East Lake Golf Club

East Lake Golf Club

2575 Alston Dr SE

Atlanta, GA 30317-3333

United States

Overview

Tom Bendelow actually laid out the original course at East Lake, back when it was known as Atlanta Athletic Club, and that was the layout upon which Stewart Maiden taught the game to the now-legendary Bobby Jones. Donald Ross basically built a new course on the same spot in 1915, which remained untouched until changes were made before the 1963 Ryder Cup. When Atlanta Athletic moved to the suburbs in the late 1960s, the intown East Lake location (many of the members stayed behind) fell on hard financial times until being rescued in the 1990s by businessman Tom Cousins, who made it a sterling fusion of corporate and inner-city involvement. Rees Jones redesigned most holes beginning in the mid-90s, making the course more reflective of his views of championship golf. After the PGA Tour reversed the nines for the 2016 Tour Championship (flipping the unpopular par-3 finish into the ninth hole), the club made the new routing permanent for regular play. East Lake underwent another major restoration following the 2023 Tour Championship, this time by Andrew Green, that focues on bringing back the course's Donald Ross heritage. Green used a 1949 aerial to inform the replacement of bunkers and the shape of greens, which are much larger and possess a wider variety of hole location and slopes than before. Almost every hole was dramatically revamped, creating a course that poses driving options and requires the careful calibration of each shot rather than a mere test of straight hitting. The result is a massive jump in our rankings.

About

Holes 18
Length 7490
Slope 142
Facility Type Private
Year Opened 1913
Designer Tom Bendelow/(R) Donald J. Ross, ASGCA/George W. Cobb, ASGCA/Rees Jones (1995)/Andrew Green (2023)

Awards

100 Greatest the Second 100
Best Courses in Every State

Ranking history:

Second 100 Greatest: Ranked since 2013.
Previous ranking: 150th.
2025-'26 ranking: 106th.

100 Greatest: Ranked from 1997-2012.
Highest ranking: No. 60, 2001-'02.
(Course was listed on the original 1966-1968 ranking of America's 200 Toughest Courses.)

Best in State: Ranked third, 2011-'20. Ranked fourth, 2021-'22 & 2025-'26. Ranked inside the top 5, 1997-2010, 2023-2026.
Previous ranking: 5th.
2025-'26 ranking: 4th.

Best Transformation, 2024: Second place.

Golf Digest Logo Panelists

Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists

4.3

100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES

Shot Options
7.5495
Character
7.7117
Challenge
7.5698
Layout Variety
7.3741
Fun
7.4175
Aesthetics
7.4105
Conditioning
7.7004

Reviews

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