Tour Championship Review & Betting Guide

East Lake GC, originally designed by Donald Ross, redesigned by Rees Jones © Rees Jones

Phil Mickelson 14/1 © TourProGolfClubs.com

East Lake Golf Club is the home course of legendary amateur golfer Bobby Jones and has held some major golf tournaments including the Ryder Cup in 1963 and the US Amateur in 2001 and is now the permanent home to the Tour Championship since 2005.

The club motto is “Golf with a Purpose” and working with the local community, all profits from the club, as well as charitable donations from the club’s corporate membership support the East Lake Foundation. Helping Atlanta’s East Lake residents by giving them opportunities to build a better future through education for children and adults, affordable housing, job readiness and connections with the broader community.

Established in 1904, East Lake is the oldest golf course in Atlanta. Originally designed by Tom Bendelow, but completely reworked by Donald Ross in 1913. In 1994, Rees Jones restored Donald Ross’ original golf course layout, which now measures 7,374 yards.

The signature hole at the 168-yard, par 3 6th plays from an elevated tee to a diagonally angled peninsula green. This green existed on the original Tom Bendelow course where it served as the green at the par 5 16th and was at the time, one of the first island greens in America.

With this week’s field being down to thirty players for the Tour Championship, I am just going to go with three to win and one outside tip. As I stated last week I do feel Steve Stricker 22/1 has a win in him and he may well pull it off this week, but there are others who are coming into form who just love playing on this track.

Hunter Mahan 16/1 © Keith Allison

My tips to win: 

It’s been an up and down year for Phil Mickelson 14/1 a major and a tour win with four other Top 5 finishes should represent a good year for the Californian, but it’s his bad tournaments that stand out with three missed cuts. But that’s Phil’s game and he is turning up to a course he loves playing where he’s had two wins so I wouldn’t be surprised if he caps his year off with another Tour Championship victory.

Hunter Mahan 16/1 was in great form just before the birth of his daughter Zoe and is another player that enjoys teeing it up at the East Lake track. Hunter’s final rounds of 65 & 67 at the BMW Championship sees him coming into this week full of confidence and a new BMW electric car after his hole in one at the 17th at Conway Farm, all he needs now is a win to top his year off.

Luke Donald 20/1 © Keith Allison

Luke Donald’s 20/1 final round 66 at the BMW Championship saw him fly up the leaderboard and into the FedEx Top 30 to scrape into this week’s Tour Championship. Luke has not been outside the Top 5 at the Tour Championship since his 2010, he must love playing on that East Lake course and he will come into this week buzzing having grabbed a spot when it was looking like he would miss out this year.

My outside tip:

Because of the limited field there are not many long odds or outside bets out there this week, but one that does stand out is Billy Horschel 66/1 who done well earlier in the season. After his stunning start to the year, Billy has tailed off missing several cuts, but came back last week with a final round 66, which saw him move up the leaderboard and no doubt instilled some much needed confidence in his golf game.

For updated betting odds during the tournament go to planetgolfreview.com