Tour Championship: New 18th Makes Big Difference

Recent tweaks to East Lake should lead to an exciting finish at the Tour Championship.

The idea of switching nines at East Lake Golf Club to build excitement down the stretch at the Tour Championship is working — if you’re like most people and like birdies, that is.

Through the first three rounds, the 18th has surrendered 43 birdies, and one player, Paul Casey, made eagle.

There are only two par 5s on the par 70 course, the 18th and the sixth, and that means the rest of the scoring has to come from making good approach shots, holing out or making long putts.

However, not every golfer is 100 percent pleased with the switch.

Rory McIlroy made seven birdies in round one, but couldn’t convert on the 18th. He thinks the switched nines have altered the flow of the golf course, making it seem more difficult.

“I actually thought with the way they switched the nines, it was going to be — it’s a bit of a slog — because you’ve got your first par 5 on the sixth hole, and you don’t have the par 5 again until the 18th,” he said to media earlier this week. “You’re playing the same amount of holes, but the way you’re playing the holes, just, it makes the flow of the golf course a little harder.”

He also thinks it’s just a tough golf course.

“You’ve got to hit fairways. But once you get it on the fairway, you have chances to score,” he added. “You’ve got to play a lot of good golf to make birdies.”

He didn’t play the front nine very well in the second round, he said, because he did not have a good warmup session. He has yet to birdie the 18th this week.

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“I let a bad warmup filter into the rest of my game, and I was thinking about it but then started to hit some better shots sort of around the middle of the round, which gave me a little bit of confidence,” he said to the media after round two.

McIlroy’s main problem was hitting fairways. Part of the issue is that he hits it where the fairways are crowned, and they kick the ball into the rough.

Ryan Moore, tied with McIlroy after round two, also commented on the switch in nines. “The course just has a different rhythm to it,” he said.

He reminded us that many golfers start on the 10th hole every week, mostly during the first two rounds of a tournament.

“Except for a tournament like this where we have 30 people, usually you have a day where you tee off from 10. We’re used to playing the opposite way of what the way it’s maybe meant to play,” he explained to media. “I haven’t really thought about it too much. It’s definitely a much more difficult start. Those first two holes are tough. There’s a narrow fairway there on 10 and then a very tough green to get it anywhere around the hole. A lot of bad places you can hit it around that green.”

In other words, the change may affect golfers from the standpoint of the difficulty of the actual holes rather than position in the round.

“I’m sure we’re seeing a lot more bogeys early on,” Moore continued. “No. 10 now, old No. 1, a lot of guys will hit 3 wood-wedge into that green or sand wedge, so there’s not going to be as many birdies early on.”

Several golfers were in favor of the change, including Adam Scott.

“Guys are going to be able to reach the green in two shots. There are going to be some eagles. There are going to be some birdies. That provides a lot more excitement and possibilities probably than the par 3, a long par 3,” Scott said of the switch prior to the tournament.

But, he cautioned, danger lurks.

“There’s also the potential to make — hit it in the rough and get it in the wrong spot and make — a bogey on the par 5 as well. So you know you’re never really out of it with that par 5 last hole to play,” he added. “You can be a couple shots back and still feel like you’re in it, whereas you’re kind of wishing on the par 3 if you had two shots back.”

J.B. Holmes, one of the longest hitters in the field this week, parred the 18th in each of the first two rounds, largely because he found the rough on both days.

“I think it’s a great thing they reversed it,” he said before the tournament started. “It’s going to be better for the fans and watching. A lot more exciting things can happen.”

Finishing on a par 3 as was done previously, he thought, was not as compelling.

“There’s just not a whole lot of stuff that’s going to happen, especially at that length,” he said. “There’s not really water around it, there’s the bunker. You’re pretty much going to make a par or make a bogey. That’s kind of your options.”

Like Scott, he noted that in the past, if a player had a two-shot lead heading into the par 3 18th, it was mostly decided before the hole played out.

“As a player walking on the par 3, you feel like it’s pretty much over. You feel like the guy that you’re behind is going to have to mess up, and you’re going to have to hit a good shot,” he added. “Whereas [now] with a two-shot lead, the other guy could make a par, but you could do something great and make an eagle.”

In other words, there are more good and bad things that can happen on this new 18th, with the par 5 offering far more possibilities than the par 3. Only the leader would benefit from encountering the par 3 to close his round.

Next: Tour Championship: History of the Season Finale

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