Published August 19, 2025
McLemore’s Craig Falanga on Cliffside Golf and the Resort’s Expansion
With The Keep, its latest course atop Lookout Mountain, the northwest Georgia resort believes it has delivered its best golf experience yet.
Some of the most desirable golf trips in America share some geographic similarities. They’re tucked along the coast, dropped into the desert, woven through sand dunes, or nestled into the mountains. But McLemore Resort in northwest Georgia, an hour from Chattanooga, charts its own territory: Golf on the edge of a cliff.
With the valley below laid out in all its vast glory, golfers play along and sometimes over the cliff’s edge. It is golf “above the clouds,” as the resort calls it. And it’s getting better.
Originally opened in 2005, the Highlands Course got a significant renovation from Rees Jones and Bill Bergin in 2019. Among other changes, the architects brought the par 4 18th so close to the cliff “as to induce panic in any golfer with a fear of heights,” as Golfweek wrote. Golf Digest deemed that hole one of the 18 best built since 2000, and gave the course a cup of coffee on its 2021 version of the 100 Greatest Public Courses—it appeared at No. 99 before falling off the list’s two most recent iterations. Highlands currently fills that same spot on GOLF magazine’s adjacent list.
But now Jones and Bergin have another shot at giving Mclemore a perennial place on such rankings. Earlier this year, McLemore debuted its second course, The Keep, for limited preview play. Set to open officially in October, The Keep is a bigger ballpark with wide fairways and large bunkers, and its a golfing experience that steers into what made the finisher at Highlands great. There are seven holes directly on the cliff’s edge, and much of the course meanders close to it. Up there 2,000 feet above sea level, the wind can move, hence the wide fairways.
“We feel like The Keep is a better course than the Highlands,” says Craig Falanga, who heads sales and marketing for the resort. “We think it’s going to be higher ranked.”
Whether the rankers agree or not, McLemore is building something special on its unique perch atop Lookout Mountain. To the two courses, add a new 245-room Hilton, several private homes for rental, a six-hole short course that also dances with the brow, and some luxury touches—like a spa and a handful of dining options that range from elevated to casual to grab-and-go.
“It’s a special place,” says Falanga. “The site itself is breathtaking.”
Falanga joined McLemore in late 2024 as VP of sales and strategy, a similar role to the one he held at the heralded Florida golf mecca Streamsong the four years prior. We called him up to hear about that move and what awaits golf travelers in Rising Fawn, Georgia.
Trip Notes: McLemore Resort
Location: Rising Fawn, GA
Architect: Bill Bergin and Rees Jones
History: Originally opened as Canyon Ridge in 2005, McLemore renovated and rebranded Highlands in 2019 and added The Keep in in 2025.
How to play it: As a stay-and-play guest or through the “Friends of McLemore” program, which offers one tee time per season.
Stay-and-play: Options customized based on group.
Golf Trip Guide: You came from one of the best golf resorts in the country in Streamsong. What made you want to embark on this new journey? Why was McLemore a compelling landing spot?
Craig Falanga: There are a lot of similarities between this place and what Streamsong was when it was open, and it reminded me a lot of the early days there. I was involved there prior to opening, and I saw a lot of the same opportunities here that happened at Streamsong. The Keep is really special, and I think we’ve got a great foundation, and it was an opportunity that was really hard to pass up. And there are no hurricanes in Chattanooga.
GTG: What’s unique about the property and those golf courses?
CF: What do golfers look for when they’re taking a golf trip? They’re looking for variety. They’re looking for something that is a bucket list experience. And they’re looking for—It may not be the thing that drives you to book, but it is definitely important—what’s the hang like, the food and beverage experience on top of that. McLemore has all of those.
The Highlands is currently in Golf Magazines Top 100 You Can Play. We feel like the Keep is a better course than the Highlands. We think it’s going to be higher ranked. It is in the running for Golf Digest’s best new course in America this year and GOLF magazine’s, so we’ll see what happens.
Having two, what I would consider, bucket list courses, and [potentially] two courses in the top 100, which is really by definition a bucket list. I think it gives us something that’s going to turn some heads.
And then, the foundation with the Cloudland Hotel. You can stay in a hotel room if you want, or we have 30 private rental homes that are available, as well, that really cater to the buddy trip experience for those that want to be under the same roof with a common area.
You put that on top of the incredible site. The views at the Highlands are great, but the Keep takes those views to a different level because you can see off of the side of the brow from pretty much every hole. It’s a links golf course on top of a mountain, and you just don’t see that—not in the United States, anyway. You can go over to Scotland or Ireland and play links golf on the top of a cliff that overlooks the ocean. Ours happens to overlook Macklemore Cove and an ocean of trees.
GTG: Is the Keep officially open, or still doing preview play right now?
CF: Pre-opening preview play right now. Looks like our official opening is going to be the beginning of October.
GTG: Do you stay open all winter?
CF: Yes, but with two days a week for maintenance, so one course will close on Monday and Tuesday. The other course closes on Wednesday and Thursday for maintenance. That’ll happen from January through mid-March. And we’re actually going to airify Highlands December 15th and open it back up toward the end of January this year.
GTG: What else can groups get into at McLemore?
CF: We have a top tracer driving range. We have a putting course that’s lighted, adjacent to the Highlands Clubhouse. We have a six-hole short course that’s right on the brow edge, as well, that is a lot of fun. The longest hole is around 80 yards and the shortest is around 40. That gets a lot of activity in the afternoons after golf. It’s been really popular.
The resort amenities are great. We have a spa. We’ve got an infinity pool that is at 2,000 feet of elevation. If you rent one of the rental homes, you can have dinner catered into your home. We do have five restaurants on site, as well, so you don’t really have to leave the resort once you’re here, unless you just absolutely want to. But between those restaurants, you can pretty much have a different dining experience every day for every new meal.
“You can see between 15 and 18 holes from every hole on the golf course. That’s just unheard of on top of the mountain.”
GTG: Destination golf is booming. How does McLemore ultimately compete? What’s the elevator pitch?
CF: I’ve traveled quite a bit and seen a lot of what’s out there. The Highlands is a more typical mountain golf course—there are treelined fairways and drop-shot holes that have significant elevation change, and you’ve got several holes that have breathtaking views.
The Keep is an experience that I haven’t seen in the States. To play a golf course that is at 2,100 feet of elevation, and it’s a core golf course. There are no homes out there. You can see between 15 and 18 holes from every hole on the golf course. That’s just unheard of on top of the mountain. You might see that at, I don’t know, St. Andrews, you might see that somewhere like that, but you don’t see that in a mountain experience, and it’s just so unique, and it was really thoughtfully done. There was a lot of intentionality around the design. There’s a ton of variety out there.
There are seven holes that are right on the cliff edge, and then all the holes around them, the holes that run up into the mountain floor, you can still see off the mountain edge. And so you really just walk around with your jaw on the floor for four and a half hours while you’re playing.
The other thing that’s cool that we do here is we have a caddy program at the Keep, and the climate here is so nice that it’s a great walk. We require walking before 10, and then after 10 you can take a cart with a forecaddie. It’s a pure golf experience.