THE KEEP

“It is one of the world’s great sites for golf. ”

Rees Jones

Now open for PREVIEW PLAY

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 multiple visible waterfalls, enhancing the golfing experience, especially at the 11th tee. 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 secluded, immersive experience of golf and nature.

Please review the Preview Play Documents below for more information about course conditions, expectations, rules of play, caddies, and scorecards.

FACTS & FIGURES

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PREVIEW PLAY INFORMATION

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PODCAST: NEXT ON THE TEE

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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 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

LAND FEATURES

MOUNTAIN PLATEAU

Resting high atop scenic Lookout Mountain on a plateau like an island in the sky, The Keep is gently sloping and can be described as “Mountain Flat.”

Nothing but Golf and Nature

The Keep is only 1.5 miles from the main entrance to McLemore but feels isolated and protected. There is nothing to distract from the game and the majestic environment in which it is played.

Open Views

With its open views, the Keep offers an expansive golfing experience, making it one of the best natural spectator courses in the world.

AMPHITHEATER-SHAPED

The land is a natural 479-acre amphitheater with the course as the stage and the view as a backdrop.

Mountain Streams

The large bowl shape of the property focuses five separate streams to a single convergence, creating multiple waterfalls along the way. These falls are obvious on the 11th tee and produce one of the more dramatic tee shots in inland golf.

Natural Areas & Mountain Wetlands

Careful thought has gone into preserving sensitive natural areas and mountain wetlands that form the headwaters of mountain streams in the cove below.

Cliff Edge

1.5 miles of uninterrupted cliff edge form the shape of the amphitheater and create a focal point at the center of the property.

Boulders and Outcroppings

Rock features with ancient patina are abundant across the property. In no way do these boulders and outcroppings interfere with play. They enhance the entire course by defining the area of play, providing framing for the natural teeing ground, and even forming a citadel around the sides and back of the 17th green.

Water Features

Water capture of the natural streams provides for irrigation and also forms ponds and wetland areas that add to the course strategy.

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

only 125 EQUITY investor MEMBERSHIPs available

The Board of McLemore is inviting a small number of individuals to become Equity Investor Members of The Keep. For full details about Membership opportunities, please click the button below.

MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

BE A PART OF GOLF HISTORY IN THE MAKING

125 individuals are invited to participate in an exclusive investor membership opportunity in The Keep, a cliff-edge golf destination located adjacent to our internationally-recognized Highlands course in northwest Georgia.

The bar was set when LINKS Magazine recognized McLemore as having one of the top 10 best finishing holes in the world and Golf Digest named our 18th hole, “The Best Finishing Hole in America Since the Year 2000.”

The Keep takes golf at McLemore to another level.

BENEFITS BEYOND YOUR LIFETIME

Leave a legacy for your family and others. An Equity Investor Membership in The Keep provides Members the opportunity to pass down membership to heirs. In addition, Equity Investor Members will contribute to the history and the future of golf.

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.”