Formerly home to Canyon Ridge Golf Club, the Georgia resort-community course traverses over cliffs, canyons and highlands, and features a brand-new 18th hole with a spectacular mountain view. Golf course architects Bill Bergin and Rees Jones oversaw the redesign.
The newly redesigned Course at McLemore in Rising Fawn, Ga. opened for play June 22, WDEF-TV 12 reported. The resort course, which was formerly Canyon Ridge Golf Club, sits atop Lookout Mountain.
Bill Bergin, working with Rees Jones, helped oversee the course changes, which includes a brand new 18th hole with a spectacular mountain view.
“Our goal was to make the golf course really fun, and also allow the excitement to match this incredible topography,” Bergin said. “We kind of divided this golf course into basically our cliff holes, our canyon holes and our highlands holes. We have some up on a high plateau where we are playing on pretty gentle land.”
While standing on the 18th hole, Bergin told WDEF he thinks it’s one of the most exciting holes in the Southeast.
“We believe there will be a few pictures, especially this day and age with people and their cell phones and selfies,” he said. “This will be a well-photographed golf hole.”
The 6th is infamous, he told WDEF. It plays out to a high plateau, and then it drops 100 feet down into the second shot and greens complex area.
“That’s our most dramatic change in elevation,” Bergin said.
Bergin’s team made the green complexes bigger so they absorb shots better.
“There’s more interesting shots around the green because most golfers don’t hit it on the green,” he told WDEF. “They hit it near the green. So, what happens on the ground around the greens is so important. We redid all of that at this golf course.”
It’s a special piece of property, Bergin told WDEF.
“I’ve said in an interview before it actually smells good, which people laugh about, but there is a climate here, okay. It’s special,” he said. “And you come up off the valley floor, and it’s different up here. As we were walking down to this green, we were looking at birds flying below us. So yes, there is this thing about regardless of the golf, you’re just happy to be in this environment and this topography. Enjoying this great piece of land.”
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