ATLANTA – East Lake Golf Club was transformed in 2024, a dramatic metamorphosis meant to harken back to the days of the club’s most famous member and present a more nuanced challenge for the top 30 players on the PGA TOUR.

The change didn’t end there, however.

This year, the TOUR Championship will be contested under a new, winner-take-all format. East Lake will also see a more challenging setup this week, one befitting the culmination of the FedExCup season. Longer rough and faster greens are obvious changes, but the most intriguing modifications may be more subtle, made possible by a golf course that has grown another year older.

Hole locations and tee placements that present the full array of the new East Lake’s character are also part of the equation, made possible by another year of maturity for what was essentially a brand-new course in 2024.

The changes to both the format and the setup come at the behest of both the PGA TOUR’s players and fans, who wanted to see a traditional format and a winning score closer to par (last year, Collin Morikawa’s 22-under 262 was the low 72-hole score at the TOUR Championship).

The purpose of whittling down the field for a postseason is to ensure only the deserving have an opportunity to win it all. But the ultimate trophy goes to the team – or player – who performs at the right time. That is why all 30 players will start this week on equal footing, with the winner of the TOUR Championship taking home the FedExCup.

“Once you get to the TOUR Championship, you've had a great season,” said reigning FedExCup champion Scottie Scheffler, “and now you have an opportunity to go out and win the FedExCup. But you have to play good golf at the right time.”

Accompanying changes to the course setup are not only meant to produce a winning score closer to par, but also to test players in new ways. Andrew Green’s restoration introduced greens that were divided into tiny sections by slopes and swales. Eight-time PGA TOUR winner Stewart Cink, an East Lake member, said the new course has a lot more “variety” and complexity.”

The previous rendition of the course featured circular greens that sloped back-to-front and were framed by rough. Now, players must be precise with their irons to access the plateaus and fingers that Green designed into the putting surfaces.

Green’s entire restoration took place between the 2023 and 2024 TOUR Championships. It returned the course to its Donald Ross roots, using historic documents and photos as inspiration for the work.

“The greens have an incredibly unique shape, very interesting. Some place where there are squared off corners, some places where there are appendages … and that allows us to really provide a variety of hole locations,” Green said in 2024.

The penalty for miscues can be steep – literally. Short grass and steep banks around the greens can send shots propelling away from the putting surface and require precise pitches instead of the uniform recoveries that were required before. Players can putt, pitch or chip from chipping areas of closely-mown Zoysia instead of always grabbing their sand wedge to chop out of Bermuda rough.

This year, the greens are more receptive to approach shots than the weeks-old surfaces that players faced last year. Hole locations can be pushed farther into these small areas without creating an unfair test. That wasn’t an option last year, when the brand-new greens were rock hard.

“With one more year of maturity … that gives us the opportunity we're looking for,” said Gary Young, the PGA TOUR’s senior vice president, Rules & Competition. “We’ll go into some of these tighter locations where we're asking the player to … be in total control of your golf ball. If you want to be rewarded with a short birdie try, you're going to have to take it on.”

Jason Gore, the PGA TOUR’s executive vice president and chief player officer, said the 2024 TOUR Championship was an “introduction” to Green’s work, which was completed weeks before last year’s tournament. Now that pleasantries have been exchanged, players can be tested in new ways.

Not only will the hole locations garner interest, but different tees can be utilized, especially on the par 3s. The 14th tee will be moved up, but the hole also will be converted from a par 5 to a par 4, reducing East Lake’s par to 70, as well. The ninth hole has a teeing area that stretches the hole to 260 yards. It will require today’s players to face a test closer to the one Bobby Jones did. The hole was approximately 230 yards back in his day.

The back tee on the island-green 15th should also be used for the first time since the restoration. That makes the hole play nearly 230 yards. Last year, the green was too firm to receive shots from that distance. What once was a circular green with a bunker that caught wayward shots now is a hole with a unique shape that appears smaller to players standing on the tee (though it is actually the opposite).

On a recent site visit to East Lake, Young and Gore looked at a left hole location on that green, one that placed the flag in the “thumb” of the mitten. Behind the flag, though, is a steep run-off and deep chipping area. They discussed playing the hole from approximately 160 yards, tempting players to aim at the flag with a short-iron in hand.

On the following hole, there is a front-right hole location that is squeezed between a bunker fronting the green and a 10-foot drop-off that leads into a chipping area that Gore likened to “Turn 2 at Daytona.” The former PGA TOUR winner needed several attempts to get a chip shot from the bottom of the swale close to the proposed hole location.

It’s all an attempt to create more risk-reward opportunities, more chances for players to play boldly. The drivable eighth offers another example of the modified setup, with more short grass on the slope that leads into the lake left of the green, offering less chance for a ball hit there to stop before the penalty area.

“Everyone’s starting from scratch,” Young said, “so with that in mind, let’s amp up the setup a little bit.”

A fitting goal for the season finale.