ATLANTA — Defending FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland, who walked away with an $18 million bonus after winning the Tour Championship last year, is a fan of East Lake Golf Club.
At least that’s how it was played.
Hovland and the other 29 entrants here at the Tour Championship, however, are playing a completely different East Lake course for the first time in the FedEx Cup season finale that begins Thursday.
“I pitched yesterday, and as soon as I walked on the field, I was shocked,” Hovland said Tuesday. “It doesn’t look like it used to.”
Architect Andrew Green was tasked with restoring East Lake, and he found a 1949 aerial photograph on a government website that served as his blueprint for restoring the course as Donald Ross had redesigned it more than a century ago.
“Oh, there’s absolutely anxiety, for sure,” Green said. “But I think it just comes with the environment. You don’t know what you have until you put it together. The golf course has matured tremendously since June 15, when the last sod dropped. But at the same time, it will take maturity to see the full effect.”
The previous East Lake course was known for its difficulty from fairways and near greens and deep fairways. There was not much variation in the composition of the vegetables; they usually moved from the back to the front.
Green’s changes to East Lake are amazing. The eighth hole is now a short, drivable par-4. The 14th hole, previously a long par 4, is now a par 5. Green removed a large number of trees — he couldn’t say exactly how many — and expanded the course’s signature pond to bring water to No. 18.
The course now plays a par 71 — one more than before — and is about 7,455 yards, less than 100 yards longer.
“It looks like he’s changed all the holes,” Hovland said. “It wasn’t easy how you could change the holes without moving holes. Everything is in the same place, and yet no holes look exactly the same.
The new greens, which promise to be very strong this week, have different slopes and conditions, and some have amazing competitions. A few vegetables were completely shaken; the green on the par-3 ninth hole is lowered down a hill for water play. The back tees on Nos. 9 and 15 will not be used this week because the greens are too hard, according to Green.
“When I saw the green areas, it was like, ‘Okay, wow,'” Hovland said. “This is going to be a completely different golf course, because now you’ve got big greens with lots of water. And instead of having really tough Bermuda on the green, you’ve got really tough zoysia.
“It’s going to play completely different.”
Green has restored the grass bunkers that Ross made famous, some of which are in the landing area, leaving players to decide whether to hit their shots near the bunkers or try to go through them.
“I can probably try to describe to someone who’s never been here before what it looks like, and it’s almost like you can’t imagine it,” Hovland said. “It will be fun to get used to, that’s for sure.”
Green hopes the restoration, completed in less than a year, gives PGA Tour players a fair test while preserving East Lake’s history.
“For me, it’s trying to respect the integrity of the place and being able to come here and experience it in a different way,” Green said. “This golf course is unlike any other, and it shouldn’t be like any other. That’s what matters.”
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