Every year during Masters week, Augusta National reminds the world what golf can be at its absolute best. But while the world watches Amen Corner, something equally exciting is happening quietly across the Southeast. A new generation of courses is being built by visionary architects on exceptional land — producing some of the most talked-about golf in America right now.
These aren't on everyone's bucket list yet. They will be.
1. The Keep at McLemore Resort — Rising Fawn, Georgia
Sports Illustrated's Best New Course in America, 2025
Perched atop Lookout Mountain in northwest Georgia, The Keep is the course that is going to put McLemore Resort permanently on the traveling golfer's radar. Designed by Bill Bergin and Rees Jones, five holes run along a 1,500-foot cliff edge overlooking McLemore Cove, with views stretching 10 to 20 miles into the distance. The par-4 9th plays into a skyline green against the vast horizon. The 18th — already called one of the great finishing holes in modern golf — clings to the mountain's edge with the entire left side supported by ancient rock.
Wide fairways, bentgrass greens, and the first-ever course built with Stadium Zoysia tee to green make it as technically impressive as it is visually stunning. Resort guests and Friends of McLemore can access tee times at $375. It is not cheap. It is worth every cent.
2. The Fall Line — Mauk, Georgia
Golf Digest's Best New Private Course in America, 2025
Located in Georgia's Sandhills region two hours south of Atlanta, The Fall Line sits on 5,000 extraordinary acres in the geological transition zone that millions of years ago was an ancient seashore. Golf architect Gil Hanse turned it down because of proximity to his own nearby course — then recommended Australian firm Ogilvy, Cocking & Mead instead. That referral produced something remarkable.
The East Course — this year's Golf Digest winner — is an homage to the great British heathland tracks, with cascading fairways, muscular native-grass bunkers, and a stunning detour through an open highland meadow with sweeping views of the central Georgia ridges. The West Course channels the Australian sandbelt — think Royal Melbourne, built in Georgia. Membership is capped at 100. For those who can get on, it's golf that feels like it could exist nowhere else on earth.
3. Broomsedge Golf Club — Rembert, South Carolina
Golf Digest Best New Private Runner-Up, 2025
Broomsedge is the course that gets under your skin and stays there. Built on 197 acres of sandy Carolina Sandhills terrain 40 minutes east of Columbia, it was the passion project of first-time developer Mike Koprowski — an Air Force veteran who cold-emailed architect Kyle Franz looking for work, spent years learning the craft as a shaper, then founded his own club with Franz as co-designer.
What makes it genuinely unusual is its flexibility — 20 distinct green sites, alternate routings, and holes where the par itself can change. Every round feels like a different puzzle. The architecture community has been buzzing since preview rounds opened in late 2024, and new ownership from the minds behind The Lido is building out lodging and embracing a welcoming model that will allow limited outside play. Get familiar with it now.
Augusta sets the standard. But the Southeast has never been more exciting for what's being built just beyond the headlines.
Now go book your tee times — and bring something cold for the 19th hole.
Highland Falls Drinks is the official drink of the 19th hole. Explore our full lineup at highlandfalls.us.