The Rapiscan Systems Classic returns to the PGA TOUR Champions schedule this week after a two-year pandemic-related absence, albeit at a new venue.

The tournament, previously held at Fallen Oak Golf Club at the MGM Beau Rivage Resort and Casino just outside Biloxi, Mississippi, moves about 25 miles away to Grand Bear Golf Club, a Jack Nicklaus-designed signature design.

The Grand Bear sits six miles off the highway and six miles deep into the DeSoto National Forest. It is neither residential community nor resort and casino. Only rivers run through it, no roads. It simply is what it says it is: 18 holes dropped into the middle of 500,000 plus acres of pine forest. VICI Golf, a division of VICI Properties, owns the course and 1,700 acres therein, of which the Grand Bear takes up 600. At some point it’s believed there were plans for another 18-hole course, but that has not materialized.

What did materialize was a chance to host the Rapiscan event about seven months ago when PGA TOUR Champions inquired with VICI and Golden Bear about its interest.

“We’ve spent more than half a million dollars on course upgrades and repairs,” Grand Bear head professional Allan Martel said this week. “My staff has done a great job to pull this together and we’re excited to have the players come.

“Some of them have played here before when they were in the area for the tournament previously. But we had a dozen or so players out on Monday who were seeing the course for the first time.”

What they’re seeing in a typical Nicklaus design, which means a predominance of holes that move from left to right and several force-carry shots and forced layups back and forth over the Big Biloxi and Little Biloxi rivers that run throughout the course.

The signature hole is the par-4 17th, which Martel said is the only hole on the course that bends to the left. It runs along the Big Biloxi so water is in play, but the pro figures it shouldn’t be too much trouble for the Champions Tour players barring a bad swing on an overaggressive line.

“They will play it from right around 445 to 450 yards,” Martel said. “But you can bite off a lot of it if you cut across the water.

Depending on how much you take on, most players should have about 150 to 160 yards in.”

The green complexes are about what a player would expect from a Nicklause design, fairly large with some subtle breaks. Martel noted there were two or three holes in which the breaks were more drastic.

The driving areas are deceptively generous; the pine-lined fairways can give the optics of fairways being narrower than they in fact are.

Martel, who was a caddie at Fallen Oak when the Rapiscan event made its debut in 2010, believes the winning score this week will be around 16-under par.

“Scoring at Fallen Oak was tough sometimes because it always seemed to fall when there was some bad weather,” Martel said. “If it was windy or the course was wet from too much rain, it could get pretty tough. As long as we have some good weather I think you’ll see good scores.”