head professional, who is widely acknowledged to have influenced subsequent detailing as the course matured.
The precise extent of Ross’s authorship has remained a live question among researchers. Club historian Mark Mammel has assembled period accounts: a 1913 Minneapolis Tribune note that the early nine “had no bunkers,” a 1925 article by Commodore W. G. Graves crediting Watson for the layout while noting Ross’s “freely” given advice, and references in Bradley Klein’s Discovering Donald Ross placing Ross at WBYC in 1912 and 1915. This documentation supports an interpretation that Watson provided the routing and that Ross’s role centered on shaping, hazards, and green sites during the transition to 18 holes; Vardon, as on-site professional, likely assisted with bunker work and subsequent refinements.
The course proceeded with minimal alteration for decades. In the 1980s, a local architect modified several holes (notably the one-shot 8th and elements at the 7th and 16th). In 1993, Tom Doak and Jim Urbina of Renaissance Golf Design were retained to restore the 8th, using aerials to re-establish the original bunker scheme and to pull the hillside into the green complex. From 2012 forward, Urbina—working closely with longtime greenkeeper John Steiner—guided in-house work that expanded fairways to meet bunkers, reinstated short grass surrounds (e.g., 9, 12, 15), and advanced a tree policy that re-opened vistas and improved turf. In the early-to-mid 2020s, Urbina continued with a master plan; recent updates include restored cross-bunkering and broader mow lines on holes such as 15 and 16.
Unique Design Characteristics
The present course expresses the site’s “rolling waves” of topography through a routing with five par-3s and five par-5s—a distribution that asks players to use elevation in both carry and run. The 1st, a 405-yard par-4, introduces a recurring theme of elevated targets sitting above broken ground: a single, deep fronting bunker set into a knob obscures the putting surface, and the green sits twenty feet above the fairway on an embankment. The 5th, a short par-3, and the 7th, a reachable par-5, show similar rises fronting the greens, a pre-1920s design device that muddles depth perception and punishes imprecise trajectories.
Among the one-shotters, the 6th and 11th collectively carry a disproportionate share of the course’s bunkering, with hazards pulled off the putting surfaces so that missed greens yield awkward recoveries—a period hallmark visible on the 6th’s ring of set-back pits. The 12th “Short” green’s internal contours—retained despite maintenance concerns in the 1980s—present tiers and fall-offs that can repel even well-struck approaches. On the second nine, the 14th through 16th stretch showcases diagonal angles from the tee and approaches that play up and over intervening hazards. The 15th, especially after recent tree work and reinstated cross-bunkers, challenges line selection and club choice rather than sheer length.
Two par-5s (on the inward nine) are notably bunkerless at the green sites—a decision that lets natural shoulders, false edges, and steep short-grass run-offs defend par. The iconic 9th, playing down from one of the highest points on property, leverages “rolling waves” of land to create a vexing, angled green that now sheds balls into close-mown hollows, an effect sharpened by the in-house restoration of mow lines.
Historical Significance
Within the broader catalog of Ross-associated courses, WBYC is a case study in collaborative authorship on a dramatic site. Contemporary club history asserts that Ross’s 1915 commission encompassed redesigning Watson’s initial nine and planning a second nine; period journalism and later scholarship place Ross on site in 1912 and 1915, but stop short of a definitive hole-by-hole attribution. The course’s enduring significance lies in how these overlapping contributions, filtered through decades of conservative stewardship, produced a compact, idiosyncratic layout whose green sites and lines of charm have not required wholesale re-imagining.
Competitive history also ties the club to Minnesota’s golf culture. WBYC has hosted the Minnesota State Amateur (e.g., 1940, 1954, 2011) and produced notable competitors such as Harrison “Jimmy” Johnston, the 1929 U.S. Amateur champion. Anecdotally, Walter Hagen once held the course record, reflecting the club’s early-20th-century competitive profile.
In recent decades, WBYC has risen in national esteem as restoration has emphasized its native virtues. The club cites recognition in classic-course rankings and in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, underscoring a reputation built more on texture and contour than length.
Current Condition / Integrity
The routing that opened in 1915 remains substantially intact, and the course today still returns to the Golf House after each nine. While mid-century vegetation growth narrowed corridors and obscured the landforms, the 2010s–2020s work has reversed those trends. Fairways have been widened to meet fairway bunkers, short-grass surrounds reinstated around key greens, and select bunkers restored in their original cross-hazard or diagonal placements, especially on the middle of the back nine. The 8th’s restoration (1993) reversed 1980s alterations and reinstated the original green-to-hillside relationship; the 7th and 16th likewise saw modern bunker additions removed or re-worked to harmonize with the historical pattern. The greens, which the club and outside writers have long considered unusually heaving for the region, remain the dominant defense, with the most pronounced interior movement preserved rather than softened. Course setup—particularly firmness and height-of-cut around greens—now accentuates those contours. Yardage and par remain modest and unchanged at 6,471 and 72 (five par-3s/five par-5s), so integrity rests not on scorecard length but on preservation of landform-based strategies.
Sources & Notes
White Bear Yacht Club, “History” page (club website), includes statement that “In 1915 Donald Ross was engaged to redesign the original nine holes and commissioned to add a second nine,” and notes a contemporaneous map displayed in the Golf House; also documents Tom Vardon’s tenure.
GolfClubAtlas, White Bear Yacht Club profile (2017; with updates noted), compiling archival references and club historian Mark Mammel’s research; details the 1912 nine, the 1915 18-hole opening, authorship attribution debates, the 1980s alterations, the 1993 Renaissance Golf Design work at No. 8, and later in-house/Urbina guidance on trees, mow lines, and surrounds, plus hole-specific descriptions cited here (e.g., 1, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14–16).
LINKS Magazine, “White Bear Yacht Club, Minnesota,” which cites Discovering Donald Ross placing Ross on site in 1912 and 1915 and mentions restoration efforts and historical anecdotes (e.g., Hagen).
Golf Digest course profile/round-ups and Top100GolfCourses entry summarizing Watson’s 1912 role and Ross’s subsequent involvement around the 1915 expansion. (Secondary syntheses used to triangulate dates with club sources.)
Minnesota State Amateur records noting WBYC as host (e.g., 1940, 1954, 2011); University of Minnesota Athletics release (2011 champion) corroborates the 2011 venue.
GolfClubAtlas forum update (2024) and WBYC social posts (late-2024) indicating continuing Urbina-led master plan work and specific restorations (e.g., cross-bunkers on 16) and widening/vista projects. (Used for current-condition status; club archival confirmation would further strengthen citations.)
Uncertainties & Conflicting Attributions
• Authorship balance (Watson vs. Ross): Club history credits Ross in 1915 for redesigning and adding a second nine; Mammel’s synthesis of contemporaneous sources suggests Watson routed the 18 and Ross “gave freely of his advice” during development, with Vardon assisting thereafter. Ross did not list WBYC in his company’s booklet, and definitive Ross-stamped plans for individual holes have not surfaced publicly.
• Early nine (1912) configuration: The 1912 nine’s exact hole locations are uncertain; the club notes that few or none of those holes survive in today’s routing. A 1917 scorecard and the 1915 survey map align more closely with the present course, but the precise continuity from 1912 to 1915 remains partially unresolved.