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(Note: updated ahead of the 2025 Tour Championship)
ATLANTA - With fresh looks and design features inspired by the old, paired with state-of-the-art championship-golf infrastructure, East Lake Golf Club is better than ever.
In the wake of a year-long sympathetic restoration carried out by architect Andrew Green, the historic club where Bobby Jones first learned the game and is something of a patron saint looks different, plays different and delivers a well-rounded challenge to its proud membership, as well as the 30 elite players who make it to the PGA Tour's finale.
Originally laid out in 1908 by Tom Bendelow, American golf’s Johnny Appleseed, East Lake was rerouted by Donald Ross in 1913. It sported side-by-side summer and winter greens until the late 1950s, when architect George Cobb updated it ahead of the 1960 Ryder Cup. Rees Jones performed substantial renovation work in 1994, resulting in the design that prevailed until 2023. Since 1998 (excepting 1999, 2001 and 2003), East Lake has hosted the PGA Tour's season-ending event, first in November before an eventual move to its now-traditional late-August/early-September date. The club has crowned all 17 FedEx Cup champions so far.
The East Lake that members, pros and golf fans have come to know over the last quarter-century was a stern test of execution, with deep rough surrounding fairways and greens, accented by deep, flat-bottomed flanking bunkers. Oval putting surfaces pitched hard from back to front. Long drivers and ruthless ball-strikers tended to prosper, and while past Tour Championships have had their share of drama, the test started to look more one-dimensional than some other courses that have become fan favorites. Time exerts pressure on every golf course, and when East Lake came due for updating, the club engaged architect Andrew Green to oversee its latest transformation.
In the last decade, Green has emerged as one of golf's foremost most practitioners of golf course renovation and restoration. His work is visually striking and full of the sort of strategic values that increasingly design-savvy golfers crave. His respect for the great classic golf courses makes him a prime candidate when clubs wish to restore a bygone architect's original intent, often with feather-light edits that account for a century's worth of changes in the way the game is played.
Green's construction-heavy background includes 14 years working for McDonald and Sons, which has built and reshaped dozens of courses in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. Since starting his own firm, Green Golf and Turf, Green has joined the ranks of architects with considerable expertise in steering the futures of Donald Ross’ golf courses. Among Green's portfolio are restorations of Scioto Country Club, the Ross course that raised Jack Nicklaus; and Wannamoisett Country Club in Providence, Rhode Island, a compact New England gem that hosts the prestigious Northeast Amateur every year.
Green’s highest-profile job to date, the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club, hosted the 2023 PGA Championship. Despite significant course-softening rains, Oak Hill held up well to the world’s best golfers, with Brooks Koepka ultimately winning with a score of 9-under par 271. Green played up the nasty nature of Oak Hill’s bunkers and recaptured thousands of square feet in its greens, adding the sorts of corners, decks and contours that Ross intended.
At East Lake, the task was similar. Working off of a 1949 aerial of the course along with other archival photos, Green and his team overhauled the entire golf course in 12 months in concert with builder Total Turf Golf Services. Where greens and bunkers had previously had smooth oval shapes, Green restored a sense of flair and variety believed necessary to make East Lake both a more engaging test for players and more intriguing for TV viewers.
East Lake Golf Club’s latest makeover blurs the line between restoration and renovation
Golf design wonks like to debate questions of authenticity and the line between faithful restoration of an original architect's intent and renovation, where a latter-day architect puts his or her stamp on a course, with greatly varying fidelity towards the original design. East Lake exhibits heavy doses of both. Green reproduced many green complexes and entire holes from that 1949 aerial, but also shifted several tee and green positions and added bunkers and features in others, all while leaning on his experience with other Ross courses to produce something the great Scot would recognize and appreciate.
Perhaps the biggest compliment one can give the “restovation” of East Lake is that it is easy to wave away the question of authenticity. The line "If you can't tell, does it matter?" from the HBO series Westworld comes to mind. Ultimately, it doesn't much matter how credit is doled out if the finished product is a great golf course. At East Lake, the presence of Donald Ross’ design sensibilities is just as clear as Andrew Green’s abilities to interpret and adapt them. The golf course is better for the influence of both figures.
Adding variety and tour-caliber drama to East Lake Golf Club
Green successfully addressed each nine’s main weakness. His subtle strategic tweaks amped up the volatility to the final five holes, which should intensify the finish come Sunday's final round. Although Green lengthened and re-promoting the 14th hole to par-5 status in 2024, the PGA Tour has knocked it back down to a long par 4 for the 2025 Tour Championship. Even so, with number 14 followed by a watery par-3 at 15, two stout and versatile par 4s at 16 and 17 followed by a risk-reward par 5 to close, Green enhanced the drama of East Lake's final act.
