James July-August 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 46
Plans were crafted to construct
a $100 million hotel and conference
center adjacent to the existing 430acre residential community and
golf course in 2009. But Horton’s
dreams of developing on top of the
mountain took a detour he could
have never imagined.
Horton’s plans were hijacked
when the developer who invited
Scenic Land to participate undermined the project by attempting to
partner with a different developer
late in the process. The result was a
lawsuit that lasted five years, with
a jury ultimately ruling in Horton’s
favor in an undisclosed settlement.
addition to making the layout more
playable, the design team was able
to craft the spectacular 18th hole
perched along a cliff with a green
seemingly suspended in air. The
finished product has been widely
recognized as one of the best finishing holes in the world.
The Emergence of McLemore
A Chance for Redemption
Despite winning the legal
battle, the toll of the lengthy proceedings destroyed hopes for the
project’s completion. The existing
homeowners of Canyon Ridge were
left wondering if their community
would ever reach its potential.
“After we settled, we were turning our attention elsewhere,” Horton said. “That’s when people from
the community called us and said,
‘Would you reconsider coming back
up?’ They saw we had persevered
until we couldn’t any longer, and
there was a level of trust there.”
That invitation provided a new
passion to do something special
on the site. Horton’s focus was in
fulfilling a commitment he had
made to the property owners, and
he tackled this second chance
with relentless passion. It triggered
a quest to be part of something
much bigger than themselves, creating beauty out of the ugliness of
the trial and preserving the dreams
of the community’s homeowners.
“It was unbelievable that when
we thought that journey had ended
how another path opened,” Horton said. “The current project is so
much better than our initial vision.
It has involved a team that has
poured their passion, their energy,
and their talents into this. They
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JAMES JULY //AU G U ST 2 02 5
TOP McLEMORE RESORT CENTER HORTON AND
TEAM BREAK GROUND ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
BOTTOM CLOUDLAND HOTEL’S GREAT ROOM
embody what McLemore is about.”
With a renewed vision, the
homeowners of Canyon Ridge
voted to rename the community
McLemore, connecting Horton to
his childhood in the valley below.
After gaining the governmental
support of both Walker and Dade
Counties as well as the State of
Georgia to move forward, Scenic
Land retained designer Bill Bergin
in 2016 to oversee a makeover to
the golf course. Also, nationally recognized land planning group Hart
Howerton was hired to help devise
a new master plan.
In collaboration with golf
course architect Rees Jones, Bergin
worked his magic in revising the
original course into what is known
today as the Highlands Course. In
Suddenly word began to circulate that something special was
unfolding in the northwest Georgia
mountains, and golfers from across
the country traveled to McLemore
to experience the masterful work
of Bergin and Jones.
“Duane is this really cool combination of a builder and a dreamer,”
Bergin said. “He’s got the technical
aspects of construction management and building science from
Georgia Tech, but he is definitely a
dreamer. And I’ll add perseverance
as another trait of his, which is a
perfect description of McLemore in
general. There have been plenty of
hills to climb, and Duane never lost
sight of the finish line.”
The early rave reviews of the
Highlands course since opening
in 2019 provided momentum for
Horton and his partners to pursue their earlier vision of having a
luxury hotel on the property. The
luxurious Cloudland at McLemore
Resort opened in 2024— a magnificent 245-room resort that is part of
the Curio Collection by Hilton with
unparalleled views while featuring
more than 20,000 square feet of
event space and four dining outlets.
Horton and his partners then
enlisted the pairing of Bergin and
Jones to craft a new golf course
called The Keep. Since its much-anticipated opening last fall, the mountaintop layout features expansive
views, five cliffside holes and a natural blend of boulders and wetlands
incorporated with artistry.
“It’s one of the few places that,
as much as you anticipate it, it will
still exceed expectations,” Jones
said. “You can’t describe it until you