The Keep Golf Course Review

The Keep Golf Course
McLemore Resort
Rising Fawn, Georgia
Grade: A+
Comments from teachers: beautiful view and a smart design. Unlike everything I have played.

Routed over the top of a part of Lookout Mountain, Georgia, the Keep is on the new (second) course McLemore Resort. The keep is part of a larger complex that also includes the Highlands course, a short track, a spacious well green, houses and the fantastic Cloudland Hotel.

The slogan for the McLemore resort is “Play above the clouds”, which fits for his mountain top, Cliffide Courses.

I had the opportunity to play the keep in the past spring in what was essentially a preview round. The grass still grew and the clubhouse was a double -wide, but the bones are indeed strong.

The keep was designed by Bill Bergen and Rees Jones. Fortunately it is designed to be walkable. I had a caddy, double loop with another player.

The Keep Tart Categorization. It is tempting to call the open, usually treeless holes “left-like”, but the height changes, holes of the cliff, mountain streams, gorges and rock outings are unique.

Still, on the day I played, with the wind that blew, the ball ran quickly and the wild grasses of the fairways, one could be apologized for the thinking ‘left’.

Five of the holes – including the start and finishing holes on every nine – are on Cliff’s Edge. They are quite a face and in some places a bit dizzy. But all holes have a view of distant cliffs, mountains and valleys.

It must be great when the leaves turn colors.

As a whole I thought the keep was fun. The design offers a lot to think and rewards a good shot. At the same time, however, a bad shot is usually not fatal.

Unless you send one over the cliff. That ball is dead.

My favorite hole was the 529-Yard Par 5 fifteenth. From the Tee box the uphill plays to a relatively flat plateau, with a drop left and a small hill on the right.

In the second shot, players are confronted with a large rock that is switched off in the middle of the fairway. A large bunker stays behind and again, a shot on the right rolls off a slope in the wilderness.

Up and outside the rock is another plateau.

The fairway when it approaches the green, falls in a Gully and then rises again. The green is well defended in front and right. However, there is room to miss the left.

The two sudden height changes – from Tee to Fairway Plateau and from Plateau to Plateau over the rock – had me somewhat carefully considering which clubs I should use: from where my Tee -shot landed, I had the length to remove the rock; If not, what does a layout look like?; From the second plateau, which club should I use to ensure that I did not end up in the Geul in front of the green?

There was more thinking than on a typical PAR five where it got the ball as far as I can do twice and then choose a club for the approach.

Apart from the cliff holes, the most striking hole can be the seventeenth. A short uphill par 4 (336 yards), it has an approach and green framed by rock walls.

It was really well done.

I will choose a few more holes:

With a T -shirt over a canyon, followed by a approach to a green behind another rock -walled canyon, the first gives a real idea of ​​what player stands for. However, the gap is not all heroic carry. There is room to save left.

The Dogleg Fifth requires a decay due to a rock with rock. The extent to which the shot should wear depends on how much a player decides to chew. A big tee shot leaves a wedge in the green. A safer shot clearly leaves a longer approach.

There is really no excuse to be in that canyon. If there is doubt, Hich is placed far below the fairway.

In both cases, the green is far below the fairway, with a picturesque rocky pond and waterfall on the left.

The last one I will mention is the par fourth eighteenth, which is a dogleg left with a downhill -t -shirt shot over rocky accessings. The fairway is next to the cliff and challenges a player to get too far.

The view from the tee is great. I can’t think of finishing hole that I played with a more dramatic setting.

From the rear T pieces, the Geept tops at 6, 654 meters. The whites are at 6, 022 and the Reds on 4, 843. The course website says that it can be stretched to 7, 800 Yards if necessary.

No slope and assessment have been published on the course website or on the map I have, but I think it will not be scored as particularly difficult. The fairways are wide; The greens are big and honest.

It would not be fair to try to assess the course conditions on the Keep based on my game. The Tee -Boxes, Fairways and Greens were still growing. Yet I think players will find the circumstances to be excellent in the future. Even in the early growth phases, and in the late winter the greens were good; The course was playable. I played preview rounds in many worse conditions.

In a fast -growing destination golf market, the keep stands out for his dramatic setting. I certainly didn’t play anything like that. I would like to return to play his sister course, the Highlands, and play the keep again as soon as it is completely grown.

A photo tour of the Keep Follows

The Keep Golf Course Review was first published on Golfblogger.com on September 13, 2025 from notes and photos about a round that was played in April 2025. Follow all reviews of Golfblogger de Link.

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