diff --git a/resolvers/node/index.js b/resolvers/node/index.js
index 9e0e753cc7..61ec534ded 100644
--- a/resolvers/node/index.js
+++ b/resolvers/node/index.js
@@ -54,6 +54,19 @@ exports.resolve = function (source, file, config) {
     return { found: true, path: null };
   }
 
+  // If this looks like a bare package name (not relative, not qualified
+  // with an extension) and we're on a fresh enough version of Node.js
+  // to have `require.resolve`, attempt that first.
+  if (require.resolve && source.indexOf('.') === -1) {
+    try {
+      resolvedPath = require.resolve(source);
+      log('Resolved to:', resolvedPath);
+      return { found: true, path: resolvedPath };
+    } catch (err) {
+      log('require.resolve threw error:', err);
+    }
+  }
+
   try {
     const cachedFilter = function (pkg, dir) { return packageFilter(pkg, dir, config); };
     resolvedPath = resolve(source, opts(file, config, cachedFilter));