PGA Tour bans ‘alternate routes’ after pros plot wrongdoing at East Lake

ATLANTA, Ga. – When course architect Andrew Green addressed the media shortly before noon on Tuesday Championship tournamenthe admitted he was excited to see how the players handled the new challenges of the golf course.

“Man, I’m really happy with all of this,” he said, referring to the reported $30 million overhaul of East Lake Golf Club that he had orchestrated over the past 12 months. “I don’t know if there’s anything I’m overly stressed about.”

About 24 hours after unveiling what the tour called a “historic restoration,” the reviews were already piling up. Xander Schauffele had experienced so much success in the previous version of East Lake that he admitted he was tempted to jump in front of a bulldozer, but he was keeping an open mind.

“It’s definitely interesting,” Scottie Scheffler added, clearly a ringing approval. “It’s basically a new golf course from what it was before.”

And Viktor Hovland, who said the new-look East Lake felt like “a big championship golf course,” added that he was impressed with how Green had added tipping strategy.

“I wouldn’t say East Lake had ever had much strategy off the tee before,” he said.

Back to Green, then, who added this to his comments: “I’m interested to see how 14 and 18 play. Eighteen is in their head. I can tell already.”

He was right, in a sense. Eighteen it Was in their heads. Both players and golfers had already talked about creative strategies to cope with the par-5 finish, which has a steep fairway, brutal rough, a lake that preserves the approach shot and minimal margin for error.

“If you hit it down there, you end up with a lie that you just have to judge. We will see. It’s not the same as it used to be, so there are some differences,” he said.

Players hitting the fairway would be tasked with hitting an approach from an uneven lie. Players who lost their way? They would just hope to lay down safely, avoiding water, trees and the rough in the process. Green wondered aloud if players would try to get the driver down into the tight landing area or try to chase a 3-wood down the slope.

“But just playing it a few times, we’ll see what the guys are going to do.”

It didn’t take long for Scheffler, the world No. 1, to find an alternative strategy. During his practice round, he and his playing partners teed off shots over the left tree line and onto the adjacent par-4 10th fairway. Scheffler offered this insightful explanation from a player’s perspective:

“The way they reshaped the fairway there, the crown of the fairway is like this,” he said, demonstrating the slope with his hands. “And it’s a very difficult fairway to hit, and if your ball goes the right way and you don’t get a good lie, you have to chip it 10 feet down the fairway because there’s nowhere to lay .

“Before there was an opportunity there, where now there isn’t. I’ll describe it this way: If you hit it in the rough, now you’re hitting it over a pond on a fairway that’s pretty narrow. If you hit it left, you probably can’t keep the green from there, and if you don’t hit the fairway, you’re going to be in the water.

“It seems like a safer play to get all of these out of play, scoring 10. The green is going to be extremely difficult to hold anyway, as it’s downhill and having a club of long there. It’s more that you’re playing for the birds. I think there are fewer opportunities for the eagle than there used to be.”

Scheffler added that with how strong the new greens are, it was nearly impossible to hit and hold in two.

“I saw Rory putt 18 greens today,” he said, citing the exception that proved the rule. “But it landed on the rim over the bunker. Fear is soft; greens are strong. It is very challenging to hold the green in twos.

“If you don’t hit the 18th fairway, you’re in a lot of trouble. That’s something I’m still going to play with tomorrow, but I think it’s likely you’ll see some guys hit it at 10 because it’s a safer play.”

Schauffele, the world No. 2, admitted he too was considering an alternative route.

“Yeah, I hit two drives to 10, actually,” he said. He repeated the challenges of hitting the fairway and, if you missed the fairway with your shot, the challenges of getting back to the fairway with the second.

“I don’t think anyone on this property can hold a green by hitting a lob wedge or sand wedge from the rough to the green,” he added.

Their deep explanations had an unintended consequence: They let Tour know that something was up. By Tuesday afternoon, rules officials were conferring to discuss their options. It was, admitted one player, a “lose-lose situation”.

Leave the hole as it is? You’d be risking the PGA Tour’s biggest prize — the winner here gets $25 million — by going to a player who had deliberately sent his tee shot down the wrong hole while teeing up No. 18, defying the architect’s intent. and adding an element of mockery to the proceedings.

The alternative wasn’t much better: pushing internal boundaries out of bounds, effectively admitting that the mega-restoration had overlooked a blind spot at the highest point of danger. Yes.

It got worse. The players working the front nine had come up with another alternative strategy: Instead of taking the sixth hole to the right, they were looking at the seventh fairway off the tee, leaving a better angle up the hill.

In everyday play it is likely that most members respect the purpose of the course and its architect. It’s also safe to assume that most members can’t sustain long driving distances. But with an eight-figure jackpot awaiting the winner (and runner-up) there’s no efficiency these pros won’t try to exploit.

The sudden flurry of creative thinking was reminiscent of the 2021 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont, which came after a decade of tree removal — they had removed more than 12,000 — that allowed players to send cars astray in as many a lot. like six holesdodging devastating bunkers in the process. The PGA Tour has seen its share of alternate routes, including Viktor Hovland’s insistence on playing down the wrong path at No. 15 in Riviera.

As players continued to consider their options, a resolution was reached on Wednesday. First it came via text messages to the 30-man field and later via email to tournament media.

“For the safety of spectators, players, golfers and everyone on the property at East Lake Golf Club, the PGA TOUR Rules Committee has established two inside limits for this week’s TOUR Championship,” the statement read. “The fairway at No. 7 is out of bounds during the play of No. 6, and the fairway at No. 10 is out of bounds during the play of No. 18.”

The announcement quoted lead referee Gary Young: “This decision was made primarily out of safety concerns, particularly to prevent players from effectively putting people at risk by taking an alternative route. When it looks like that’s going to be a possibility, it takes an internal boundary.”

On Wednesday tournament officials could also be seen inspecting the right rough of the 18th fairway. Word got around later in the day that they were going to land a bit of rough on that side of the hole to make the second shot more playable.

Now, ironically, a car unintentionally A dropped 10 will incur a two-stroke penalty on players. Let’s hope no one hits it the wrong way with the tournament on the line.

Another fun fact: Typically, the OB within the course is indicated by white pins. But in this case the border will be demarcated from the edge of the freeway itself. According to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, this is the first time the PGA Tour has ever scored out of bounds in this manner.

The restoration is already making history.

Dylan Dethier

Editor of Golf.com

Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. Resident of Williamstown, Mass. joined GOLF in 2017 after two years of struggling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he is the author of 18 in Americawhich details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living out of his car and golfing in every state.