Callaway Resort & Gardens has long been one of Georgia’s most beloved destinations, a place where golf, nature, and Southern hospitality blend into an experience that feels both restorative and energizing. Spread across 2,500 acres of lakes, forests, and flowering gardens, the resort offers golfers something rare: championship golf surrounded by scenery that slows the pulse and sharpens the senses. As part of the Georgia Golf Trail, it stands out as a stay‑and‑play retreat where the game becomes richer simply because of where you’re playing it.
This is the kind of place where a morning tee time feels like a privilege, an afternoon round feels irresistible, and the quiet moments in between become memories of their own.
The Lodge: Comfort, Warmth, and a View of the Pines
The Lodge at Callaway is designed for golfers who want more than a room—they want a retreat. The architecture blends natural materials with a warm, contemporary style, creating spaces that feel both refined and relaxed. Many rooms open to balconies overlooking the gardens or the treetops, giving you a peaceful vantage point before and after your rounds.
Inside, the atmosphere is calm and unhurried. Soft lighting, comfortable furnishings, and thoughtful touches make it easy to settle in. Whether you’re traveling with a group of golf buddies or escaping for a quiet weekend, the Lodge sets the tone for a stay that feels elevated without ever feeling formal.
Dining at Callaway: Flavor, Freshness, and Southern Ease
The resort’s dining options add another layer to the stay‑and‑play experience. The Gardens Restaurant offers an elegant setting where seasonal ingredients and Southern flavors come together in dishes that feel both familiar and refined. It’s the kind of place where dinner becomes part of the trip’s highlight reel—fresh trout, local vegetables, and a glass of wine enjoyed as the evening settles over the property.
For a more relaxed meal, The Country Kitchen serves hearty comfort food with sweeping views of the surrounding landscape. Breakfast here is a favorite among golfers, especially before a morning tee time. No matter where you dine, the emphasis is on warmth, flavor, and the kind of hospitality that makes you feel like you’ve been coming here for years.
Callaway Resort & Gardens Golf: Two Courses, Two Distinct Personalities
Golf at Callaway Resort & Gardens unfolds across two courses that share the same natural beauty but offer completely different experiences. Lake View delivers a scenic, flowing round shaped by gardens, hardwoods, and long stretches of lakeshore, while Mountain View brings championship edge and strategic intensity to every swing. As Doug Hollandsworth, president of the Georgia Golf Trail, puts it, “Callaway offers some of the most enjoyable and memorable golf in the state,” a sentiment that rings true the moment you step onto either tee.
Lake View: Scenic, Strategic, and Rooted in Callaway’s Original Vision
Lake View offers a completely different rhythm from its championship sibling, embracing a style of golf that is as scenic as it is soothing. Designed in 1952 as the resort’s original layout, the course winds through flowering gardens, mature hardwoods, and long stretches of shoreline along Mountain Creek Lake. The fairways are wider and more forgiving, but the beauty of the setting and the presence of water on nine holes create a round that still demands attention and rewards thoughtful play. It’s a course built on flow and feel rather than brute force, inviting golfers to settle into a comfortable tempo as the landscape unfolds around them.
The routing moves gracefully between wooded corridors and open lakeside vistas, creating a sense of calm that becomes part of the experience. Wildlife is common, the air feels softer near the water, and the greens—while more generous than those on Mountain View—still require a confident stroke. Lake View is the round that reminds golfers why they fell in love with the game in the first place: it’s beautiful, playable, and endlessly enjoyable.
The Signature 10th Hole: A Par‑3 That Lives in Every Golfer’s Memory
The par‑3 10th is Lake View’s defining moment, a hole that blends simplicity, beauty, and psychological pressure into one unforgettable swing. The tee sits on its own island, connected by a narrow bridge, and the green floats across the water like a target suspended in stillness. At 146 to 163 yards, the shot is not long, but the carry is absolute—there is no bailout, no clever escape, no place to hide from the moment.
The wind often drifts across the lake, adding a layer of uncertainty that makes club selection feel more delicate than the yardage suggests. The green is welcoming but not trivial, with subtle slopes that reward a well‑struck shot and punish anything tentative. Despite being rated the easiest hole on the card, the 10th rarely feels that way. The setting amplifies the stakes, and the silence between contact and landing is a moment every golfer remembers. It’s the kind of hole that captures the essence of Lake View: beautiful, inviting, and quietly thrilling. Many players walk off the green wanting to turn around and hit the shot again—not because they missed it, but because the moment itself is that good.
Mountain View: Championship Golf With a Southern Edge
Mountain View delivers a different kind of thrill. Once home to the PGA TOUR’s Southern Open, the course has a pedigree that becomes obvious the moment you step onto the first tee. The fairways are narrower than those on Lake View, often framed tightly by mature pines that force you to shape shots rather than simply swing away. Elevation changes, angled landing areas, and firm, quick greens create a round that rewards precision and punishes hesitation. It’s a course that tests your creativity as much as your confidence, and it’s the round golfers tend to replay in their minds on the drive home.
The Signature 6th Hole: A Par‑5 That Defines the Course
The par‑5 6th hole stands as Mountain View’s signature moment, a dramatic blend of water, slope, and strategy that captures the course’s championship character. The fairway slopes noticeably from left to right, nudging tee shots toward the lake that borders the entire length of the hole. A well‑struck drive up the high left side is essential to hold the slope and create the right angle for the second shot. Most golfers choose to lay up, but the decision is far from simple. A cove of the lake cuts into the fairway roughly a hundred yards short of the green, forcing you to choose a precise landing area that avoids both the water and the sloping rough.
The approach to the elevated green demands full commitment. A large bunker guards the left side, while the front and right edges fall sharply toward the water, creating a visual tension that heightens the difficulty of the shot. The green sits just high enough to make distance control critical, and anything slightly mishit can leave a delicate recovery from sand, slope, or tightly mown runoff areas. It’s a hole that rewards discipline and punishes indecision, a true risk‑and‑reward par 5 that stays with you long after the round ends.
A Course Built for Golfers Who Love a Challenge
Mountain View is the round golfers talk about on the drive home. It’s the course where you measure your game, where a well‑played stretch feels like an accomplishment, and where the natural setting elevates the experience rather than softening it. The combination of championship pedigree, strategic design, and scenic Southern terrain makes it a compelling counterpoint to Lake View—and an essential part of any stay‑and‑play trip to Callaway.
The Resort Experience: Beauty Between Every Round
What sets Callaway apart is everything that surrounds the golf. The gardens bloom in waves of color throughout the year, offering peaceful paths and quiet corners to explore between tee times. Robin Lake reflects the sky in a way that makes even a short walk feel restorative. The Butterfly Center creates a world of soft wings and tropical blooms that feels almost dreamlike.
Whether you’re biking through the trails, relaxing by the water, or simply enjoying the stillness of the pines, the resort gives you space to breathe. During the holidays, Fantasy In Lights transforms the property into a glowing spectacle that draws visitors from across the South.
This is a golf trip where moments off the course matter just as much as those on it.
A Place Golfers Return To
Callaway Resort & Gardens has a way of staying with you. Maybe it’s the island tee at Lake View, or the challenge of Mountain View’s closing stretch. Maybe it’s the quiet mornings on the balcony, the dinners that linger into the evening, or the feeling of being surrounded by nature at every turn.
Whatever it is, golfers tend to leave with the same thought: I need to come back.
And that’s the true magic of Callaway. It isn’t just a place to play—it’s a place to stay, to unwind, and to rediscover why you love the game in the first place.
