East Lake Golf Course Overview
East Lake Golf Course is a private golf club in Atlanta, Georgia, roughly 5 miles east of downtown. East Lake Golf Course, which opened in 1904, is Atlanta’s oldest golf course. East Lake Golf Club was the home course of golfer Bobby Jones, and much of the clubhouse is homage to his achievements.This Week 1 player will take home a prize of 15million dollars such is the rise in popularity of the FedEx playoffs over the last decade.
The Tour Championship, the last tournament of the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup, has been held at East Lake since 2004. The course hosted the Tour Championship for the first time in 1998. There are 74 sand bunkers on the course, and water comes into play on four of the holes, the course is demanding for even the words best players and before the staggered start came into play the winning score would be circa -10 under par for the week. Tight fairways demanding pins, and hard to hit greens means players really do have their work cut out this week.
The signature hole at East Lake is the Par 3, 15th at 211 yards, but a downhill tee shot shortens some of the distance into a peninsula green surrounded by water to the front, right and left.
Let’s breakdown how the course could play this week and the key skill sets required to lift that trophy come Sunday evening.
Don’t forget when tuning in this week the players now start the event on different scores. Patrick Cantley heads the field this week and is the joint favourite going into the event with John Rahm who is 4 shots worse off from the start. Is Rham 1 shot better per round than Cantley? Or someone come from even further out.
The Leaderboard To Start
For those new to the FedEx playoffs remember the players start on different scores. It’s recommended to pay attention to the below if making outright picks for the FedEx cup.
This list of the top 30 players and their position in the field this week:
- Patrick Cantlay (-10)
- Tony Finau (-8)
- Bryson DeChambeau (-7)
- Jon Rahm (-6)
- Cameron Smith (-5)
- Justin Thomas (-4)
- Harris English (-4)
- Abraham Ancer (-4)
- Jordan Spieth (-4)
- Sam Burns (-4)
- Collin Morikawa (-3)
- Sunjae Im (-3)
- Viktor Hovland (-3)
- Louis Oosthuizen (-3)
- Dustin Johnson (-3)
- Rory McIlroy (-2)
- Xander Schauffele (-22)
- Jason Kokrak (-2)
- Kevin Na (-2)
- Brooks Koepka (-2)
- Corey Connors (-1)
- Hideki Matsuyama (-1)
- Stewart Cink (-1)
- Joaquin Niemann (-1)
- Scottie Scheffler (-1)
- Daniel Berger (E)
- Erik van Rooyen (E)
- Sergio Garcia (E)
- Billy Horschel (E) Patrick Reed (E) – Unlikely to play due to illness
5 Key Skills Set Required
East Lake is a classic tree-lined course that favours shotmakers, golfers who are precise with their irons, and golfers who strike the ball hard. Accuracy and hitting fairways are valuable assets, and players with powerful strokes and tee-to-green metrics should be considered. You can’t fake it round East Lake.
East Lake is a classic tree-lined course that favours shotmakers, golfers who are precise with their irons, and golfers who strike the ball hard. Accuracy and hitting fairways are valuable assets, and players with powerful strokes and tee-to-green metrics should be considered. You can’t fake it round East Lake.
- SG T2G – East lake is a proper test of golf, and we won’t be seeing scores like we did last week. Winners here need to hit fairways, hit it close on approach and therefore we start in an obvious but necessary place with total SG T2G the corner stone stat behind any contenders this week.
- SG GIR – Miss fairways here at East Lake, and then your struggling to hit greens for sure so I want players playing strong tee to green and most certainly those hitting plenty of GIR going into the week. I don’t think you can find your consistent GIR game here at East Lake, so it better in shape coming in.
- SG Approach Play – Most weeks on tour demand elite level iron play and this week is no different. Plenty of long challenging approach shot face the players this week and this course puts a premium on approach play if not the biggest premium of recent times.
- Par 4 Scoring 450 – 500 Yards – With 5 demanding par 4 holes coming in at 450+ on the tape, I’m looking for player comfortable eating up these long pars 4s.
- SG Putting – Burmudagrass greens this week so I want to see players proven on the surface, it could come down the player that holds the most putts on this immaculate putting surface.
