If you’re looking for the best-kept secret in American golf, you’ll have to go off the beaten path.
Most destination golf courses are easy to find, with a well-worn road taking you to a place where familiar and oversaturated meet.
But some require you to get lost before finding your destination.
Atop a lonely peak in the Appalachian Mountains, at dizzying elevation, with cliff-hugging holes and views that stretch for more than 70 miles, that’s where you’ll find McLemore Resort. It’s a destination so unlikely that just getting there is an adventure.
You’ll travel two-and-a-half hours northwest of Atlanta toward the Georgia-Tennessee border. You’ll leave the city and head into the distance, where only trees, mountains and the horizon await. You’ll take the road that winds its way up Lookout Mountain, and there you’ll find two dramatic 18-hole courses waiting for you above the clouds.
It’s a golf oasis that is only starting to bloom.
Formerly known as Canyon Ridge, the first course was redesigned by Bill Bergin and Rees Jones in 2018 and is now called The Highlands. While working on that project, Bergin saw what would become one of the most picturesque finishing holes in golf. Standing just outside where the clubhouse now sits, looking out over the valley, Bergin suspected there might be a plateau along the cliffside that they could use to build the new 18th hole. He rambled into the trees and discovered his architect’s intuition was correct. Thus, the 18th hole at The Highlands was born, a cliff-riding par-4 that has sparked a sense of golf wanderlust in many.
The Highlands offers a bit of everything. The links course has canyon, cliffside, and highlands holes, including the par-5 sixth hole, which features a 150-foot drop-off.
Tee off in the morning at 2,300 feet above sea level with the clouds hovering just off the fairway, and you’ll find yourself in a state of golfing nirvana that involves just you, the game, and an expansive view of the Georgia mountains.
But while the postcard views of the 18th hole at the 7,055-yard Highlands Course put McLemore on the map, it’s the resort’s new course, The Keep, also designed by Jones and Bergin, that elevates it to a golf sanctuary, putting it in rare air in American destination golf.
“I love the Highlands. It’s spectacular,” longtime Golf Channel host Charlie Rymer, who is now executive vice president of McLemore, said. “But The Keep is something special. It’s got that wow factor.”
What was once land with only Jeep trails and trees became The Keep — a 7,700-yard layout that sits on a plateau atop Lookout Mountain. Five holes ride the cliff’s edge, providing captivating views, dynamic elevation changes, new Stadium Zoysia grass —the first of its kind in the U.S. — wide fairways, windswept angles and exposed rock outcroppings that deliver a unique golf experience.
The wide fairways were necessary, given how the wind can blow across the mountaintop. The goal was to provide a challenging test for the seasoned golfer while also creating an enjoyable course for the recreational hacker who wants to sip on a drink while chasing their ball above the clouds.
As you leave the 13th green and begin the climb from 14 to 16, the challenge and the views increase exponentially as The Keep prepares you for its rousing finale — the par-4 18th that gives you a highpoint view of the rolling terrain and more than a mile of cliffside views.
“You’ll understand once you get there. Those are some hard golf holes but you look around and it’s clouds and treetops and you don’t really care that you just made bogey,” Rymer said with a chuckle about The Keep’s Signature stretch.
McLemore is still in its infancy. The Keep just recently opened for public play. But the long-term visions for the property are almost as grand as the views.
“I go around the courses and I think, we could host a [USGA] event here,” Brandon Arnold, head PGA professional at the Highlands, said. “It’s like that’s where the grandstands would go. This is how the course would play. That’s how all pros think but this would be an unbelievable setting for that.”
Perhaps that lies in McLemore’s future. There’s also room for another 18-hole course at The Keep should the desire arise. The growth opportunities are untold for one of American golf’s recently unearthed gems.
In the age of destination golf, McLemore Resort has something for everyone with two 18-hole courses, a luxury hotel, three restaurants and a short-course. It’s a mountain golf experience that starts by asking you to disappear into the Georgia clouds.
