New greens add difficulty to course

Ryuji Imada will be playing in The Tour Championship for the first time, but he’s quite familiar with East Lake Golf Club.

At least two of the holes.

At a corporate outing last year with AFLAC, one of his corporate sponsors, the former UGA All-American played No. 2 and No. 11 — a pair of par 3s — with each group as they came around the course.

“So I know a couple of the holes,” Imada joked.

It’s just as well, since local knowledge has taken a big hit at East Lake, which this week hosts the top 30 PGA Tour players in the finale of the FedEx Cup. There have been plenty of changes to the course since last year. And, unlike last year when the status of the greens had the players worried, this time they will be greeted by pristine conditions.

“I’ve been out there and it’s perfect,” said Duluth resident Stewart Cink, an East Lake member.

The greens nearly perished last year during the city’s hot summer. Much effort was expended by superintendent Ralph Kepple and his staff to save the greens. The result was soft greens and low scores; Zach Johnson shot a third-round 60 and Tiger Woods won the tournament at 23-under par.

The decision was made by the club and the PGA Tour to change the greens from bent grass to a more heat-tolerant mini-verde dwarf Bermuda grass. The club closed in March for the renovation and has had extremely limited play, resulting in ideal putting conditions for The Tour Championship.

“We have had some players play it and they really liked the surface of the greens,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said. “The word ‘perfect’ has been used.”

The new greens will be firm, which means scores should be much lower. Players won’t be able to fly the ball to the hole and make it stick.

“It’s going to be a lot harder,” Cink said. “You’ve got to figure out how to hold those greens.”

The greens weren’t the only things changed on the course. All the greenside bunkers were rebuilt. The 30-foot areas around each green were re-grassed with a different strain of Bermuda. The practice tee was also leveled and re-grassed.

A number of holes were changed, which added 150 yards to the course. It now plays 7,304 yards to par 70.

The biggest changes are:

•A new green at No. 7, 40 yards and to the left of the current green, which stretched the par 4 to 430 yards;

•A new tee at No. 13 which adds 20 yards, making the par 4 play 459 yards;

•A new tee at No. 15 which adds 35 yards and produces a few more teeth for the 530-yard par 5;

•A redesigned 17th hole, which required moving the fairway to the left, adjacent to East Lake, a set of three new bunkers on the right side of the fairway, and a new green which abuts the lake.

“No. 7, No. 13 and No. 17 are all going to play a lot harder,” Cink said. “The changes at No. 17 make it a much more dramatic hole.”