Southeast
Southeast
Lookout Mountain, Georgia
A 2,100-foot mountaintop resort with cliff-edge fairways, canyon panoramas, and the #1 Best New Course of 2025 twenty minutes above Chattanooga.
Overview
McLemore sits on the brow of Lookout Mountain at roughly 2,100 feet, a genuine destination resort built on one of the most dramatic pieces of golf property in the eastern United States. This is the Southeast's most ambitious mountain golf project: cliff-edge holes that fall away into McLemore Cove, canyon panoramas that stop groups mid-swing, and the Cloudland hotel, a 245-room Hilton Curio Collection property, sitting right on the rim. It is built for the buddy trip that wants a bucket-list photograph as much as a scorecard, and it prices accordingly.
The golf is the reason you come. The Highlands, from Rees Jones and Bill Bergin, plays 7,160 yards to a par 72 and holds a spot in Golf Magazine's Top 100 You Can Play, with a clifftop stretch that is as photographed as anything in Georgia. The Keep, Bill Bergin's solo work, opened to immediate acclaim and was named the #1 Best New Course of 2025 by Sports Illustrated: 7,200 yards of modern mountaintop architecture with wide corridors, severe green complexes, and constant exposure to the wind coming up off the valley. The Cairn, a par-3 short course included with the resort fee, is where the group settles bets after dinner.
Access is the thing to plan around. You must be a resort guest, a member, or a registered Friend of McLemore to get a tee time, so the practical move is a stay-and-play package at Cloudland booked well ahead. Chattanooga is twenty minutes down the mountain with a real restaurant and brewery scene, and the mountain itself has Rock City, Ruby Falls, and Civil War battlefields for anyone not playing. At this elevation your ball carries roughly four percent farther than at sea level, and the mountaintop wind will add or subtract more than that on the exposed holes.
Courses · 3
The Highlands
Resort/Semi-Private · Championship
$250-$325
Best for: Groups who want the postcard round. It is a serious championship test at 7,160 yards from the back, but with multiple tee sets and generous landing areas it stays fair for mid handicaps.
Insider tip: At 2,100 feet you will carry roughly four percent farther than at sea level, about half a club on a mid iron, but the mountaintop wind matters more. On the cliff-edge holes the breeze comes up the face and knocks down anything you flight high, so play a lower, tighter ball flight into those greens rather than trusting the altitude number.
The Keep
Resort/Semi-Private · Championship
$300-$375
Best for: Better players and anyone who wants to say they played the course everyone is talking about. The width keeps it playable, but the green complexes will punish a group that is not thinking about approach angles.
Insider tip: Play it second, not first. The Highlands is the gentler introduction to reading mountaintop wind and the roughly four percent altitude carry, and you will score meaningfully better on The Keep once you have calibrated. Take the caddie or forecaddie option if it is offered, because the correct lines off several tees are not visible from the box.
The Cairn
Resort · Approachable
Included w/ resort fee
Best for: Warm-ups, settling bets, and mixed-ability groups where not everyone wants 18 holes on a championship layout. Also the best place to bring a non-golfing partner for a low-stakes hour.
Insider tip: Use it the afternoon you arrive to get a feel for the altitude before it costs you strokes on The Keep. Hitting a dozen wedges here at 2,100 feet is the cheapest yardage calibration you will get all trip, and the ball flies noticeably farther than your book says.
Lodging
Premium
Cloudland at McLemore (Hilton Curio)
$250-$500The 245-room mountaintop hotel that anchors the resort, part of Hilton's Curio Collection, with a spa, conference space, and golf access. Staying here is the cleanest path to tee times on both championship courses, and the stay-and-play packages are usually better value than paying rack rates plus green fees separately. Ask for a room on the brow side for the canyon view.
McLemore Private Home Rentals
$300-$800Mountain homes inside the resort community, which is the right call for a group of eight or more who want shared living space and a kitchen. Split across two foursomes the per-person cost often lands below a Cloudland room. You keep resort golf access, and the walk or short drive to the clubhouse is easy.
