The PGA Tour’s 2024 season will conclude at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia with the finale of the FedExCup Playoffs. The top 30 golfers in the FedExCup standings will compete for a $25 million winning prize with players guaranteed at least $550,000 just for making it to the Tour Championship.
The oldest golf course in the city of Atlanta, East Lake is an urban track that was the home course of the legendary golfer Bobby Jones. Over the past year, it has undergone a complete restoration under the guidance of noted architect, Andrew Green. Even with substantial changes that emphasize it’s classical characteristics, East Lake remains a lush parkland layout with narrow fairways, difficult Bermuda rough, uneven lies, and fast greens.
Because of the nature of numerous holes, it is known as a “risk/reward” type of course, and is one of the more difficult ones on Tour with birdies typically tough to come by. It has been the permanent home of the Tour Championship since 2004, and it has been held at East Lake 22 times since 1998.
The key to performing well at East Lake remains the same: Keep the ball out of the penal Bermuda rough. There also might be an added edge towards quality “around the green” golfers as the shots into and around the green will offer more variety with the expanded hole locations, as well as more options for recovery with added short-grass areas.
Unlike every other Tour event where all players start on a level playing field at even par, this week’s field will begin with staggered scores based on their position in the FedExCup points ranking list. Despite the scorn of most golf fans who despise the staggered start, this will be the sixth consecutive year of utilizing the “Starting Strokes” format which sees players start between 10-under and even par depending on their ranking. Starting with the first round on Thursday, Scottie Scheffler will start with a two-stroke lead over Xander Schauffele, down to as much as a 10-stroke lead over those in positions 26-30.
Certain players this week like Justin Thomas and Tom Hoge who are starting ten shots behind have no realistic chance of overtaking anyone near the top of the board. This limits the excitement and drama of this final event and typically makes it one of the more unwatchable golf tournaments of the year.
East Lake Golf Club – Course History
East Lake’s proud history began well before it started hosting the PGA Tour Championship. With Burton Smith at the helm, a group of 65 men formed the Atlanta Athletic Club in 1898. The club initially did not have a golf course, but four years after it was founded, it had more than 700 members. The club leaders soon realized the increased interest in golf, and in 1904, acquired some property in the “suburbs” of Atlanta to create a country club. They approached architect Tom Bendelow to lay out the course.
The grand opening of the Bendelow course took place on July 4, 1908, on the property known as East Lake. The course, a sparkling stretch of water surrounded by forestland, was originally the site of an amusement park in the 1890s. In 1913, famed golf course architect Donald Ross redesigned the Bendelow course at East Lake. The remodeled course featured a routing plan that allowed each of the nine holes to conclude at the clubhouse.
After the Ross rebuild, the course remained untouched until some changes were made before the 1963 Ryder Cup. Not long after the United States team destroyed Europe in that event, the neighborhood surrounding East Lake began to deteriorate and the course fell into disarray and was mostly forgotten. Fast forward to 1993 when the property was purchased by the East Lake Foundation and the job began to restore the course as a tribute to Bobby Jones.
In 1994, famed architect Rees Jones completed a restoration of Donald Ross’s original layout. Rees would go on to renovate the course again in 2008 and 2016. It has been the permanent home of the Tour Championship since 2004 and is the culminating event of the PGA Tour playoffs.
2023-2024 Renovation
As East Lake approaches its 120th year, architect Andrew Green was brought in to do a complete restoration of the course. The goal was to recapture the feel of the golden age of East Lake and to return the course back to a version that better embodied the design Donald Ross left behind. Since the final putt in last year’s TOUR Championship, not a single round of golf has been played here. The course has been remade from the roots up – along with removing hundreds of trees, every square inch of turf has been replaced, and every green has been redesigned.
When the 30 golfers arrive on site, East Lake will look completely different for those who have played it previously. “Nothing is the same, not a single golf shot on the property,” said Green. After doing a deep dive into the history of the course, Green relied on a rare aerial photo from 1949 as his blueprint. How the changes will affect scoring will be determined this week.
Greens are now planted with TifEagle bermuda (replacing Mini-Verde) and sit lower and are larger. They also feature expanded perimeter options for new hole locations. In addition to refurbished bunkers and greens, Green recontoured the fairways to create more movement and slide. In dry conditions, they’ll run faster with the switch to Zorro Zoysia. Tees have also been adjusted to emphasize more shot shaping. The yardage has increased to 7,455 yards (from 7,346), and the par is now 71 versus 70 because the downhill 14th will be played as a par 5
“I don’t have a real sense whether there will be lower or higher numbers shot,” Green said. “I will feel it’s a success if we see a variety of shots played by the champion,” he said. “Not only different clubs off the tees, but around the greens being able to get up and down from not only the traditional heavy Bermuda grass rough but also the (new) short grass areas. The bunkers aren’t nearly as deep as they were before but I still think there is a lot of challenge there.
Course Features
*The preview below is from past editions at East Lake before the renovation that was just completed. While the fundamental routing of the course remains the same, the changes are drastic and will remove much of any “course history” advantage certain players might have.
Playing as a par-70 from a distance of 7,346 yards with only two par-5s, East Lake is a brute of a course. It measures as the 7th longest course in the Tour rotation. Typically a par-72 layout for members, the 1st and 14th holes are converted from par-5s to long par 4s which adds to the toughness of the course. Built on gently rolling hills there are numerous elevation changes and uneven lies. In fact, from an elevation standpoint, it is the 4th highest annual course. The front and back nines start off playing uphill at the lake. Except for four holes, the routing is east-to-west with holes typically playing either into the wind or downwind.
