Atlanta’s future with PGA Tour does not brim with hope
Friday, tee shots fell softly from blue skies. Pine straw crunched underfoot. Humidity pervaded.
Along the first hole fairway at East Lake Golf Club, it was a fine time for lamentations.
“I just think that it’s kind of sad for Atlanta,” said Mark Quackenbush, a nine-year volunteer at this week’s PGA Tour Championship at the historic club.
The “it” is the reality hanging over the tournament, the club and all who benefit from this premier event that has called Atlanta home since 2004: August 2027 will be the last time that East Lake stages the championship in its four-day, 72-hole format. After that, because of changes announced by the tour this week, it may return in a different form, but it’s not clear when or how frequently.
Moreover, whether Atlanta will have any PGA Tour events at all beginning in 2028 is uncertain. If the tour does not award another tournament to a local club, it will be the first year that the metro area does not host a PGA Tour event (or a U.S. Open) since 1966.
Beginning in 1967, the Atlanta Classic (later to take on different names — including the BellSouth Classic and lastly, the AT&T Classic) was staged through 2008, first at Atlanta Country Club in Cobb County and then at TPC Sugarloaf in Gwinnett County. The Tour Championship came to East Lake on an alternating basis starting in 1998 and annually since 2004.
“There’s so many nice courses, it’s hard to imagine there’s not going to be an annual tournament within Atlanta,” said another first-hole volunteer, David McCollum. “We are, I don’t know, one of the top 10 cities in the country? To not have an annual tournament, it’s sad.”
The Tour Championship — which brings the top 30 players on the tour to a beautiful setting that brings fans close to the action — has long been a benefit to golf fans living in the Atlanta area. The tournament has raised tens of millions of dollars for the East Lake Foundation, First Tee Metro Atlanta and other nonprofits that serve the East Lake community and beyond.
The tournament’s presence has provided work for drivers, security and any number of small businesses.
The club can’t be thrilled with the change, either, having performed a course renovation in 2023-24 that cost a reported $30 million only for the tour to terminate the event that best showcased it.
Wisely, the tour has announced its commitment to continue its support of the impactful foundation, regardless of where the Tour Championship goes. But it won’t be quite the same.
“It’s a big family reunion every year and so I think for this community, it’s more of, we’re just used to the family getting together for a week every August,” East Lake Foundation president and CEO Ilham Askia told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday at the tournament.
What does the future hold?
The Tour Championship will probably come back at some point, albeit as part of a much smaller two-week match-play tournament that will replace the current format. But it would only be on a rotational basis, as the tour plans to bring it to courses it hasn’t been to in its modern era (and also that aren’t broiling in August). It’s to be determined, but an East Lake appearance once every four or five years doesn’t seem out of the question.
As the tour also remakes its regular season — starting in 2028, it will effectively operate two tours, the Championship and Challenger series — it could award a spring event to an Atlanta club.
The chances that it would be a Championship event (featuring the top players) don’t appear strong. Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said Tuesday that all but four of the 15 regular-season Championship tournaments for 2028 have been determined, with 14 prospective partners for the four spots.
It is unclear if any of the 14 represent an Atlanta interest, but, reading tea leaves, it would be a surprise if that were the case.
East Lake president and general manager Chad Parker declined to comment. Also, citing a letter sent by East Lake to its membership, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported in June that the tour offered East Lake an opportunity to host a tournament in the spring, but that it declined for “a multitude of reasons,” one being that the course’s grass is better suited for summer.
Other potential Atlanta partners queried by the AJC offered statements that didn’t suggest momentum.
A spokesperson for Coca-Cola, a primary sponsor for the Tour Championship, extolled the partnership of the tour, East Lake, Atlanta and Coca-Cola and said in an email, “We look forward to continuing conversations with the PGA Tour and East Lake about building on that legacy.”
A spokesperson for another major tournament sponsor, Southern Company, told the AJC in an email that “it’s a bit premature to speculate about what the future holds for us regarding the Tour Championship and the PGA Tour” and that “we’ll continue conversations with the tour about plans that continue to benefit Atlanta and East Lake.”
A message left with TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, which is owned and operated by the PGA Tour and hosts a Champions (seniors) tour event in April, was returned by a tour spokesperson, who said that “Atlanta is a priority market for the PGA Tour.”
In a statement, Atlanta Sports Council president Dan Corso said that his group “would support all efforts to bring championship-level golf events to the city in the future.”
The most likely opportunity seems like a Challenger tournament, meaning players that most fans know little about. It’s questionable what the appetite would be to bring that to this market, but it would seem limited.
Which could leave golf supporters in metro Atlanta with no nearby opportunity to see the PGA Tour unless they’re among the lucky few who can get their hands on Masters badges.
Kind of sad indeed.
Correction
This story has been updated to correct the year that the PGA Tour Championship made Atlanta its home.
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