First Fed ex cup completes at East Lake

East Lake Golf Club was virtually unknown when I played it as part of my quest to play the Top 100 Golf Courses in America. Tiger decimated the field yesterday at the first ever Fed Ex Cup and it brought back memories when I played there as part of my quest several years ago.

I had never heard of East Lake, except for it's place on the Top 100. But what I learned from going there was very exciting. One thing I have noticed, is that TV and radio coverage rarely tell you about the course where a tournament is being played or much about its history.

East Lake was designed by the late great golf architect, Donald Ross, and it is where the great Bobby Jones cut his teeth on golf. The house where he grew up , is right across the street from the club. (I got a picture through the fence and stopped to have a better look when my round was finished). It is an inner-city neighborhood in Atlanta GA that had since fallen into severe disrepair and blight. As a youngster, maybe 11 or 12 years old, Bobby beat his father in the finals of the East Lake Club Championship and he was on his way to becoming the greatest amateur golfer of all time.

After the neighborhood took its downturn, Tom Cousins came along and started the East Lake Foundation, with the intention of turning a blighted neighborhood in a success again. Lemons into lemonade, as the say. The course has been restored, the club house is now a glorious tribute to the great Bobby Jones and it was a fantastic place to play. At the time I was there it was $250,000 to join and $50,000 of that went to the club and $200,000 of that went to the foundation. If you weren't willing to support the foundation, then you weren't welcome to join.
You should read about it at http://www.eastlakefoundation.org/. The world would be a better place if more golf course developers would put forth a vision that Tom Cousins put forth.

I got there in my usual way of networking till I found a connection. My friend Dan Demuth, a golf pro from Minneapolis, introduced me to a friend who was the head of the Tiger Woods foundation at the time. He called Sam Puryear, who ran the inner city junior golf program for the East Lake Foundation and Sam invited me to play as his guest. The program Sam ran was a big success and so turning the neighborhood around was not only about real estate development, but about improving the lives of at risk kids. It is only coincidental that my connection to East Lake was through the Tiger Woods Foundation, and then Tiger steps up and makes history there.
So there is a little bit about East Lake for you. Keep this in mind when you watch the tour championship next year at East Lake.
You can read more about this in my book, A Golfers Dream: how a regular guy conquered the Golf Digest list of Top 100 courses in America. Visit www.golfersdreambook.com