East Lake

East Lake’s history is truly moving so we think it is worth sharing. Tom Bendelow originally designed the East Lake course as a golfing accompaniment for the members of the Atlanta Athletic Club. The course was laid out in the suburbs of Atlanta on the site of an old amusement park and the course opened for play in July 1908. A young six-year old called Bob was at the East Lake opening ceremony in the company of his father, Colonel Robert P. Jones.

East Lake Golf Club played host to the 1963 Ryder Cup matches between the USA and Great Britain. Team Captains were Arnold Palmer (US) and John Fallon (GB). Britain adopted a new strategy for the 15th edition of Ryder Cup matches using a non-playing Captain for the first time. The US did not follow suit and placed Arnold Palmer at the playing helm. “The King” in his debut as Captain led his team in fine style to the second largest winning margin in Ryder Cup history. USA 23 - GB 9. The Ryder Cup was played at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1961 and at Royal Birkdale in 1965.

In 1913, the famous Scottish architect Donald Ross redesigned East Lake creating two loops of nine holes and in 1928 he returned to fashion a second East Lake course which opened in 1930 to coincide with Bobby’s Grand Slam victory celebrations. Beverly Hanson won the 1950 U.S. Women’s Amateur here, accepting the Robert Cox Trophy from Bobby Jones.

George Cobb made a few minor alterations to the original course ahead of the 1963 Ryder Cup which culminated in a resounding 23 points to 9 victory for Team USA against a beleaguered Great Britain & Ireland squad.

East Lake’s luck soon changed after the 1963 Ryder Cup as the Atlanta neighbourhood fell into urban decline. The Atlanta Athletic Club sold the second course to developers and moved out. But 25 members stepped in and saved the original course and formed the East Lake Golf Club. In the early 1970s public housing was built on the site of No.2 course and the area soon became a center for poverty, drugs and violence. East Lake slowly but surely degenerated.

In Golf Courses of the PGA Tour by George Peper, the author states: “Enter its saviour, Tom Cousins. A prosperous real estate developer who had developed the Omni Complex and NationsBank Plaza in downtown Atlanta, Cousins had fond memories of East Lake from when he had played it as a youngster in the 1940s. Employing the resources of his own charitable foundation he revamped the golf club and used it as a tool to revitalize the surrounding area.

The housing project was razed and replaced with 500 mixed-income apartments and townhouses surrounding the golf course... At the same time, Cousins sold 100 corporate memberships at $75,000 each (asking each corporation to contribute an additional $200,000 to the revival of the area).”

In 1994, Rees Jones was called in. Using the original drawings, Donald Ross’s 1926 design was re-born. Today’s East Lake is the driving force behind the effort to revitalise this Atlanta neighbourhood. All profits from the club go to support the East Lake Community Foundation and as a consequence East Lake now stands as a symbol of hope as well as tradition.

We raise our glass to East Lake but we’ve just noticed that we haven’t mentioned anything about the course... click here to find out more or scroll down to read the course reviews.

In addition to staging the 1963 Ryder Cup matches, East Lake also held the 2001 US Amateur Championship which was claimed by Bubba Dickerson, winning the last two holes of the 36-hole final for a thrilling 1-up victory. East Lake is also host venue for the season-ending Tour Championship, which has been held consecutively here in Atlanta since 2004.

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