It All Comes Down to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola

THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola does precisely what it is designed to do: put a dramatic exclamation mark on the season-long FedExCup points race.

The tournament, played the week of September 20-26 at the historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, features an elite field of the top 30 players on the FedExCup points list following the three previous tournaments in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

If you’re in the field at East Lake, you’ve not only got a shot at the $1.35 million winner’s prize (out of a total purse of $7.5 million), but the $10 million bonus for winning the FedExCup (out of a $35 million total pool) as well. That said, some players have a better chance of running the table than others:

• Technically, all 30 players in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola have a chance to win the FedExCup, but a lot depends on how the other players finish.


• Any of the top ten seeds coming into East Lake stands a great chance to win the FedExCup if he can win THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.


• Finally, the players in the drivers’ seats are the top five seeds, because a victory by any one of them will guarantee winning the FedExCup.

THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola dates back to the 1987 Nabisco Championships of Golf, an elite-field event that produced Tom Watson as its first champion, followed by two other World Golf Hall of Fame members, Curtis Strange and Tom Kite.

Over the years, this event was played on some of the nation’s finest courses, including such U.S. Open venues as Pebble Beach Golf Links, Champions Golf Club, Pinehurst No. 2, The Olympic Club and Southern Hills Country Club. But in 2002 it found a home at the historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, where it was played in 1998 and 2000.

In the mid-1990s, the East Lake Club and surrounding community underwent an ambitious and much-needed redevelopment at the hands of the East Lake Foundation. Today the foundation continues to thrive, working with public and private organizations in the area to provide adults and children with education, affordable housing, employment and community networking opportunities.

East Lake’s golf course measures 7,319 yards from the championship tees and plays to par 70. The most famous hole on the front nine is the 209-yard, par-3 sixth, which plays from an elevated tee to a diagonally angled peninsula green reaching out into East Lake. Bobby Jones was particularly bewitched by the hole.

“What do you use on this hole?” Jimmy Demaret once posed during a casual round, to which Jones replied, “A water ball.”

East Lake is something of a rarity in that the closing hole is a par 3—albeit a monstrous one—playing 232 yards uphill and typically into the wind. It has proven to be a stern test, particularly under final-round pressure.

Attributing to its renown, East Lake is the only course in the U.S. to have produced two British Amateur champions: Jones in 1930 and Charlie Yates in 1938. It has also made champions of Hal Sutton, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Bart Bryant, Adam Scott, Tiger Woods, Camilo Villegas and Phil Mickelson, who won THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola for the second time last year.

All in all, an impressive cast of winners for one of the PGA TOUR’s most important championships.

Photos by Chris Condon and Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images/PGA TOUR