History of East Lake: 15 important moments in the evolution of Tour Championship site

East Lake Golf Club has been a fixture on the Gulf Calender for 20 years as the last stop of the PGA Tour season. But the building itself has a smooth history and roots that reach more than a century deep. With another tour championship that starts on Thursday in the oldest golf club in Atlanta, here is a timeline of the evolution of East Lake, along with a look at the people and events that the club has formed in what it is today.

1908: A star trend ribbon cutting

East Lake shares a birthday with the United States. The course and clubhouse open on July 4, 1908. Among those present for the ribbon cut and a six -year -old Bobby Jones and his father, Robert Purmedus Jones.

1913: Ross arrives

Tom Bendelow – known as the “Johnny Appleseed of American Golf” for sprinkling around 600 jobs in his wake – designs the original track of East Lake. But his work at the club does not last. Donald Ross was brought in in 1913 to renew the layout. In the Omloop van Ross every nine returns to the clubhouse, something that did not do in the design of Bendelow.

1925: Up from the ashes

After a fire uses the original clubhouse, the club hires the well-known architect Philip Shutze to design a new one: the two-storey clubhouse in Tudor style that he becomes pregnant, becomes part of the game iconography. It serves as a sanctuary for Bobby Jones, full of Memorabilia from the legendary career of Jones, including a replica of his Jane Putter disaster.

1930: A home -grown legend

Bobby Jones, who taught the game to East Lake and won his first children’s tournament on the track, creates history by completing the Grand Slam in 1930 and winning the US Open, US Amateur, British Open and British amateur. In the same year Donald Ross completes the work during a second course on East Lake, known as the number 2 course.

1948: End of an era

Bobby Jones plays his last competitive round. It is appropriate in East Lake.

1950: First another championship

For the first time, a USGA championship is being performed in the south of the US, the event is the American amateur. The winner is Beverly Hanson. The guest track is East Lake.

1963: The King as Ryder Cup Player-Captain

With all the chatter nowadays around Keegan Bradley as a potential player captain from Ryder Cup, it is worth remembering that the last time an American golfer performed that double task on the 1963 Ryder Cup was on East Lake. The golfer was Arnold Palmer. The result was a saving. The US defeated Great Britain 23-9.

1993: A new buyer with big plans

Prominent real estate developer and philanthropist Tom Cousins buys East Lake. But his goal is not to turn it into his personal playground. In addition to the recovery of the course itself (ancillary hire, Jones Rees in to tackle a renovation of 1994), his goal is to breathe new life into the surrounding community, which has increasingly gone to economic despair in the course of the decades. Cousins soon establishes the East Lake Foundation, which is largely based on the proceeds of the club, homes with mixed incomes, cradle-to-college education and a series of community welfare programs. In addition to other recognition, Cousins will receive the Bob Jones Award from USGA in 2001 in honor of his contributions to the game.

1998: A hall of a version

After the inaugural games the year before in the Champions Club in Houston, the Tour Championship is held for the first time in East Lake. Hal Sutton, a former big winner who is entangled in a decades of malaise, wins.

2001: an American amateur

The most prestigious amateur championship in the country comes to East Lake and Bubba wins. Not That Bubba. Bubba Dickerson.

2005: a permanent site

East Lake has been named permanent host of the Tour Championship. Two years later, with the birth of the FedExcup, the event becomes the highlight of the large Playoff series with big money. The winner is – Shocker! – Tiger Woods.

2011: Haas makes a splash

His ball was partially immersed in a water hazard of the 17th Green (the 8th hole in the current routing of East Lake), the final winner Bill Haas plays one of the most memorable shots in the history of the Tour Championship and splashes on three feet to save his par.

2018: Tiger returns

Multiple operations and a five -year -old victory later, Woods comes back in the circle of the winner with a dramatic show on the Tour Championship. The victory is also the 80th title of his tour career.

2024: Groen saves the greens, and more

Andrew Green, a veteran from several Ross Restoration Project, including Inverness, Scioto and Oak Hill, is being recruited to bring the course back to what it looked and played in Jones’ Day. Placing surfaces that had shrunk in oval, usually back forward, are renewed personality, with more rumors, flanges and ridges that open fascinating hole locations. Bunkers get a more natural look, with grass faces and worrying eyelashes. Dangers are pinched around the fairways, which reduces strategic challenges that modern technology was outdated. The Reborn East Lake debuted last year and will get his second turn in the spotlight this week.

July 29, 2025: A full life

Tom Cousins, who led several restorations of East Lake and founded the non -profit organization that helped to breathe new life into the surrounding community, dies at 93.