One big-time East Lake member gives rebuild two thumbs up

Every make-over show worth its beadboard and mosaic tile backsplash ends with the big reveal. And, now, comes that defining moment for this episode of “Huge Honking Reno, East Lake Edition.”

The wraps come off this week on a reported $30 million rebuild of Atlanta’s venerable East Lake Golf Club. And it’s no soft reopening. They’ll be getting right down to business Thursday, staging the PGA Tour’s silly-money playoff finale, also known as the Tour Championship.

The whole golfing world is welcome to take a look and pass judgment. Please wipe your feet at the front gate.

Admittedly, one highly-placed East Lake member was nervous about the project.

“I was concerned a little bit,” he said, “because anytime you take on a big project that’s high profile like East Lake where you have such a significant championship, it’s always going to draw the highest scrutiny. I was a little concerned about that.”

That source is Stewart Cink, Atlanta’s resident major champion and all-around accomplished golfer. As both a dues-paying East Lake member and a 51-year-old with a well-honed respect for tradition, he knew the stakes were high and the tolerance for mistakes quite low once they started taking bulldozers to the course that birthed Bobby Jones. It’s golf’s Tara, older even than that joint up the road in Augusta. Wouldn’t do to have it suddenly go all modern contemporary.

Cink’s interest extended to every phase of the build.

He met with course architect Andrew Green beforehand, just to contribute his perspective on what the pro player looks for in a fair and proper challenge. “Less about specifics of his proposal, more about what elite golfers considered really good and not really good,” Cink said.

He visited the site a couple of times during construction only because his native curiosity demanded it. Not like he was going to take up a shovel and start laying irrigation pipe.

And, a week ago, he was among a few club members who got to take the new place for a test drive.

Eighteen holes later, his verdict: “It’s a monumental effort that came out really, really good. I think it’s awesome. I love it.

“I was excited about them taking East Lake into the next generational phase of its existence,” Cink added.

Some of architect Green’s blueprint was borrowed from the past, one 1949 aerial photo of the place suggesting a few of the changes built into this redesign. At the same time, while antiquing the place, Green had to accommodate the modern pro player and his supercharged equipment.

While Cink has loved East Lake since his playing days at Georgia Tech, he recognized the need for change if it was going to remain worthy of one of the PGA Tour’s biggest events. Yes, it’s Bobby Jones’ old course. But on it they’re now employing a staggered scoring format and paying out the kind of 7- and 8-figure sums that would turn any stately 1930 Grand Slam winner catatonic.

As an example of the kind of alteration that bettered an already classic course, Cink pointed to the reshaping of the par-4 5th hole. “My favorite change on the course, overall,” he said.

“I love the way they shifted the tee to the left, took what was a pretty boring, straight-forward par 4 and turned it into a dramatic (dogleg left) tee shot. There’s a huge centerpiece tree right on the corner. The fairway tilts to the right. The shape of the (tee) shot is so cool.”

While he said that most of the fairway corridors maintained a familiar shape, they’re now playing a little wider while some re-bunkering has brought sand more into play off the tee.

As for nearer the hole, Cink said, “Everything from the approaches to the actual greens – the whole green complex – is completely unrecognizable from the past.”

Gone is the thick rough that used to collar these greens. Now, faulty approaches won’t stick in the high grass but rather settle farther from the hole. No more gouging out chips to try to save par.

“You’ll find yourself hitting all kinds of different shots around the green that you never used to play there,” Cink said.

Spectators, he said, will particularly enjoy the new risky personality built into the par-4 8th hole, where water guards its left flank. Moving the green in by nearly 50 yards now makes it a conceivably drivable par 4. If you’re feeling frisky.

“The green is just asking for players to hit driver, or maybe even a 3-wood to go down there toward the green,” he said. “It gives you a fairly wide opening to hit the ball around to the front of the green.

“The opening is pretty inviting. But the penalty, obviously, is missing left and water. Right is a dicey angle out of the rough and the greens are really firm because they’re new. You’re going to be asked to hit a good shot if you go for it but the reward is going to be pretty large.”

With equal measures of give and take newly built into the place, tough to say what the overall effect will be on scoring this week. “The fairways are easier to hit, but the greens are probably more difficult to hit,” Cink said.

“For it being new turf, they grew a lot of rough. It’s high. The rough is going to be challenging. And coming out of the rough you don’t have any backstop effect on the greens.”

School’s in at East Lake this week, and not just the charter school around the corner. So much to learn, so little time.

They’ve played the Tour Championship at East Lake 24 times, including each of the last 21 years. Yet, somehow, it’s all new again.

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