THE KEEP

#1 Best New Course of 2025 (Overall)

— Sports illustrated

We are thrilled to welcome Members, Guests, and Friends TO EXPERIENCE THE KEEP.

Your golf experience at The Keep may be one of the best golf days of your life. The drama of the site, combined with turf quality, strategy of the course, and personalized services will make your day here unforgettable. The 479-acre property forms a natural amphitheater with uninterrupted cliff edges, providing dramatic and open views, making it an ideal natural spectator course. The landscape features five converging streams creating enhancing the golfing experience. Ancient boulders and rock outcroppings define areas of play, frame natural tee grounds, and encircle the 17th green. Water features from natural streams provide irrigation and add strategic elements to the course. The Keep celebrates nature, carefully preserving natural areas and mountain wetlands as a key focus. It is a golf experience unlike anywhere else.

Please review all documents below for more information about guest rules of play, carts & caddies, and scorecards.

FACTS & FIGURES

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GOLF CART POLICY

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CADDIE INFORMATION & RATES

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360° Tour

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BIG, BOLD, ANCIENT & MODERN

The Keep is a strategic golf course featuring large greens, wide fairways, and dramatic inland views. Designed to reward thoughtful and precise play, it allows for multiple ways to approach each hole, with the best strategy varying daily based on conditions and player ability. The course combines stunning landscapes with a flexible design to create a welcoming and memorable experience for golfers of all skill levels. The Keep promises strategic challenges, beauty, and pure enjoyment, leaving a lasting impression on its players.

“The natural beauty of the land with the natural beauty of the views… this golf course is one of a kind.”

REES JONES

THE BEST OF BOTH GENERATIONS

BILL BERGIN

As a former professional golfer, Bill Bergin played in more than 250 professional tournaments worldwide, including three U.S. Opens and two British Opens, and as a teaching professional gained valuable insights into the game of the everyday player. As a designer, he has been involved in the planning and design of over 120 projects, including Richland Country Club, Santa Rosa Golf & Beach Club, Minnesota Valley, and 36 holes at Tennessee Grasslands. Bill’s accomplished and varied career, including his 30-year body of design work, make him uniquely qualified as one of the top designers of the current era.
REES JONES

Rees Jones has designed or redesigned more than 225 golf courses in his career, including seven U.S. Open venues, eight PGA Championship courses, five Ryder Cup and two Walker Cup sites, as well as the President’s Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Club. Among his notable original designs are Nantucket Golf Club, Atlantic Golf Club, The Golf Club at Briar’s Creek, RedStick Golf Club, Ocean Forest Golf Club, Haig Point Club, Waldorf Astoria Golf Club, The Bridge and Cascata Golf Course.

“The blending of natural beauty with a mental and physical challenge makes Golf the greatest game. The Keep is the epitome of that union.”

BILL BERGIN

COURSE FEATURES

LAND FIRST

The design unfolded through a dedicated effort focused on creating strategic challenges, drama, beauty, and pure fun. The blending of land and design welcomes golfers of all abilities.

RIBBON TEES

The Keep’s ribbon tees will provide flexibility to account for weather and wind conditions. Some holes will move tees as much as 100 yards or more. There is minimal use of formal “tee boxes.”

FLEXIBILITY

The Keep is designed to have maximum flexibility and championship conditioning. The setup of the golf course varies from day to day based on course and weather conditions. It is anticipated that most golfers will play the course at no more than 6,500 yards, but the course will have the capability of stretching to over 7,800 yards.

WALKABLE

The Keep is less than a five-mile walk from the Member tees with 500 feet of elevation change. This distance is less than most major championship venues and unusual for a mountain top golf course.

LARGE GREENS

The Keep has large greens that match the scale of the property and allow for contoured elements to create interesting putting surfaces. The design of the greens balances interest, strategy, speed, and scale.

BENTGRASS GREENS

All 18 greens of The Keep are bentgrass, a surface considered to be the best putting surface in golf. Its finely textured blades allow balls to roll with less resistance, resulting in a smooth and fast roll.

OPEN VIEWS

There are at least five locations across the course where you can see at least a portion of all 18 holes. A majority of the holes can be seen from most every location on the course due to the amphitheater shape of the property.

CLIFF-EDGE HOLES

There are 1.5 miles of cliff edge holes at The Keep. Five holes play along this dramatic setting: 1, 9, 10, 11, and 18.

TURF & GRASSES

Most golf courses have 25 to 30 acres of fairway. The Keep offers over 70 acres of fairway, plus 30 acres of first-cut running to natural areas. The openness allows playability on windy days and assists with the pace of play.

“The combination of an ever-present, spectacular view with distinct, engaging golf holes makes The Keep one of the most memorable courses you will ever play.”

BILL BERGIN

MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Limited MEMBERSHIPs available

National memberships are available at The Keep. For full details about Membership opportunities, please click the button below.

MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

BE A PART OF GOLF HISTORY IN THE MAKING

The Keep is the newest cliff-edge golf destination located adjacent to our internationally-recognized Highlands course in northwest Georgia. National memberships are available but limited to 100 individuals.

The Keep has been recognized by Sports Illustrated as the Best New Course in America for 2025. It was also awarded the runner up Best New Course accolade by Golf Digest, and currently ranks #25 in Golfweek’s list of Top 200 Resort Courses.

The Keep takes golf at McLemore to another level.

Playing it as it Lies

We are designing the purest golf experience on a mountain’s cliff-edge. We are not reshaping the land because we have found land that does not need to be reshaped. We are not creating new features because the features already exist. We are simply applying Rule No.1 in golf, the most sacred of all rules, to the design and development of this course. We are “Playing it as it Lies.” Not because we did not want to improve the condition, but because we could not. An ironic circumstance, as the property is a mountain course where golf can often feel compromised, The Keep property is the perfect blend of where the Highlands meet the Homeland.

“A MOUNTAIN SITE WITH A SEASIDE FEELING.”

— Rees Jones

Located along the eastern cliff edge of Lookout Mountain, The Keep is designed as a walkable, mountaintop golf experience thoughtfully laid out by Bill Bergin and Rees Jones. Set 2,300 feet above sea level, the location maintains an average high temperature of 82°F from April through October and features natural streams, small lakes, and native plants including rhododendrons and mountain laurels.

This course promises to be one of the most scenic and enjoyable courses to play in the southeast offering five cliff-edge holes along the eastern side of Lookout Mountain. It is so dramatic that legendary golf course architect, Rees Jones, declared during the 2021 U.S. Open that The Keep “could host a major.”