The venue for the Tour Championship, East Lake, may be familiar given it has hosted the event continuously since 2004, but in some ways it is very different this year thanks to an extensive restoration of the course by Andrew Green.
One of the most dramatic changes comes at the par 5 18th. There, the lake in front of the green has been expanded, while some trees that separated the 18th fairway from the 10th fairway have been removed.
In the build-up to the tournament, those two decisions, along with a reshaping of the fairway, have led to several players experimenting with playing down the 10th fairway during practice rounds, as it offers a better way to lay up.
However, the opportunity players saw to take a less hazardous route has now been closed after the PGA Tour announced the fairway of the 10th will be internal out of bounds during play on the 18th. It has also taken a similar decision on the sixth for any player considering using the seventh fairway. But what is the PGA Tour's reasoning?
In a statement, the PGA Tour explained it had been done for safety reasons, writing: “For the safety of spectators, players, caddies and everyone on property at East Lake Golf Club, the PGA Tour Rules Committee has established two internal boundaries for this week’s Tour Championship.
“The fairway on No. 7 is out of bounds during play of No. 6, and the fairway on No. 10 is out of bounds during play of No. 18.”
Chief Referee Gary Young added: “This decision was made primarily out of safety concerns, specifically to prevent players from effectively putting people in harm's way by taking an alternate route. When it sounds like that is going to be a possibility, it necessitates an internal boundary.”
During his press conference before the event, Scottie Scheffler, who will have a starting score two shots ahead of nearest rival Xander Schauffele when play begins, explained why he had been toying with the idea of using the 10th.
He said: “Yeah. The way they reshaped the fairway there, the fairway crowns like this and it's a very difficult fairway to hit, and if your ball goes into the right rough and you don't get a good lie, you have to chip it 10 yards down the fairway because there's nowhere really to lay up.
“Before there used to be some opportunity there, where now there's not. You're now hitting it across the lake.
"If you hit it into the right rough, you're now hitting it over a pond to a fairway that's pretty narrow. If you hit it in the left rough you probably can't hold the green from there, and if you don't get it to the fairway, you're going to be in the water. It seems like a safer play to take all that out of play, hit it down 10.”
Scheffler was not the only player who had identified the 10th fairway as the sensible option, with Schauffele also admitting to having considered using the tactic.
Now, thanks to the PGA Tour’s decision on safety grounds, it’s back to the drawing board for the stars as they prepare to compete on a vastly altered course to the one they encountered just a year ago, troublesome 18th and all.
