Bill Bergin – Rees Jones Design Debuts in Top-25 of Golfweek’s Top-200 Resort Course Rankings; Earns Best New Course Honors from Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. – McLemore Resort, the destination resort located atop Lookout Mountain in Northwest Georgia, celebrates three impressive golf course honors The Keep received from several prominent media outlets.
Golfweek’s “Ultimate Guide to Golf Course Living and Great Escapes 2026” placed The Keep at No. 25 in its “Top 200 Resort Courses in the U.S.” rankings. Designed by Bill Bergin and Rees Jones, the mountaintop headlands course features five cliffside holes overlooking McLemore Cove, offering golfers breathtaking vantage points at every turn. The Keep was the only new course to achieve top-40 status on the list.
Golfweek’s team of course raters determines the publication’s annual course ranking lists. Each year, these experts evaluate various courses, grading each nominated layout based on 10 specific criteria. According to Golfweek, “[the raters] also file a single overall rating on each course. These overall rankings are averaged, allowing each course to be compared and ranked against other courses.”
The Golfweek Best 2026: Top 200 Resort Courses in the U.S. rankings can be found HERE.
“Golf developers search across the globe for extraordinary land, and our site within the McLemore community offered exactly that,” Jones says. “Its dramatic cliffside mountain setting gave us the opportunity to create a course that is both cohesive in flow and distinct in personality from hole to hole. This landscape has helped shape a golf experience that is now earning The Keep international acclaim.
“The Keep continues to grow in reputation thanks to its one-of-a-kind mountain setting. Nearly everyone’s first round is marked by a sense of awe at the dramatic landforms, and the course routinely surpasses expectations. The Keep offers the rare combination of challenge and repeat playability that brings golfers back time after time.”
Sports Illustrated named The Keep the Best New Course for 2025. For its rankings, SI enlisted golf course architects, PGA professionals, superintendents and other industry insiders to share their insights about the best courses to open in the past 12 months. Celebrated golf course travel and architecture writer Joe Passov noted in the story, “The Keep rolls out vast fairways, which works well for resort play, as well as to accommodate windy conditions. By clearing 200 acres on the edge of a mountain, wind is usually a factor. However, the fairways narrow as they get closer to a green complex, to keep big hitters on their toes.”
The Keep also finished runner-up as Golf Digest’s Best New Public Course for 2025. Golf Digest’s course ranking panelists visited The Keep along with other candidates across the country. Per the publication’s architecture editor, Derek Duncan, “The Keep’s scenic vantage point, peering over a flank of Lookout Mountain in northwest Georgia from over 300 feet above the valley below, is almost unmatched for an inland course.”
“Diversity of venue is a big part of what makes golf an extraordinary game,” adds Bergin. “From my first walk around the site, I knew The Keep was unlike any other property I had experienced. It has been extremely rewarding to be able to blend sport with nature and have it result in nothing less than spectacular golf.”
Awards and accolades continue to roll in for McLemore. Golf Digest recently ranked McLemore as one of the 50 premier golf resorts in the U.S. Also ranked as one of the top-200 resort courses in the U.S. by Golfweek, the Highlands Course boasts one of the best finishing holes in golf according to both Golf Digest and LINKS Magazine. In addition to The Keep and the Highlands Course, McLemore boasts a six-hole short course called The Cairn. Golf Digest also tabbed the finishing hole on the Highlands Course the 22nd best hole in America, while LINKS Magazine named it a top-10 finishing hole in the world.
In February 2024, McLemore introduced Cloudland – a marquee Curio Collection by Hilton hotel perched atop Lookout Mountain with stellar views of the surrounding North Georgia mountains. Considered the Southeast’s most anticipated hotel opening in years, the luxury resort property offers 245 guest rooms, including 21 suites and 20,000 square feet of state-of-the-art indoor meeting and event space.
At Cloudland, guests can enjoy a variety of amenities, including four exceptional restaurants and bars. One standout establishment, Auld Alliance, is named after the oldest alliance in the world between Scotland and France, which dates back to 1295. This restaurant is the only one in the United States that features a unique blend of rich Scottish and French cuisine. Cloudland also features a cliff-edge infinity pool and bar, along with a full-service spa. Additionally, guests have access to endless opportunities to explore Lookout Mountain and the surrounding area.
Stay and play bookings can be made by contacting the McLemore Golf Sales team via email at stayandplay@mclemoreclub.com, by calling (800) 329-8154 or by visiting McLemore’s Stay-and-Play packages online information page.
For more information, please visit www.mclemoreresort.com.
About McLemore
Located on Lookout Mountain, Georgia, McLemore is a resort community featuring The Highlands golf course, named the “Best Finishing Hole in America since 2000” by Golf Digest, and the cliff-edge course, The Keep. Cloudland, a member of the Curio Collection by Hilton, is the newest addition with 245 hotel rooms and state-of-the-art meeting and event spaces. Across the entire property, guests enjoy five restaurants and a spa that attracts visitors both regionally and internationally.
To learn more, visit: https://www.themclemore.com, and follow on social media: Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