One of the most consistent themes from players when talking about East Lake is how the course is all right in front of you. There aren’t any doglegs, tricks, or quirks. While it is tree-lined, it is open enough in most directions to view other parts of the course. Along with its length, the course will challenge players in other ways as well. It has the most narrow fairways on Tour at an average of only 24.5 yards wide.
Even though water only comes into play on four holes, it provides a scenic backdrop and adds to the difficulty level of those specific holes. Over the past dozen years, the winning score without adding in the staggered start has usually been between 7-under to 13-under. Over the past five events, the average score has been 0.99 strokes under par with the 2022 tournament on a soft course being the easiest on record at -2.09.
Warm-weather grasses dominate the course as the fairways are Zoysia and the greens and rough are Bermuda grass. Players who can’t keep the ball straight on their tee shots will have to deal with tricky 2.5″ Bermuda rough which is one of the most penal on Tour due to its unpredictability and tendency to wrap around the ball. The greens and bunkers were renovated by Rees Jones to more closely resemble Ross’s original design. The greens are elevated above the greenside bunkers are have difficult slopes for players to deal with when putting. They can get speedy when firm but typically run at around 12 on the stimpmeter.
Each of the four par-3s measures over 197 yards and has the second-longest average out of any group on Tour. The par-5s are reachable in two shots and, along with the par-3s, provide plenty of risk/reward opportunities. The two par-5s average a combined -0.54 under par are must-birdie holes. It is the par-4s, nine of which are over 440 yards, that make East Lake a brute of a course. Those holes average 4.07 with five of them featuring a bogey or worse rate of at least 18%.
The course itself starts underwhelmingly with the first four holes being rather nondescript. Once past that early section, the course provides an exciting mix of challenging and easy holes. The last six holes provide quite a challenging closing stretch. The highlights include the island par-3 15th hole that brings a double bogey into the equation on errant approaches off the tee. The 18th is a long par-5 that usually has the tees moved up on Sunday to entice players to be aggressive on their approach.
Strokes Gained Analysis
Off the Tee
As previously mentioned, East Lake packs plenty of length and requires drives to be hit off most of the tees. That along with such narrow fairways is the reason it has an adjusted driving accuracy rate of 62% which is the eighth toughest on Tour. With the Bermuda rough being the 3rd most penal, there is a high premium on keeping the ball in the fairway. In fact, player after player has remarked on how that is the most important factor for having success on this course.
After winning the Tour Championship in 2020, Dustin Johnson said, “The rough here is always brutal, and you never get a good lie ever. You have to hit the fairway, and then once you do hit the fairway, you’ve got to hit a perfect iron shot if you want to get it on the green. The only way to control the golf ball coming into the greens is hitting out of the fairway.”
With an average driving distance of 299 yards, length off of the tee is also very beneficial this week which makes Total Driving a key stat. With relatively few hazards and doglegs players are free to bomb away off the tee as evidenced by the 83.5% driver rate in last year’s tournament.
Strategically placed fairway bunkers in the landing zones also add to the challenge as do the fairways that slope against the preferred ball flight off the tee (similar to Augusta National). There are no angles or shortcuts for bombers to take advantage of on this course. It sounds very simple, but if you don’t hit fairways at East Lake, you don’t hit greens. Said Rory McIlroy a few years back, “If You don’t hit fairways, and with this Bermuda rough, you have no control over your golf ball.”
Approach
East Lake features one of the largest Greens in Regulation (GIR) differentials when comparing shots from the fairway to the rough. It is very hard to get spin on the ball when it is sitting down in the Bermuda rough. The overall GIR sits at around 63% which is the 9th lowest out of all of the measured courses. It is also difficult to gain strokes on approach because greens have well-defined target areas. Many of the green complexes are elevated and undulated, making it paramount to position the ball below the pin.
Long-iron play will be key as around 32% of approaches are hit from 200+ yards. The other range that is above average is from 100-150 yards which has an approach rate of 31%. Said Tiger Woods, “This is a ball-striker’s golf course. You’ve got to hit your golf ball well. You’ve got to drive it well and place your irons correctly.”
Around the Green and Putting
Players will have multiple challenges when missing the green at East Lake. The Bermuda rough around the greens is especially lush and very difficult to get a consistent strike with a wedge. There are also numerous greens with shaved run-off areas of Zoysia grass which is a really sticky surface. For some players, this makes chipping around the greens more difficult because of how the ball comes off the surface of the grass. A couple of years ago, Bryson DeChambeau summed up the difficulty around the greens at East Lake by saying, “I couldn’t believe some of the lies I drew around the green. It was near impossible to judge and understand. Really penalizing. It was like hitting it in the water and kind of frustrating.”
As is one of the hallmarks of a Donald Ross course, the greens are sloped from back to front leaving some speedy downhill putts if players are above the hole. The passing of time, however, has lessened much of the difficulty from the origins of these greens. Overall, East Lake is one of the easier courses on which to putt with last year’s ranking as the easiest on Tour.
Most Important Stats For Success at East Lake Golf Club
*In order of importance
- Total Driving
- Fairways Gained
- SG: Approach
- Proximity: 200+
- SG: Par 4
- Driving Distance
- Good Drive % (Bermuda Rough)
- Birdie or Better %
- SG: Putting (Bermuda)
- Bogey Avoidance
Weather Forecast – Atlanta, Georgia
