The Card
- Venue: East Lake Golf Club
- Where: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Architect: Tom Bendelow
- Scorecard: Par 70, 7,440 yards
- Fairways: Zoysia
- Rough: Bermuda, 3.5 inches
- Greens: Bermuda, running 12 on the stimp
This is the par 70, 7,440-yard card, the setup on the books from 2014 through 2026. The tour also has East Lake logged at par 71 and 7,490 yards in 2024, so any record-book comparison across those years is a comparison of two different golf courses.
The read: Treat East Lake as a par 70 of 7,440 yards and ignore scoring history tied to the other card.
What Kind Of Test This Is
The difficulty profile below is averaged over 2024-2026, and it rests on a single running inside that window. That is enough to be indicative and nowhere near enough to be settled, so weight it accordingly.
What the numbers describe is a course that is not hard to survive. A bogey-or-worse rate of 12.6% ranks 171st hardest of 189 courses on record, scrambling at 64.6% ranks 174th, and the birdie-or-better rate of 26.1% also sits at 174th. Greens in regulation at 68.4% and approach proximity at 36.2 feet are both middling. This is a venue where the field finds greens at a normal rate and cleans up when it misses.
The putting figures are the loudest entries on the sheet. Putts made inside 10 feet at 90.5% ranks dead last of 189 courses, meaning no venue on record has given up short putts more freely, and putts made outside 10 feet at 20.2% ranks 176th.
The one place the course pushes back is the tee shot penalty. Missing the fairway costs 0.40 strokes, 53rd hardest of 189, which is what 3.5 inches of Bermuda rough will do. But driving accuracy at 66.7% ranks 156th and the penalty for lack of distance at 0.11 ranks 149th, so fairways are findable and shorter hitters are not being punished for their length.
The read: Low scoring is the base case, so pay for upside rather than for a player who stays out of trouble.
The Holes
Twelve par 4s, four par 3s and two par 5s. The par 3s average 226 yards, which is long, the par 4s average 452 and the par 5s average 555. Only two par 5s on a par 70 card means the birdie supply is concentrated.
The par 4s stretch from 390 to 530 yards, and seven of them measure between 360 and 450. That gives a course of two halves within the same par: a group of mid-length two-shotters and a handful that play like short par 5s without the extra shot.
The hardest holes are exactly the long ones. Hole 1, a 510-yard par 4, has played 0.138 over par, hole 14 at 530 yards 0.13 over, and hole 4 at 465 yards 0.097 over. Both par 5s are the giveaways: hole 6 at 525 yards has played 0.478 under par and hole 18 at 585 yards 0.41 under, with the 415-yard third hole next at 0.165 under.
The read: The scoring separation sits on holes 6 and 18, so eagle equity on the two par 5s is worth more here than steady par-making.
Where Strokes Are Won And Lost
Off the tee, the profile is mixed rather than one-directional. A 0.40-stroke penalty for missing the fairway is genuinely above average and ranks 53rd hardest of 189, but the field still hits 66.7% of fairways, a figure that ranks 156th. The rough bites, and it is not especially hard to avoid. Length is close to a non-factor by the numbers: the distance penalty of 0.11 ranks 149th hardest.
Approach play grades out as average in both directions. Greens in regulation of 68.4% ranks 116th and proximity of 36.2 feet ranks 120th. Nothing in those two numbers says East Lake is an iron-play separator, though the long par 3s and the 510 and 530-yard par 4s mean the misses that do happen come from distance.
Around the green, the penalty for missing is 0.74, which ranks 95th and is effectively tour average, but the field converts those misses at 64.6%, one of the easiest scrambling rates on record. Read together, those say the short-game shots are not brutally difficult and the recovery rate reflects it.
Putting is where the venue is an outlier. Inside 10 feet the field makes 90.5%, the single easiest mark of the 189 courses on record, and outside 10 feet 20.2% ranks 176th. Rolling 12 on the stimp on Bermuda, this is a green complex that gives putts back.
The read: With short putts effectively free and no distance premium, the edge comes from players who generate looks, not from grinders who save par.
Courses It Resembles
By measured profile rather than reputation, the closest match is TPC River Highlands at 88.7% similar, another par 70, though at 6,844 yards it is considerably shorter. Behind it sit TPC Craig Ranch at 86.8% (par 71, 7,385 yards) and Panther Creek Country Club at 86.4% (par 71, 7,258 yards).
PGA West (Nicklaus) at 85.9% (par 72, 6,924 yards) and Sherwood Country Club at 85.3% (par 72, 7,073 yards) round out the list. Most of the comparable venues play to a higher par and to less yardage, which fits: what East Lake shares with them is the scoring environment, not the scorecard.
The read: Course-history models should lean on birdie-fest form at venues like TPC River Highlands and TPC Craig Ranch rather than on classic-par-70 pedigree.
What It Took To Win
Winning scores have trended steeply lower. Patrick Cantlay took it at -11 in 2021 and Tiger Woods at -11 in 2018, but Collin Morikawa needed -22 in 2024, Viktor Hovland -19 in 2023 and Tommy Fleetwood -18 in 2025. Note that the 2024 running came on the par 71, 7,490-yard card.
Across the eleven champions on record, putting was the strongest area for five of them and off the tee for four, with around the green and approach carrying one apiece. The putting weeks were extreme: Xander Schauffele gained 2.125 on the greens in 2020, Fleetwood 2.037 in 2025, Jordan Spieth 1.729 in 2015 and Rory McIlroy 1.654 in 2022.
The counter-case is real, and it belongs to the drivers. McIlroy gained 1.651 off the tee in 2016 and 1.329 in 2019, Hovland 1.204 in 2023 and Schauffele 1.152 in 2017. Fleetwood, meanwhile, won in 2025 while losing 0.263 off the tee and 0.117 around the green, which shows how far a hot putter can carry a week here.
The read: The two repeatable paths are elite driving or a scorching putting week, and since only one of those is predictable, build around ball-strikers and use putting form as the tiebreak.