Jack Nicklaus 4

Jack Nicklaus 4 includes eight different game modes. The game features five 18-hole courses, including four real-life courses: Muirfield Village, Colleton River Plantation, Country Club of the South and Cabo del Sol. The fifth course is Winding Springs, a fictional location created by the developers using a golf course designer program that comes with the game. The course designer allows the player to create a custom golf course, one hole at a time.

The course designer includes over 100 scalable objects, including bushes, trees, and rocks. Approximately two-thirds of the game's instruction manual is devoted to the course designer, which also includes a built-in wizard program to aid the user. The game includes the ability to import and convert online user-created golf courses from Jack Nicklaus Golf & Course Design: Signature Edition, which also featured a course designer. Courses created in Jack Nicklaus 4 are compatible with the game's sequel, Jack Nicklaus 5.

Jack Nicklaus 4 was developed by Cinematronics, with Michael Franco as producer. The team's goal was to develop a game which would recreate the experience of playing real golf, partially through graphics and sounds. The game would also offer more viewing angles than other golf games, and more control over the swing profile. During development, the game included the subtitle Golden Bear Edition.

Development was underway as of January 1995, and the game was announced that month at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show. The game was developed for Microsoft Windows due to the operating system's increased prevalence.

Jack Nicklaus 4 received positive reviews, but sold poorly. The game was praised for its graphics, its multitude of online courses, and its course designer, although some reviewers were critical of the inability to create custom objects with the designer. Some praised the golf ball animations for their realism when hitting different terrains.

Scott A. May of Computer Gaming World called it "the preeminent golf simulation of our time" and an "absolute model of perfection" with nearly "everything you could ever hope for" in a golfing video game. Anthony Baize of AllGame praised the game for its realism, options, and sound effects, but criticized the golfers for looking noticeably different against the game's backgrounds. T. Liam McDonald of GameSpot called it "a fine piece of work with only a couple minor flaws," which included a lack of certain ideas that McDonald hoped to see in a future Jack Nicklaus game.