The Keep at McLemore Resort brings contemporary big-ballpark golf to a mountaintop setting

As a genre, mountain golf courses tend to be polarizing. Their defenders laud the scenery and the chances for longer tee shots due to elevated tees. Their detractors lament narrow corridors and severe penalties for missing the center of fairways and greens, as well as typical lack of walkability. Wild bounces due to severe slopes, rock outcroppings and intrusive trees can foil seemingly decent shots and can turn a poor ball-striking day into a nightmare.

The Keep, a brand-new golf course within the vast domain of McLemore, a growing north Georgia golf community and resort, pushes the contemporary big-ballpark approach to golf design to the edge – literally and figuratively – in a stunning departure from stereotypical mountain golf.

McLemore Club - The Keep

Rising Fawn, Georgia

Private

4.0

1

Write Review

A collaborative effort by architects Bill Bergin and Rees Jones, The Keep reclines atop Lookout Mountain, a quiet, ancient, craggy behemoth at the southern tip of the Appalachians that stretches some 70 miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee across Georgia’s remote northwest corner. The course's 479-acre tract resembles an elongated bowl, with views from several holes that encompass the entirety of the property in a way very few can offer.

As one would expect from a course in such a setting, The Keep’s features are super-sized. Fairways surge more than 60 yards wide across the windy site. Large greens feature all manner of rolls, ridges and tiers with occasional areas of refuge where shots can be contained and sometimes roll closer to the cup, rather than away. Big bunkers with jagged edges reference the mountain vistas and the rocks strewn about the property.

Some holes meander up into hollows, while a generous handful sit at the edge of a more than 1,500-foot drop into the valley below. The course throws heavy challenges at golfers from the outset, with an almost vertigo-inducing approach to the long par-4 first that must clear a deep ravine strewn with boulders and tree stumps left from the immense clearing project that turned the site into a course. It’s the type of crevasse out of which some ancient mountain monster might slither.

The Keep’s first half-dozen holes can beat golfers up a bit, especially with water lurking close to greens at the 3^rd, 5^th and 6^th holes. A breather comes at the wide par-5 7^th, and then the first of several wow moments hits at the 8^th, a par 3 that drifts down off the mountain to a green benched against the valley beyond. It seems destined to become one of the most-photographed inland holes in America. After the 8^th introduces the valley, the 9^th runs right along its rim, a mid-length par 4 that is the best hole on the course due in part to its relative simplicity. Bunkers right keep players honest but if you are brave enough to place your tee ball down the left, close to oblivion, you are rewarded with a generous look up the length of the tricky green.

The back nine climbs up and down the interior tilt of the property and is the tougher trek of the course’s two halves (walking with caddies is the typical procedure at The Keep, though carts are expected to be available at times, too). The effort is made worthwhile when one beholds the par-4 16^th, kin to the 8^th for its down-valley vista from the landing area. Golfers could be forgiven for expecting this to be the climax, but holes 17 and 18 raise the aesthetic stakes one more time. The penultimate hole, a shortish par 4, plays uphill into an otherworldly stadium of limestone boulders, while the 18^th tumbles back down past several bunkers - perhaps too many - and more rocks to a green at the edge of the dropoff. It’s a fitting end to a round that at times threatens to overwhelm the senses.

If there’s a criticism to level against The Keep, it might be that it threatens the limits of big-and-bold golf as a concept. Extra bunkers occasionally distract from wonderful scenery that could otherwise stand on its own, unobstructed. The way-back tees add up to more than 7,800 yards, and while no sane golfer will play this distance, it still must be accounted for on foot, making for a long walk. I learned that during the preview rounds the course has seen so far, pace of play has exceeded five hours on average. That is a long time to be buffeted by the strong breezes that frequent mountaintops. And while I am eager to play The Keep again, especially as it continues to mature, I did not feel as though I would be keen to go 36 holes in a day there, as I am at many other favorite golf courses.

To be fair, The Keep is hardly alone in reckoning with the joy of wide-open golf and the extra time it takes to play courses like it. Noteworthy layouts like Erin Hills, PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East and several other resort 18s built in the last 20 years all tack an hour or more onto the longtime four-hour standard to which many of the greatest golf places adhere. All that extra property simply takes more time to navigate than more intimate and compact routings.

As of this writing, The Keep’s bentgrass greens are already in superb condition, with its Stadium Zoysia fairways (the first of their kind) finishing growing in in earnest. The course’s official opening is slated for later this summer, when everything should be vibrant and fully dialed in. Green fees are expected to top out at $375; non-member play will come from resort guests and “Friends of McLemore,” who sign up for regular communications from the resort and club via email. In time, I expect The Keep to take up residence in magazines’ top-100 American accessible course lists. Even though it’s a bit lengthier of a walk than some of its peers, many golfers will find its spectacular scenery - and post-round libations - well worth the effort.

Architecture

July 27, 2018

Want to know why golf holes and courses are the way they are, and why you love some and hate others? Learn all about golf course architecture here.