24 | TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP BY COCA-COLA
Keeping Up With Jones
Sensing Bobby Jones around every corner, East Lake Golf Club is an inspiration for golfers and the local community alike—an excellent
showdown at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola is guaranteed. BY WARD CLAYTON
A
tlanta’s East Lake Golf Club is steeped in history. First, there’s the memorial to the great Bobby Jones, who
grew up playing the game at East Lake and is recognized throughout the clubhouse. Then there’s the East Lake Foundation, which has been instrumental in turning around one of the nation’s worst neighborhoods in a revitalization program supported heavily by the club and PGA TOUR event. Finally, there’s the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, the ultimate competitive showdown in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. “To bring this tournament back here to East Lake,
where Bobby Jones grew up, where he played all his golf at such a wonderfully laid-out golf course, really adds a lot to the event,” Phil Mickelson, the only man to win twice in 10 TOUR Championships at East Lake, said in 2000. “If we went and played a modern-day track with huge, deep bunkers and the whole deal, it wouldn’t have the same feel.”
TPC LIFE & LEISURE
Furyk celebrates his win at East Lake.
FURYK’S SAND SAVE In 2010, Jim Furyk was clinging to a one-shot lead on the difficult par-3 18th hole. His tee shot on the tournament’s final hole was in a bunker so deep he could only see the top of the lip as rain continued to come down. Furyk came out cleanly as the ball landed inches from the cup and spun to a stop two feet away for an easy par and
a one-shot victory over Luke Donald. Furyk’s par save, with hat turned backwards to keep rain from dripping into his
putting line, was punctuated with a fist pump and a scream. The victory would eventually lead to a first Player of the Year honor. The victory was exactly what Furyk needed to become 2010 FedExCup champion. “It just hit me,” Furyk said of his impromptu
celebration. “I was excited and dropped the putter and... I don’t know. I guess at that moment, you’re not really responsible for what happens next.”
© STAN BADZ/PGA TOUR; KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES; S&G AND BARRATTS, EMPICS SPORT/PA
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