East Lake Golf Club

Signature Setup

A par-3 to finish a major-level course still feels strange the first time you see it. I walked the 18th at East Lake on a humid October afternoon, 79°F at 4 p.m. with the air thick enough to taste, and watched the lake swallow a short tee shot like it had done it a thousand times before. The closing hole asks one clean 232-yard carry — no recovery, no bailout, just commitment.

East Lake sits in southeast Atlanta, Georgia, on ground Donald Ross redesigned in 1913 over an earlier 1908 Tom Bendelow layout. It is Bobby Jones' home course — where he learned the game as a boy — and since 2004 it has hosted the TOUR Championship, the FedEx Cup finale, every late August. Andrew Green's restoration, completed in 2023, widened corridors, rebuilt the Ross green complexes, and reshaped the bunkering. It plays as a par 70 at roughly 7,490 yards from the back tees.

Hole-by-Hole Wind & Playing Lines

Hole 9 (par-4, 458y). The long two-shotter on the property, and it usually plays into the prevailing southwest breeze that builds through an Atlanta afternoon. Tee it up the left half of the fairway to open the angle, then a 4-iron or hybrid into a green that throws short-right misses away. On a breezy day this is a two-putt-and-walk hole.

Hole 18 (par-3, 232y). All carry, all nerve. The lake fronts the entire green, and into even a 10 mph headwind the 232 yards stretches toward a 250-yard shot. I take dead aim at green center here — a back pin is a trap that has drowned better players than me.

Hole 6 (par-3, 200y). The other water par-3, and an early sign of what 18 will ask. Wind off the lake quarters left-to-right most mornings; play to the fat left portion of the green and let the slope feed the ball center.

Green & Fairway Characteristics

The greens are Bermuda — TifEagle since the 2016 conversion off bentgrass — and they run firm and fast, near 11–12 on the Stimp for the TOUR Championship. Ross's green complexes shed misses into tightly mown collection areas, so a ball that lands hot trickles off rather than holds; the smart play is to land it short and let it release. Fairways are Bermuda, generous after Green's 2023 widening but still framed by deep, freshly shaped bunkers. The routing leans on length over trickery, which is why this par 70 demands long-iron control more than any other club in the bag.

Seasonal Weather Pattern

East Lake's defining condition is Atlanta's late-August humidity — TOUR Championship week — when highs sit in the low-to-mid 90s°F, dew points climb into the 70s, and a pop-up thunderstorm can stall a round any afternoon after 3 p.m. That moisture-heavy air softens greens and inflates carry distances by a club or more in the heat. Spring and late fall are the honest seasons here: October mornings near 55°F give firm turf and steady air. I haven't played it in the dead of summer at full tournament length, so I lean on the historical record for August — but the humidity story holds every year.

Local Play Tips

The 18th green has more back-to-front pitch than the television angle suggests — a putt left above the hole runs out fast toward the water-side fringe. Whatever you do off that tee, leave yourself below the hole; an uphill par putt beats a slick downhiller you have to die into the slope. It is the difference between walking off with a 3 and a nervy two-putt bogey to close.

Pre-Round Weather Workflow

Check the 7-day G-Score and windExposure for the East Lake area before you book. The single highest-leverage move in late summer is timing: an early-morning slot gives you the water holes — 6 and 18 — in calmer, cooler air before the southwest breeze and afternoon humidity build. If the forecast shows storm probability climbing past midday, take the earliest tee you can get; an Atlanta afternoon in August can hand you a lightning delay just as you reach the closing par-3.