ATLANTA – The PGA Tour pushed back on player creativity this week at the Tour Championship with two separate decisions to create internal out of bounds at East Lake.
Players and caddies had been considering an alternate route on the par-5 18th hole down the adjacent 10th fairway. The unorthodox direction would essentially take the water hazard in the 18th fairway out of play and would still give players a direct path to the green. Some in the Tour Championship field were also considering a similarly alternate path down the seventh fairway while playing the sixth hole.
“This decision was made primarily out of safety concerns, specifically to prevent players from effectively putting people in harm’s way by taking an alternate route,” the Tour’s chief referee Gary Young said in a statement. “When it sounds like that is going to be a possibility, it necessitates an internal boundary.”
Only the fairway areas of the adjacent holes will be considered out of bounds and no out-of-bounds steaks will be placed between the 18th and 10th fairways.
East Lake was redesigned by Andrew Green following last year’s finale and an estimated 250 trees were removed, including a large stand that separated the 18th and 10th fairways, which gave players an opening to play the last hole differently.
“It seems like a safer play to take all that out of play, hit it down 10. The green is going to be pretty extraordinarily hard to hold anyways with it being a downslope and having a long club in there. It’s more you’re playing for birdies. There is less opportunity I think for eagle than there was before,” Scottie Scheffler explained on Tuesday.
Officials have made similar decisions in the past, including at the 2021 Players Championship when Bryson DeChambeau toyed with the idea of playing down the ninth hole from the 18th tee.