On the front (originally the back nine, but switched in 2016 so that play could finish on a par 5 rather than a par 3), there was a sense of monotony in the past, especially over the first seven holes, which marched directly up and then down a broad slope to the east of the clubhouse. So Green shifted several tees and greens laterally, creating both subtle and overt dogleg movement that added shot-shape variety. Now members, guests and pros will need to plan and shape tee shots with more care.
Throughout the routing, East Lake's tight Zorro zoysia fairways camber and twist along the terrain's general tilts. They have swelled from 24 acres pre-renovation to 29 acres. Even at a short height of cut, the stiff blades of grass hold the ball up nicely, coaxing maximum spin out of well-struck irons and wedges. Thick Bermuda rough snares errant tee shots, now as before. Tree removal has opened up commanding vistas back and forth across the property while preserving attractive specimens that influence play and give the course its refined Southern-parkland feel.
Bunkers that mostly flanked and pinched fairways and greens were reconfigured and moved to more staggered formations, adding elements of strategy to already significant tee shot demands. There were 74 before the renovation; there are 78 now. Green’s take on Ross’ bunkers is bold, with flat, low-entry bases and near-vertical grass facades that often rise a foot or two above the topography beyond, resembling deep green waves about to crash. They penalize poor shots and conceal just enough extra space to sow subtle doubt in the minds of players intent on bashing tee shots over them. They also vary greatly in size, from little pots like the one in front of the first green to several large and imposing fairway bunkers that interrupt direct approach lines.
East Lake’s new TifEagle Bermuda greens exhibit impressive variety in size, shape and contour. They are exquisitely fast and firm. As a collection, they average 6,240 square feet, up 11 percent from their pre-renovation average of 5,619 square feet.
Well-defined corners accommodate tucked pins. Where they previously exhibited a general back-to-front tilt with well-defined tiers, Green has introduced rolling internal contours and some fall-aways that may cause big shifts in how players read putts and determine where to miss. Around the greens, there is more short grass than ever before, mixed in with the deep Bermuda and sunken bunkers. Even when tightly mown, the Prizm zoysia collars retain some stickiness when new, so players will want to carry most greenside shots on the putting surfaces for predictable bounces when they elect not to putt. More creativity will come as the turf matures.
Flexibility and volatility were background features of the "old" East Lake. Now, they might as well be part of the motto. Players, spectators and home viewers will all benefit.
East Lake Golf Club
Par 70, 7,440 yards
Hole 1 - par 4, 510 yards
Heading due east, a fairway that used to be bunkered entirely along the left now features a more thoughtful scheme, where players will find themselves peering over imposing bunkers that half-obscure the green from the right even after a fairway-finding drive. A little pot in front of the green and fairway-length fall-aways long make an immediate statement that things have changed at East Lake.
Hole 2 - par 3, 205 yards
The difficulty of the first of a potentially bruising set of par 3s will be dictated entirely by the day's hole location on a green with all sorts of tiers, tilts and hollows, flanked by deep, tapering bunkers. There's a potential ace pin middle-left, but a little deck middle-right behind a bunker is home to one of the course's most challenging placements.
Hole 3 - par 4, 415 yards
East Lake's first downhill hole invites players to swing away. The visible first fairway bunker is a manageable 250-yard carry, but the one to worry about hides from the tee another 45 yards along and will leave an awkward approach if found, though the longest players may even carry that pit. Favoring the left, even the left rough, will lead to easy pars and plenty of birdies.
Hole 4 - par 4, 465 yards
An uphill hole that used to play ever so slightly from right to left now leans from left to right, with Green greeting players with another staggered fairway bunker formation. A semi-blind approach to a tricky green that falls away in the back-right follows.
Hole 5 - par 4, 450 yards
Back down the hill we go, only this time, the reverse camber of the fairway and the hole's noticeable right-to-left shape make the tee shot much more interesting than it used to be. When the hole is cut on the left half of the green, players who can keep to the outside of the dogleg will be rewarded with the more pleasing of approach angles. The back left section tilts away.
Hole 6 - par 5, 525 yards
Tacking hard to the right and playing uphill, this hole has a lot more going on than it used to. Staggered fairway bunkers demand both distance and proper shaping, and the green is hidden from the landing area, surrounded by four deep, grass-faced pits. The miss here might actually be long of the green, as most of the surface tilts towards the back. A pitch from short grass connecting the green to the 7th tee is therefore a good leave. One wonders if some players might be tempted to bang a drive up the 7th fairway and hoist an approach over trees in order to chase a cleaner angle to a left hole location.
