McLemore, the acclaimed golf club and resort destination perched atop Lookout Mountain in the northwest Georgia town of Rising Fawn, opened The Keep on Oct. 1. The course is the highly anticipated Bill BerginBill Bergin and Rees Jones cliff-edge championship design.
Joining the Highlands Course at McLemore, The Keep is open for play to equity investor and national members of The Keep, as well as resort guests staying at Cloudland at McLemore Resort.
A mountaintop headlands course, the par-72 layout can stretch to more than 7,700 yards on five sets of tees and features five cliffside holes overlooking McLemore Cove. The holes present golfers with breathtaking vantage points at every turn.
“Since the announcement of this project over two years ago, The Keep has been one of the most highly anticipated new golf courses, and we’re beyond proud to celebrate the official grand opening,” said Duane Horton, president of Scenic Land Company, the developer of McLemore. “Years of planning and hard work have made The Keep a global golf destination, and we’re excited to welcome guests from around the world to see what makes this course so special.”
“The Keep presented the rarest of opportunities, routing a course that fits perfectly on one of the most dramatic and scenic sites found anywhere,” Bergin said. “Our focus was to craft a layout that touches all of the natural beauty of the property, tests every aspect of a golfer’s game, and delivers unforgettable moments along the cliff edge of Lookout Mountain and McLemore Cove.”
“The Keep golf course is truly unparalleled,” co-designer Rees Jones said. “Its dramatic cliffside setting inspired a one-of-a-kind golfing experience. While the course carries a unifying theme, each hole has its own distinctive personality. It’s designed to offer a balance of challenge and playability for everyday golfers while at the same time it is championship ready.”
Bergin recently addressed the challenge and playability balance and how the site dictated the appeal for low and high handicappers alike.
“We have big fairways — on purpose — which works well for the resort but secondly works well for windy conditions. Because we cleared 200 acres on the edge of a mountain, the wind is a bigger factor than on the Highlands. That means you’ve got room to play and forgiveness off the tee. People will have fun driving the golf ball.
“As you get closer to a greens complex, however, the level of preciseness required increases. People will be playing from very diverse angles because the fairways in some cases are 80, 90 yards wide. But that changes completely if you’re hitting into a wide green, a shallow green, a deep green.”
THE SOCIAL ASPECT
Proud to be part of the Cobbs Creek Golf Course transformation in Philadelphia. Construction on the historic 27-hole Championship golf course has begun as our team puts the finishing touches on the driving range and practice facilities. #TTGSiseverywhere #PhiladelphiaGolf pic.twitter.com/lSPZM3zClW
— Total Turf Golf (@TotalTurfGS) October 16, 2025
AN OLYMPIAN RESULT
Olympic View Golf Club in Langford, British Columbia, Canada has rolled out a new master plan for its championship golf course in conjunction with Lobb + Partners, a design firm with offices in the U.K. and Canada.
Unveiled during the club’s 35th anniversary, the master plan revolves around strategy and sustainability. While all golfers should expect to benefit from playability and conditioning perspectives, the plan is intended to reflect the club’s commitment to achieving GEO Certification, recognized worldwide as the standard for sustainable practices, with priorities on water conservation, biodiversity support, efficient maintenance and local community engagement.
"This master plan aligns perfectly with our GEO Certification goal," said golf course superintendent T-Jay Creamer. "It’s not just about how the course plays — it’s about how it integrates with the surrounding nature and how we ensure it thrives for decades to come."
Lobb + Partners will widen fairways, expand short-grass areas and introduce naturalized zones with the aim of promoting biodiversity. The firm also expects to adjust hazard placements to accommodate the modern game, both for the low-handicap big hitters and the average players seeking a more playable, option-laden experience.
"Olympic View is a special site," said architect Alex Hay, a partner at Lobb + Partners. "Our goal was to preserve the character of the existing layout while introducing updates that enhance sustainability, strategy and visual impact. It’s about helping the course evolve in a way that feels natural and enduring."
Originally designed in 1990 by William Robinson, Olympic View embodies the quintessential Pacific Northwest course, with fairways ribboning through massive firs and snow-capped mountains beckoning in the background. Scenery and shotmaking merge in unforgettable fashion at the 455-yard, par-4 17th, which houses a Japanese garden and a 60-foot waterfall behind the green.
Work begins in the fall of 2025 with the reconstruction of the seventh green, with the aim to provide more variety and fairness in hole locations.
ISABERG ENTERS FINAL STAGES
Isaberg Golf Club in southern Sweden is in the final stages of its West course renovation, spearheaded by Caspar Grauballe, the immediate past president of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects.
Located 37 miles south of the city of Jonkoping, Isaberg is home to an East course, built in the 1970s and the West, a 21st century product — both of which have hosted prominent professional tournaments.
"The club approached me with the aim of modernizing and enhancing the playing experience," Grauballe told GolfCourseArchitecture.net. “They recognized that, given the quality of the site and its natural surroundings, the courses had untapped potential.
"Set beside a large lake and river, the West unfolds across rolling terrain, dominated by mature pine woodland and swathes of heather undergrowth. During my initial assessment, it quickly became evident that several of the issues the greenkeeping team faced with drainage and turf health stemmed from the design of the green surrounds. In many places, water would flow directly onto greens and poorly placed bunkers had created bottlenecks where wear and tear became an issue.
"Water management around the greens is critical in the Nordic climate, where winter ice build-up can significantly impact playing conditions well into the short playing season. The challenge, then, became one of improving strategy for the players while enabling the greenkeeping team to maintain higher-quality surfaces through smarter design."
Unable to fully fund a complete overhaul of the greens, the club elected to have Grauballe focus on reworking green surrounds, including the bunkers. Work began in 2018.
"I focused on reducing the number of bunkers and rethinking the strategic character of each hole to encourage more thoughtful shotmaking," Grauballe said. "A key objective was to make the course fairer for players with slower swing speeds by opening up ground-based options and removing greenside bunkers that previously blocked running approaches.
"To retain interest and variety, the new surrounds now feature more pronounced undulations and closely mown run-offs. Bunker construction has been upgraded with CapillaryFlow liners and a small Durabunker edge, resulting in vastly improved durability. The bunkers now retain their shape without constant edging and washouts have been eliminated, freeing up staff to focus on overall course preparation and detail work."
Work will continue on the remaining five holes, including the creation of a new fourth green that will peer down at Hammarsjon Lake.
