Atlanta area golf trip recommendation

[WC20814]

Hello - I'm planning on golf trip for early November and looking for options with ~1.5 hours of Atlanta.  Any good North Georgia or Lake courses you would recommend?  We were originally planning to play RTJ National, but they are closed for an event.  It would be ideal to stay at a play that had 36 holes or a golf cabin where numerous courses were accessible.  Any recs would be greatly appreciated. 

[me05501]

Callaway Gardens is okay, not great, but you'd be a little further south and might have slightly better temperatures there than north of Atlanta. Two courses, both are good, one is better than the other. 

 

Chateau Elan has two or three courses I think. It's a nice place to stay, though not really a "guys trip" vibe. 

 

Goose Pond Colony south of Huntsville AL is usually an option but they're replacing the greens on one of their two courses this fall. 

 

There are a lot of options in the Birmingham area. Farm Links has stay and play deals I think. There are also two RTJ sites there but they aren't my favorites by any means.

 

I've heard rave reviews of the courses at Reynolds Plantation. If you have enough guys to chip in on a house rental that might work. 

 

McLemore outside Chattanooga has stay and play packages. Just one 18 currently. It's a fun course but I wouldn't want to play it three days in a row. 

 

Old Toccoa Farm is supposed to be a lot of fun. I think they have cabin rentals now, and there are lots of AirBNB options around there too. 

 

 

 

[david.c.w]

Reynolds will be "best", but also most expensive.

 

Might be more like 2 hours, but as @me05501 said, Old Toccoa Farm should be fun.  Not sure your guys, but Blue Ridge is a cool town with breweries and axe throwing and stuff like that.  Airbnb or VRBO cabins aplenty.  

 

looks like there are 2 other 2nd tier courses within a 20 min drive if you need some variety.

[driveandputtmachine]

I have a group that goes to the GA "Mountains" every year around the end of October.  We do a Ryder Cup style event now that it has grown to 20 people.

 

We stay at The Orchard near Clarkesville, GA.  They have two cottages onsite, one holds 12 and the other holds 8 and they are side by side in the neighborhood.   We started doing The Orchard only and then for a few years did The Orchard and Apple Mountain, many on the days we wanted to play 36, which is tight this time of year, opted for us to go back to playing on the Orchard only.   The Orchard gets booked up pretty quickly because of how good the deal is, the course is normally in pretty good shape(only one screwy hole), and the accommodations (with each cottage having multiple kitchens, each room having it's own bathroom) are very good.  They treat you like royalty while you are there too because they really appreciate you coming.

 

We go up Thursday morning early and groups start teeing off just after 8.  We eat a quick bite, then play another 18.  The next two days are 18 only(College football on Saturday) and no one wants to play 36 on the day you drive home.  All in at the Orchard for two nights of lodging, dinner served in the cottage one night, and unlimited golf it is 350 per person.  The other night we either eat at the club or we cook on one of the grills at the cottages.  There is a fire pit and we always have a good time.

 

Forewarning, there is nothing to do anywhere close by.  No really nice restaurants (The club serves pretty good food) and there is no night life whatsoever to speak of anywhere close.  We go for the group to hang out, drink, play golf, watch football, and really nothing else.

 

Apple Mountain has more places to stay and the course, while no where near anything else either, is a bit closer together and easier than The Orchard.   To combat this, I put together for our four rounds we play a lot of the holes differently at the Orchard.  There are numerous days on a few holes we play the all the way up tees and some all the way back and change it around every day.  I also figured out changing the hole handicaps so it works well.  We have everything from a couple of scratch to a 21 handicap going on this trip.

[Tyrus Webb]

On 7/29/2022 at 12:22 PM, david.c.w said:

Reynolds will be "best", but also most expensive.

 

Might be more like 2 hours, but as @me05501 said, Old Toccoa Farm should be fun.  Not sure your guys, but Blue Ridge is a cool town with breweries and axe throwing and stuff like that.  Airbnb or VRBO cabins aplenty.  

 

looks like there are 2 other 2nd tier courses within a 20 min drive if you need some variety.

 

Old Toccoa is excellent, but there's nothing else around there I'd want to play on a golf trip.  You could plan OTF several days in a row and enjoy it, though.

 

Pursell Farms is a longer drive than you're looking to make (2.5 hrs), but it's a good set up.  If you have good players in your group the course might get stale after the second loop around.

[achun88]

+1 on Reynolds if you’re open to it being a little pricier. Went with a group of 12 and stayed in the houses on property. Definitely worth the extra money to be central and not have to worry about travel time each day.