Hole 7 - par 4, 495 yards
One of East Lake's most attractive holes proceeds downhill with much of the rest of the course, plus the Atlanta skyline, in view. Although the hole sets up straightaway, Green's bunker philosophy once again interrupts the racing line, adding intrigue. The rectangular green is another fooler, with ridges and mounds splitting it into left and right halves. Putts pull towards the lake more than one might expect.
Hole 8 - par 4, 390 yards
Flexibility and options now define this hole, which is a bona fide birdie chance. What used to be a wood and a short iron is now potentially a drivable hole, with just enough space between right-hand greenside bunkers and the water to tempt players when the winds blow favorably. Otherwise, from farther back, it will be a more conventional test of execution.
2025 update: The short grass area short left of this green has been expanded.
Hole 9 - par 3, 260 yards
Originally the 18th, this hole will likely only realize its full eye-popping length one or two days, when the cup is cut on the generous right side of the angled green. When it's cut on the left, between a bunker and nasty rear hollow, tees will move forward and only the day's best mid-iron swing will get the tee shot close to the hole. Andrew Green shifted the tees back and to the left here.
Hole 10 - par 4, 425 yards
A quintessential parkland hole in full view from the tee, players head downhill and back up to a green with multiple compartments. The day's hole location will determine where one should miss, but any drive in the fairway should turn the second shot into a green-light birdie chance.
Hole 11 - par 3, 225 yards
Skilled architects know how to play with a viewer's (or golfer's) perspective. Here, the yawning, eight-foot-deep front bunker is made to look even larger in relation to the smaller crater-like one just left of the back-to-front green. Not only will this hole be a test of execution, but it will also require players to overcome some intentionally scrambled signals. This sort of dynamic turns golf from checkers to chess.
Hole 12 - par 4, 390 yards
Green tugged the fairway ever so slightly to the right here strengthening the influence of the course's northern boundary over players' decision-making and creating an attractive alley to the green. A lone left-hand fairway bunker sits just under 300 yards off the back tee and will catch tee shots hit with less than perfect confidence. A long, deep left-hand greenside bunker conceals much of the surface of the green beyond. Still, with wedges in hand, many players will attack successfully.
Hole 13 - par 4, 450 yards
A gorgeous parkland hole that runs southward along the property's western edge, Green once again rewards players who are willing to play down the right side off the tee, where grass hummocks will snare some drives. The small left greenside bunkers look benign compared to the deep, yawning right sand, but neither area is a place to find oneself short-sided.
Hole 14 - par 4, 530 yards
Stretched by some 60 yards and promoted back to par-5 status, this will be a fun, downhill-all-the-way swing-hole that starts a thrilling closing stretch. Massive tee shots are possible, but the right side is home to some of the nastiest rough on the course. It's better to come in from the left half of the fairway anyway; the trapezoidal green opens up from there.
2025 update: This hole has been shortened by 50 yards and converted from a par 5 back to a par 4.
Hole 15 - par 3, 215 yards
This quasi-island, heart-shaped green seems smaller than it used to be, and the back-left bunker that used to serve as a refuge is now gone, replaced by a low-slung chipping area that will grab slight-right misses. It is hard to imagine the PGA Tour playing this hole from its full yardage more than once or twice during the week; any crosswind on such a day could mean carnage.
Hole 16 - par 4, 460 yards
Playing a club or two longer because of its uphill march, this hole is now home to East Lake's most imposing single feature: an eight-foot deep short-grass depression that inhales even the slightest miss to the right of the green and which Bobby Jones himself once described as "epic" in scale and challenge. Players struggling to get up-and-down from there on Sunday with the FedEx Cup on the line would be pure theater.
Hole 17 - par 4, 445 yards
Two long, skinny bunkers left of the landing area form a trench-hazard that might be hard to avoid as the location of the green pulls the eye farther left than is wise. The feature almost seems Pete Dye-inspired, but it's actually part of a Civil War-era road bed and nevertheless works within the course's greater aesthetic thanks to the variety of the bunkering throughout the course. The green is more dynamic than before, too, as the previous setup with a fronting bunker made the hole rather one-dimensional. As at the 8th, number 17 is a good candidate for a forward tee that makes the green potentially drivable.
2025 update: This fairway has been narrowed in strategic places to toughen the tee shot.
Hole 18 - par 5, 585 yards
The prospect of a walk-off eagle to win the FedEx Cup is tantalizing, and East Lake's closing hole has been fine-tuned for drama. The fairway landing area now exhibits a slight hog's back, making it play slightly narrower than before and increasing the likelihood of a hanging lie. The green and bunkering have been reconfigured to reward high, right-to-left shots, especially to a rear-left hole location, while misses over the green will leave trickier up-and-downs than they used to. A canyon of white grandstands and the Tudor clubhouse beyond will give the final stage an almost Open Championship-like feel. It is an exciting finale worthy of an arduous PGA Tour season.
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