Lake Burton is real "happy place" for me. My family has for years rented a home right across the cove from Saban's. The combination of lake and beautiful mountains is stunning, and the memories I have of my son and his cousins growing up through the summer visits there are wonderful.
Waterfall occupies some tough land, and some of the holes reflect that. The clubhouse setting is amazing and the views are out of this world. The signature drop shot hole is one of the most disorienting I have ever played. Random golf coincidence: My buddy and I were randomly paired with the original developer of Waterfall (JT Williams, who also developed Killearn in Tallahassee and Eagles Landing outside of Atlanta) and his sales director at Troon some years back. This was before I had ever gone to Lake Burton, so I visited Waterfall with great interest.
Glad it will maintained and supported.
Several things about the signature hole:
1. It plays about 8 clubs shorter than the actual distance. You read that correctly...
2. The waterfall is artificial; they shut it off when the last group of the day goes thru, and pump the water back up to the pond on top to get ready for the next day.
3. I have been told that the regulars have a local rule that if you can't find your ball and everyone agrees on where it hit, you drop with no penalty. The area around the green stays very soft, and a golf ball at terminal velocity doesn't just imbed, it often disappears.
It's a unique course, to say the least. Bent grass tee to green, the only such course in Georgia, I believe. It's fun to play on a now and then basis, but I don't think I'd enjoy it much as a regular venue; too weird and no way to walk it. But the first time you see it, you just stand there with your mouth open most of the round. Or wondering where in the heck to hit the ball...