The 2019 TOUR Championship: Inside the Course (East Lake Golf Club Review)

Thirty men enter, one man leaves. THIRTY MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVES!  There won't be any steel bars, medieval weapons, or players climbing to the top of a cage wall intent on inflicting maximum suffering at The Tour Championship this week, but the competition will still be intense, agonizing, and ultimately triumphant as East Lake Golf Club becomes the PGA Tour's version of Thunderdome with the FedEx Cup trophy and $15 million up for grabs for the winner in Atlanta. 

 

East Lake is a 7,346-yard, par-70, Donald Ross and Rees Jones design built on gently rolling hills, and is the former home of Bobby Jones.  It's a parkland layout that plays hard and fast, and urges players to hit different shot shapes to take full advantage of certain holes. 

Despite being a fairly long course, bombers don't really have an advantage here.  You can miss fairways at East Lake, but not by much, and with only two par-5s on the course, there's an obvious emphasis on par-3 and par-4 scoring.  Some of the Bermuda greens feature severe slopes, while others present only subtle breaks to navigate. 

Players won’t find any quirky holes, aggravating blind shots, or unexpected surprises at East Lake.  The recipe for success is straightforward: accuracy off the tee combined with a stellar short game.  Key statistics looking at past winners include Birdie Or Better Percentage, Strokes Gained: Putting, and Bogey Avoidance. 

 

For The Tour Championship the front and back nine routing is flipped, with the long par-3 18th hole becoming No. 9, and the par-5 9th hole becoming No. 18 for more fireworks and drama at the end. 

The par-4, 455-yard, 8th hole made FedEx Cup history in 2011 when Bill Haas got up and down from the water hazard during a playoff, before scrambling on the final hole to win.  Water runs down the entire left side on No. 8 with the fairway sloping back in its direction. 

 

Finding any of the three bunkers 245 to 290 yards off the tee brings the water into play even more on approach.  A steep slope fronts the green, water protects the back, and deep bunkers surround the raised putting surface that kicks everything (you guessed it) to the left and towards the water.  This can be an absolutely brutal hole. 

No. 15 was the first island green designed in America, and this par-3, 211-yard hole is always action-packed with disaster waiting to happen.  The table-top green is surrounded by a massive lake, and this already challenging target is made more demanding by a large bunker on the left. 

 

The tee is set to the far right making it difficult to control a draw, and maddening to play a fade.  Par is a great score on No. 15 where the there's a fine line between the hero shot and catastrophe.  Or as Aunty Entity might have said, "death is listening, and will take the first man who screams." 

Sweeping down a hill from a tee box at the top, the par-5, 590-yard 18th hole will be reachable in two for the longest hitters, particularly if they reach the downward kick point in the left fairway that can propel a ball like it’s turbo-charged.  Aggressive players will need to be wary however of a lake that cuts across the fairway about 370 yards out. 

 

Two deep bunkers protect the front-right entrance to the green that slopes to the left, and a sweeping bunker on the front-left will punish distance control blunders.  No. 18 will be a site of triumph and disaster this week, and might even determine the FedEx Cup champion on Sunday.