NORTH GEORGIA: Mountain Golf Nobody Tells You About

Here is a fact most traveling golfers do not know. The southern Appalachian Mountains run through North Georgia, the elevations crack 4,000 feet, and the golf is every bit as good as what gets the ink in Asheville and the Highlands corner of North Carolina. Cooler air in summer, dramatic elevation changes that let you swing from the heels with a 7-iron, and views that make the camera roll suspiciously full of yardage-marker photos by the time you check out.

North Georgia has been the quiet section of the Georgia Golf Trail for years, and the locals have not exactly minded. Drive 90 minutes north of Atlanta. Pick a resort. Settle in. The roster runs the gamut from a state park hidden gem at Arrowhead Pointe to the resort-with-spa polish of Brasstown Valley to a club called Currahee that the Trail has now packaged for traveling golfers. This is the region you book when the buddies group wants something different from the Florida-or-Hilton-Head default.

Where to Play

Brasstown Valley Resort and Spa in Young Harris is the headliner. The course is named for the valley it sits in - Brasstown Valley - even though everything around it is mountain country, and from the right tee you can see Brasstown Bald, the highest peak in Georgia at 4,784 feet. The course winds through wildlife preserves, ponds, and streams, and the conditioning is consistently the best in the region. Two hours from Atlanta, two hours from Chattanooga, which means it is also an easy long-weekend pickup if you are coming from anywhere in the southeast.

Sky Valley Country Club is the elevation play and frankly the nerd play, in the best way. Average elevation 3,500 feet, the highest of any course in Georgia, with the entire layout surrounded by Nantahala National Forest. Tee shots from raised tees on a high percentage of holes. The conditioning is exemplary tee to green. If your group has a guy who tracks his shot data and gets excited about altitude effects on carry, this is his round. He will earn it. The rest of the foursome will spend the day staring at views.

Valhalla Golf Club in Helen is the affordability play with the alpine wrapper. Some pundits have called it Alpine mountain golf at its finest. Others have called it affordable golf in priceless surroundings. Both are right. The big shot here is the par-3 15th, where the descent from tee to green runs at least 150 feet, the kind of hole you put down a marker on, hit your iron, and watch the ball hang in the mountain air for what feels like an extra second. Helen itself is a Bavarian-themed town that has gone full Octoberfest year-round. Lederhosen, German bakeries, an actual Haus or two. It looks ridiculous on paper. You will love it after the round.

Old Toccoa Farm is the new-school move in the region. Set along the Toccoa River with a working farm-to-table restaurant, cabins on property, and a course that uses the river and the surrounding ridges with restraint instead of force. This is the couples-leaning North Georgia stop on the Trail, and it pulls the role off without trying.

The Currahee Club in Toccoa is the recent Trail addition. Currahee is a Cherokee word that means "stand alone," which fits the geography. A high-end Jim Fazio design with mountain views and a serious membership-grade conditioning standard, accessible to traveling golfers through the Trail. If you can swing it, you should.

For the off-the-radar play that earns its tee time, point the car toward Arrowhead Pointe at Richard B. Russell State Park. Bob Walker designed it in 2001 and the property sits on a state park peninsula on Lake Russell with no houses, no cars, no power lines, no flight paths, no nothing. Just course and lake. We will say more about Arrowhead in the state-parks deep dive, but here it stays as the value play that quietly belongs on every North Georgia itinerary.

Highland Walk at Victoria Bryant State Park near Athens is the southern bookend of the mountain region: 18 holes built on steep rolling hills, broad crowned Bermuda fairways, and an elevation profile that golfers have compared to a rangefinder stress test. Named one of Georgia's top-25 courses by Golf Now, with more than 21,000 rounds played in its strongest year, run by a state park system that frankly takes its golf seriously. Cart-only is the polite suggestion. Walking is the honest one if your knees are up to it.

Where to Stay

Brasstown Valley Resort and Spa runs the most complete on-property setup in the region. Lodge rooms with mountain views, the spa, two restaurants on site (Brassie's Bar and Grill where the Big Brassie half-pound burger is the buddies-trip move, plus The Dining Room where the bison meatloaf earns its menu real estate), and direct access to the course. Buddies trip or couples trip, the place handles both.

Helen has the Valhalla Resort right next to the course, which puts you in the Bavarian theme park 24-7 if that's your thing. It usually is by the second night.

For Sky Valley, the country club itself accommodates non-members and group functions, and the surrounding area has cabin rentals if you want a more rustic base for a 3-4 day trip. The Dillard House in Dillard is the dining stop you build into the schedule whether you sleep there or not - three meals a day served family style, every recipe from the Dillard family, and a guest book that has included Jimmy Carter and Waylon Jennings.

For Currahee and Old Toccoa Farm, on-property lodging is the move. Currahee for the higher-end couples or anniversary-trip play. Old Toccoa Farm for the cabin-rental, river-view, slower-pace trip.

What to Do Along the Way

North Georgia gives you the things you cannot do in Atlanta or on the coast.

Fly fishing on the Toccoa River and the Chattooga is real. Old Toccoa Farm sits right on the river. Local guides handle the trip, the trout are stocked and wild depending on the section, and a half day on the water before an afternoon round is a real itinerary. The Chattahoochee headwaters near Helen have some of the best trout water in the southeast.

Helen is its own off-course experience. Tubing the Chattahoochee is a thing here - Helen Tubing and Water Park is the operator and a half day in an inner tube with a cooler tied to it is one of the cheapest and best afternoons your group will have. Add a few stops on the Habersham Winery trail and you have built a Saturday.

Dahlonega is 45 minutes south of Helen and it is the wine country of North Georgia. Eight or nine working wineries within a 20-mile drive, with Wolf Mountain, Three Sisters, Frogtown, and Montaluce running the most established tasting rooms. Dahlonega itself is a cute downtown square with restaurants and the Gold Museum, since the first major American gold rush happened here in 1828, three decades before California's. There is a reason the dome of the Georgia State Capitol is plated in Dahlonega gold.

For the buddies side, the bourbon-and-craft-beer crowd has options. Currahee Brewing Company in Clarkesville is a quick stop. Helen's Beer Garden does its German imports right. And down toward Dahlonega, several distilleries have opened up in the last few years that handle the brown-water side of a trip.

For the Brasstown Valley stay, the Appalachian Trail crosses nearby, and a half-day section hike from Neel Gap or Woody Gap lets the non-golfer in the group earn their dinner. Brasstown Bald has a hard-surface trail to the summit observation deck, and on a clear day you can see four states. Worth the drive.

If your trip lines up with fall foliage season, the Russell-Brasstown Scenic Byway is the drive you build into the schedule. Mid-October through early November is the window. The leaves are the show. Plan a round in the morning and the byway in the afternoon.

The Pitch

North Georgia is the mountain golf trip that has been hiding under everyone's nose. The same southern Appalachian terrain that built Linville and Sapphire and Wade Hampton next door in the Carolinas, but with a different feel and a price point that gives traveling groups room to breathe. Brasstown Valley for the resort polish. Sky Valley for the elevation. Valhalla for the value and the Bavarian wrapper. Old Toccoa Farm for the river. Currahee for the new-school upscale. Arrowhead Pointe and Highland Walk for the state park finds. Five days of completely different rounds and not one of them feels like the same course twice.

For the full Georgia Golf Trail booking and packages, Doug Hollandsworth and the Georgia Golf and Travel team handle the trip. 770-266-0331. georgiagolfandtravel.com.

Book it. Bring rain gear in the spring, layers in the fall, and a wedge you can spin. Mountain greens in Georgia are firmer than they look, and the slopes do not forgive a 7-iron that runs out.