ATLANTA – With $25 million going to this week’s winner at the Tour Championship and the game’s best players trying to end their seasons on a high note, it was slightly counterintuitive that the buzz on the range Tuesday at the finale wasn’t about either the waiting wealth or the circuit’s embarrassment of riches. Instead, Tuesday’s talk was about East Lake’s recent restoration.
By many accounts, architect Andrew Green’s handiwork transformed East Lake from a largely one-dimensional test into a more nuanced layout that is poised to challenge the game’s best in new and inspired ways.
Five things you need to know about the new and improved East Lake:
- East Lake took over as the permanent host of the Tour Championship in 2004 and has produced a wide range of winners from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas. But in recent years, the course has been dominated by the modern bomber — with Rory McIlroy winning two of the last six events and Xander Schauffele finishing either first or second in four of the last seven finales — and has, like many venues, had a difficult time combatting distance.
While length will continue to be crucial in Atlanta, driving accuracy will become much more important, particularly with fairways and greens that are exceedingly firm.
“I wouldn’t say East Lake ever had a lot of strategy off the tee before. It was always kind of tree-lined fairways, narrow fairways, and you had an occasional bunker here and there. But usually it’s just you either hit driver or 3-wood, and you have to hit it straight,” said Viktor Hovland, last year’s champion at East Lake. “But at least here when he’s (Green) taken away so many trees, you really have to emphasize the strategy portion of it or else it just becomes a bombing-fest where everyone hits driver. I do think Andrew has done a great job with positioning certain bunkers.”
- Green used a 1949 aerial photo of East Lake as a guide to returning the course to something closer to what Donald Ross had in mind when he designed the original layout in 1913.
One of the best examples of that original architecture was the eighth hole, which was reimagined into a drivable par 4 (at 390 yards on the card) with the lake looming down the left side of the hole.
“If it’s drivable, I think I definitely plan on hitting driver. Used to be a pretty intimidating tee shot with that wind left to right. It still is, but just because it’s drivable it feels like it’s easier potentially,” Schauffele said. “You can hit it in that right bunker and try and get up and down from there. But if the tee is back, it’s going to be a 4-iron or a hybrid for me kind of up that right side, and kind of play from there.”
- Green and Co. expanded the namesake lake during the restoration bringing the hazard into play more often, particularly on the par-5 18th, which is almost entirely bisected by water. During the restoration, Green also removed a stand of trees that separated the 18th and 10th fairways and created a possible alternate route to play the last hole.
Multiple players have practiced hitting their tee shots on No. 18 down the 10th fairway, which takes the water out of play and creates a decent approach to the green. Players have also practiced playing their layups into the 10th fairway if they find the rough off the tee.
“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,” said Scottie Scheffler, who will begin the week with a two-shot lead under the starting-strokes format.
According to multiple sources, officials considered creating an internal out-of-bounds boundary that separated the 18th and 10th holes to keep players from taking the alternate route but felt it would be too penal.
- The consensus among players is that the restoration will result in a more demanding test but that might not lead to a higher scoring average due to a key setup change.
The 14th hole will play as a 580-yard par 5 for this week’s Tour Championship after previously playing as a par 4 (520 yards last year) and one of the layout’s most historically demanding holes.
No. 14 ranked as the fourth-hardest hole during last year’s Tour Championship (4.125 stroke average) and, according to multiple players, will likely play only slightly higher as a par 5 this week.
- The variety of East Lake’s par 3s has always been the layout’s DNA and Green didn’t change that identity. In fact, many of the changes enhanced the par 3s, particularly the ninth hole.
Although the green was moved closer to the lake that separated the putting surface from the tee box, the hole has been extended to 260 yards.
The firm greens will likely keep officials from playing No. 9 to its full length. The 15th hole, which is listed at 215 yards, will also likely be played from a shorter tee because of the conditions.
“I do think we’ll learn some stuff. The back tee on 9, the back tee on 15 will not be used this week,” Green said, “and we’ll see next year if it’s a good fit. If not, that’s OK.”