Xander Schauffele has been assessing the renovations to East Lake ahead of the season-ending Tour Championship.
Schauffele has a remarkable record in Atlanta and claimed the Tour Championship title in 2017, although Justin Thomas won the FedEx Cup that year.
As the FedEx Cup top 30 prepare to compete for golf’s most lucrative prize, Schauffele has suggested that the venue is, in fact, ‘too new’.
Xander Schauffele shares what he saw on 18 during a practice round at East Lake
Schauffele spoke to the media ahead of Thursday’s first round and shared his thoughts on East Lake’s brand design.
“It’s just too new. The course is really, really new,” Schauffele explained. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had to play a different venue for a year or two, like to let this course settle in. That’s how new it is.
“I mean, I’m not sure. Once it’s settled in, it could be awesome. Once the grass lays down and you’re chipping up and down these hills with grain, and you can get some spin-off that zoysia — I think it’s zoysia in the fairways there leading up to the greens.”
The world number two then claimed he saw good shots plug in the grass around the 18th green.
Schauffele added: “You can hit a really good shot — on 18, I saw someone from the fairway hit a long iron that landed literally half the size of this table in between the bunker, the rough, and the green in the fringe, and it hit really soft and plugged; and then a ball that landed this much further, it just went straight over the green. It’s just because it’s new, so it’s hard to tell.”
East Lake could provide toughest Tour Championship test
With firm conditions set to test the world’s best players this week, the 2024 Tour Championship scoring could look very different to what the golfing world saw 12 months ago.
Viktor Hovland’s 27-under-par victory should remain a thing of the past. The firmer greens demand better precision, and players are unable to take dead aim at pins and watch their approach shots stop dead.
Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler and Co. will have to recalibrate their landing zones and look to run the ball up to hole locations.
Despite rain forecasted for Thursday, the weather will maintain the firmness of the greens throughout the tournament, with temperatures in the mid-90s all four days.
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