The next person to hit a shot at East Lake Golf Club may be Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson.

The historic club — the golf course, the practice area and the dining room — will close on Saturday to make way for a series of changes to the course and additions to the club house. East Lake won't reopen until Sept. 22 when the PGA Tour's top 30 players arrive for The Tour Championship, the last event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

"The club will be shut down and nobody will be playing," said Rick Burton, the club's director of golf. "That means when the players get here for The Tour Championship, there won't be a divot in the fairway or a ball mark on the green. It will be perfect."

The focal point is the renovation of the green complexes. The club is replacing its bentgrass greens, which were stressed to the point of death last summer because of the unseasonably hot August. Superintendent Ralph Kepple and his crew went to extreme measures to save the greens and make them playable for the tournament, but neither the club nor the PGA Tour wanted a repeat of those histrionics.

The greens are being switched from bentgrass to MiniVerde, a brand of "ultradwarf bermudagrass" better suited for Georgia's hot summer temperatures.

The greens will retain the same contours and remain the same sizes, thanks to a GPS system which ensures the undulations won't change.

Burton said the greens should be sprigged by the first of June and that maintenance crews are expected to be mowing five or six weeks later. Renovation typically takes 10-12 weeks and East Lake has plenty of wiggle room.

And when the players arrive, they'll find tougher scoring conditions. The new greens aren't likely to give up a 60, a course record that Zach Johnson posted in the third round last year, or permit the winning score to be 23 under, which Woods shot last year.

Six holes will undergo changes, the result being a course that will play 7,300 yards to par 70 from the championship tees.

• No. 3: A new fairway bunker is being added to the left side, about 310 yards away from the tee.

• No. 7: An additional bunker is being placed on the left side, about 310 yards away from the tee. The green is also being moved about 40 yards up the hill, lengthening the par 4 to 440 yards.

• No. 8: The championship tee box is being moved back 20 yards, stretching the par 4 to 435 yards.

• No. 15: A new championship tee is being built 35 yards further back, making the easy par 5 to a bit testier 525 yards.

• No. 16: The fairway bunker complex is being 30 yards farther down the fairway.

• No. 17: This hole features the most significant change. The trees along East Lake on the left of the fairway have been taken out and the fairway moved 8-10 yards toward the water. The green will be moved about 20 feet to the left, giving errant shots a better chance to get wet.

"I'm very excited," Burton said. "It's going to be fun and we're going to be making some good changes to the golf course."

The club is also building a 20,000 square foot addition to the clubhouse. It includes a ballroom that can accommodate up to 200 people, a kitchen and a grill. In a goodwill gesture, the club is paying its 50 fulltime employees while the course is closed.

Todd Rhinehart, the tournament director for The Tour Championship, said the investment by the PGA Tour and East Lake means good things for future of the event.

"I think it speaks of the commitment to keeping it here for a long time," Rhinehart said.