2024 Tour Championship Course Breakdown - East Lake Golf Club

3 months ago by Joe I (TourPicks)

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The PGA Tour is once again set to conclude its season-long points race at the Tour Championship, held at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. The Top 30 players from the 2024 season are ready to take on a freshly reopened and newly renovated East Lake Golf Club after an extensive historical restoration took place following last years Tour Championship.

East Lake has always been an iconic golf club in the Southeast but had fallen victim to over-modernization in the past couple of decades. The goal was to bring this property back to prominence and restore many of the exceptional elements of the original 1904 Donald Ross design. Andrew Green was selected to oversee and unveil this project, and East Lake absolutely picked the right man for the job!

My goal is to use this piece to hopefully highlight a few different angles and elements that may be less spoken about to provide some value in this course preview. I'm hopeful that you can utilize this to get your research started with a proper understanding of the new course changes and which player attributes are the most important for success. Let's dig into the brand new East Lake Golf Club!

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An Introduction to East Lake Golf Club

"With some of the historical elements that we always wondered how they would fit on the ground, it always amazes me that they go back so perfectly, like they were always meant to be." said Andrew Green. The gates to East Lake Golf Club opened in 1904, making it the oldest golf course in the city of Atlanta and one of the most historically significant clubs in the Southeast.

The golf course was originally designed by Tom Bendelow in 1094 but was later reworked at the hands of the great Donald Ross in 1913. East Lake was reimagined to feature classical architectural elements often used by Ross with a focus on creating captivating ways to challenge top level golfers.

The club's rich history is deeply intertwined with that of its most famous member, Bobby Jones, who grew up playing East Lake. Jones's legacy is celebrated through the clubhouse. After the surrounding area around East Lake saw a major decline, local businessman Tom Cousins purchased the property to transform East Lake back into one of the top clubs in the US and worked a deal to solidify it as the permanent home of the PGA Tour Championship.

At the conclusion of last year's Tour Championship, Andrew Green and his team began work on East Lake. Using photographs from the 1940's as inspiration, Green and his team began restoring as many elements as they could from Donald Ross's original vision and flowing topography. I think many fans and players are excited to see how the changes affect play and we expect a more demanding but fair test to take place this year.

The Tour Championship heads to Atlanta and @Garywilliams1Up sat down with @GreenGCA to talk about the restoration and changes to East Lake. @golfpridegrips

Watch Full Episode: https://t.co/ZknQ9B7oqk pic.twitter.com/l38eD7XeMk

— 5 Clubs (@5ClubsGolf) August 26, 2024

Scorecard:

Course Specs

The most notable change for 2024 is the changing of par from 70 to a par 71. There will be nearly 150 yards added to the scorecard and the course now features two par 5's in the final five holes of play. The newly built tee boxes add modest length, but really create some provocative angles that require full commitment from player/caddie to execute properly based on some of the new features.

Green and his team rebuilt all 18 tee boxes, greens, fairways, and bunkers. The fairway grass has been converted to Zorro Zoysia grass to be more sustainable throughout the year and they have also reshaped a number of fairways to encourage more movement on the ground. They added additional fairway acreage and minimized the amount of rough on the golf course as well.

The putting greens have untaken significant work as well. They did their best to imitate Ross's original intent and also changed the grass type to a different strand of Bermuda called TifEagle. Water is now technically in play on eight different holes (up from six last year). Green also added four bunkers to the course, which is now 78 total.

All in all, I believe the golf course will be well received by players and fans will enjoy a less monotonous examination for the season finale. Statistically speaking, I think many of the elements that allowed for player success previously will remain intact, but it will be nice to see the vision of Green come to life after years of Rees Jones modifications that were not nearly as intriguing.

When the @PGATOUR heads to Atlanta next week for the @TOURChamp - players and fans will be greeted with a "new-look" @eastlakegc.

Get your first look of Andrew Green's restoration project as the renovated East Lake is now LIVE in GOLF+! pic.twitter.com/3eT5QgGkBy

— GOLF+ (@golfplusvr) August 21, 2024

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Statistical Considerations

I'm going to be cautious in terms of extrapolating too much from previous years at East Lake Golf Club, but we have to use something. East Lake has always been about execution Tee-to-Green and I don't believe anything will drastically change there. There is plenty of trouble lurking with the tall trees bordering the fairways and water protecting the greens, so being proficient at hitting fairways and greens in regulation will be key.

Historically speaking, driving accuracy is very important at East Lake and is often overlooked by many. It ranks 4th on the PGA Tour in terms of the highest correlated stats to success. It's not because the rough is overly difficult at only 2.5" in height, but the unpredictability of Bermuda grass rough in the South, particularly in the late summer, gives tour players who are control freaks a fit.

The greens are pretty large in size, but like most Donald Ross greens, feature several tiers and runoffs that make the effective landing area much smaller. Also, when greens are brand new like these, they typically take some time before they are receptive. I think looking at iron apex height and also basic approach proximity numbers will give you a good understanding of which players have the best chance to hold these greens.

Lastly, we are dealing with a very strange format once again, and even though there will be several new elements to this golf course that we have outlined, I'm still going to look at course history and how players have performed at recent Tour Championships here. I want to know who raises their baseline in this style format and with big-time money on the line.