Andrew Green’s renovation of East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, is on display as the 2024 Tour Championship, the finale of the PGA Tour Playoffs and FedEx Cup, begins today.
The course was originally designed by Tom Bendelow in 1908, with Donald Ross overseeing a redesign and the creation of its two loops in 1913. George Cobb made minor alterations in 1959 ahead of the 1963 Ryder Cup and Rees Jones completed a renovation project in 1995 and additional work since.
Green was appointed to create a renovation masterplan in January 2022. His plan has been to reinstate the course’s historic character but also ensure the layout is fit to host the best players on the PGA Tour every year. “There’s a tremendous obligation to make sure that all the great things that have been done for this community are protected and enhanced by this project,” said Green.
The architect referenced an aerial photograph from 1949 to guide his work, which has focused on restoring Ross’s green and bunker shapes, and the overall topography.
Read more: a feature on the PGA Tour website includes hole-by-hole notes from Andrew Green
The routing of the course has remained the same, but all features have been changed. Greens have been rebuilt and converted to TifEagle bermuda, with their size, shape, contouring and runoff areas all having been substantially reworked. The reaction of competitors at the Tour Championship gives an indication of the scale of change. “This is completely different, it’s way longer,” said golfer Viktor Hovland in a pre-tournament press conference. “As soon as I saw the green areas, that was like, OK wow, this is going to be a completely different golf course. Now you have huge undulating greens with big run-offs, and instead of having tight bermuda round the greens you have really, really tight zoysia. It’s just going to play completely different.”
“We really wanted to try to get the player to feel like they’re playing more over the natural ground,” said Green. “And that meant that we shaped or reshaped fairways to be more natural.”
Among the many notable changes, a new green at the par-three second now has two distant areas, the island fifteenth is now bunkerless and the eighth hole can be set up to play as a driveable par four. The green of the closing hole is protected by a string of bunkers on the left, and the lake has been rebuilt, coming more into play for lay-up approach shots.
Watch: A PGA Tour video of the renovation project.
Bunkers have been removed, relocated and added across the course. Fairway bunkers have been rebuilt to “demand precision in the line and length of tee shots”. Bunker shapes have been inspired by those created by Ross, and all were rebuilt with liner from Bunker Solution.
A stream between holes six and seven has been reclaimed with invasive species removed and the native habitat restored. All ponds have been stabilised to maintain water quality and ecological balance.
The overall yardage of East Lake’s championship tees has been extended by 100 yards, with PGA Tour players playing a 7,455-yard par-71 layout.
“This course restoration will provide a worthy test for players at every level of the game, from PGA Tour players to East Lake members,” said Alex Urban, executive director of the Tour Championship. “Fans onsite and around the world will witness these changes firsthand at the Tour Championship when the course is put to the test by some of the best athletes in the world.”