Mid-Range
Chanticleer Inn (Lookout Mountain)
$175-$325A charming stone B&B on Lookout Mountain minutes from the resort, and the best-value bed anywhere near the golf. Rooms are individual and characterful rather than uniform, so a large group will be spread across several. Confirm your golf access separately through the Friend of McLemore program, since staying here does not automatically get you a tee time.
Dining
Canyon Grill at Cloudland
$$$American / Southern
The resort's signature restaurant, with mountain views worth timing for sunset. This is the big group dinner of the trip. Reserve when you book your rooms, because it fills with hotel guests on fall weekends.
The Lookout Pub
$$Gastropub
The casual post-round spot at the resort, and where most groups end up after 18 on The Keep. Beer, elevated pub food, and no need to change out of golf clothes. Good for a long, unhurried afternoon of settling bets.
Tony's Pasta Shop (Chattanooga)
$$Italian
A local favorite twenty minutes downhill in Chattanooga, doing house-made pasta in a relaxed room. The right answer on the night nobody wants another resort dinner. Easy to walk off along the riverfront afterward.
St. John's Restaurant (Chattanooga)
$$$$Fine Dining
Widely considered Chattanooga's best restaurant and genuinely worth the short drive down the mountain. Sit-down fine dining with a serious wine list. Book well ahead and designate a driver.
Pro Tips
- 1
You cannot simply buy a tee time here. Access requires being a resort guest, a member, or a registered Friend of McLemore, so sign up for the Friends program online weeks before your trip even if you plan to stay at Cloudland.
- 2
Book a Cloudland stay-and-play package. It is the easiest and usually the cheapest path onto both The Highlands and The Keep, and it puts you in the earliest booking window for weekend times.
- 3
The Keep is the hottest course in the Southeast right now and books out further than anything else on the property. Reserve it the moment your window opens, and take a weekday morning if that is what is available.
- 4
Plan one night in Chattanooga, twenty minutes down the mountain. St. John's is the destination dinner, Tony's Pasta Shop is the relaxed one, and the brewery scene gives the group something the resort cannot.
- 5
At 2,100 feet expect roughly four percent more carry, about half a club on mid irons. The bigger variable is the wind coming up off McLemore Cove on the exposed holes, so flight the ball lower into clifftop greens instead of chasing the altitude number.
- 6
Bring the non-golfers. Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Incline Railway, and the Chickamauga battlefields are all within a short drive, which makes this an unusually easy sell for a mixed group.
Sample Itineraries
weekend getaway
3 daysDay 1: Fly into Chattanooga (CHA), drive up mid-afternoon, check into Cloudland, and loosen up with a lap of The Cairn to feel out the altitude; dinner and beers at The Lookout Pub. Day 2: Morning round on The Highlands along the clifftop, lunch at the resort, then head down the mountain for dinner at St. John's in Chattanooga. Day 3: Early tee time on The Keep, a long lunch at Canyon Grill at Cloudland with the canyon view, and depart. Tight but complete, and it gets both championship courses in.
full trip
5 daysDay 1: Arrive via Chattanooga or Atlanta, settle into a McLemore private home, play The Cairn in the late light, and eat at The Lookout Pub. Day 2: Morning on The Highlands, afternoon at Rock City and the seven-state overlook for the group, dinner at Canyon Grill at Cloudland. Day 3: The Keep in the morning while the wind is down, spa or Ruby Falls in the afternoon, then drive down for Tony's Pasta Shop and a walk along the Chattanooga Riverwalk. Day 4: Replay The Keep now that you have read it once, or take a second run at The Highlands, then the trip dinner at St. John's. Day 5: Nine holes on The Cairn to settle the remaining bets, a stop at the Chickamauga battlefield on the way down, and out through CHA. Five days is enough to play both big courses twice and still see the mountain.
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