East Lake’s restored TifEagle greens and expanded Prizm zoysia shortgrass will make speed control a two-surface problem at the Tour Championship.
Compiled weekly by multiple-award-winning PGA Professional Brendon R. Elliott, PrimePutt's Director of Instruction and Lead Writer.
A putter does not suddenly become useful because the ball has crossed onto a putting green. At East Lake Golf Club this week, some of the most revealing putting decisions may happen before the ball ever reaches the TifEagle surface.
The 30-player Tour Championship field returns to a dramatically different East Lake than the version golfers knew for much of the FedExCup era. Andrew Green’s restoration, completed in 2024, replaced many of the old circular, predominantly back-to-front greens with putting surfaces divided by ridges, slopes, swales, plateaus and narrow fingers. The result is a course where simply hitting the green does not guarantee a comfortable first putt.
For 2026, there is another wrinkle. Shortgrass has been extended around five green complexes, making the transition between the surrounding Prizm zoysia and the TifEagle putting surfaces an even larger part of the test.
East Lake: Where the Putt May Begin Before the Green
East Lake will play to a par 70 at 7,440 yards for the Tour Championship. Its TifEagle bermudagrass greens are maintained at .115 inches and average 6,238 square feet, but that average size can be misleading.
The restoration created greens containing smaller internal destinations. PGA Tour coverage of the project has described putting surfaces divided into sections by slopes and swales, with plateaus and fingers requiring players to control not only distance but precisely where an approach finishes.
That distinction matters. A 25-foot putt from the proper section may be more manageable than a 15-footer that must cross a ridge or negotiate a major change in speed.
East Lake’s surroundings make those misses more interesting, too. The Prizm zoysiagrass collars and approaches are maintained at .215 inches, creating closely mown areas from which players can putt, chip or pitch depending on the lie, slope and hole location.
Those areas have been expanded around Nos. 3, 7, 12, 15 and 17 for this year’s championship. The fairway at No. 17 has also been reduced further.
For a putting column, the expanded shortgrass is particularly interesting because it creates shots that may look like ordinary putts but behave nothing like them.
A ball beginning on zoysia and finishing on TifEagle encounters two different surfaces during the same roll. The player has to supply enough energy to negotiate the opening portion without producing too much speed once the ball reaches the green.
That requires feel, observation and adaptation rather than simply making a longer stroke.
Weather could make that calibration even more important. The current Atlanta forecast includes a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms Thursday and a 60% chance Friday, followed by 30% chances Saturday and Sunday.
That does not allow us to declare beforehand that East Lake will play soft, slow or particularly receptive. It does suggest that players may have to continually reassess pace if rainfall, delays or changing moisture levels alter the surfaces during the championship.
What the Greens Are Asking
East Lake asks players to solve where the ball needs to finish before they decide how it should get there.
On the putting surfaces themselves, the internal contours create smaller effective targets than the overall green measurements suggest. Approaches that finish on the wrong plateau or opposite side of a ridge can leave defensive first putts even when the player has technically hit the green in regulation.
Around the greens, the question becomes more complicated.
The expanded shortgrass gives players options, but options require decisions. Put a wedge in your hands and you introduce carry, contact and landing point. Use the putter and you eliminate much of that, but now you must predict how the ball will react while moving from one surface onto another.
Neither choice is automatically correct.
The best players will identify the simplest path to predictable speed.
Watch those decisions this week, particularly around Nos. 3, 7, 12, 15 and 17. A player pulling the putter from several feet off the green is not necessarily choosing the safer shot. He is choosing the shot whose roll he believes he can predict best.
The PrimePutt Read
When I work with golfers on putting from the fringe, one of the most common mistakes is treating it like a normal putt that simply needs to be hit harder.
That is too simplistic.
The goal is not to determine how much harder you should hit the ball. The goal is to determine how much energy must remain when the ball reaches the putting surface.
Think of the fringe or closely mown approach as the first stage of the putt.
How much speed will that section remove? Is the grass into you or helping you? Is the transition uphill, downhill or relatively level? How much of the total journey takes place before the ball reaches the green?
Then study the second stage.
Once the ball gets onto the putting surface, what speed would you want if the putt actually began there?
Build the shot backward from that answer.
That subtle change in thinking can transform fringe putting. Instead of guessing how hard to strike the ball, you begin predicting what the ball needs to be doing at a specific point along its journey.
The PrimePutt Drill: Two-Surface Roll Test
What you need: One ball, your putter, three tees and a practice green with a closely mown fringe.
Find a relatively straight hole where you can putt from approximately 15 to 20 feet. Use three tees to create a 3-foot semicircle behind and around the cup.
Begin with three putts entirely from the putting surface. Your objective is to establish the stroke and pace required to finish every ball inside the 3-foot zone.
Next, move approximately 18 to 24 inches into the fringe while keeping the hole and overall distance as similar as possible.
Now hit three more putts.
Do not try to reproduce the same stroke length. Your objective is to reproduce the same finishing speed.
Scoring:
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2 points: Ball finishes within 18 inches of the hole.
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1 point: Ball finishes between 18 inches and 3 feet.
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0 points: Ball finishes outside 3 feet.
Complete three sets from the green and three sets from the fringe for 18 total putts.
The maximum score is 36. A score of 24 or better shows that you are beginning to adjust effectively between the two surfaces rather than simply adding force.
For the next progression, find a different location and repeat the test uphill, downhill and on a breaking putt.
On a PrimePutt mat, you can work on the first half of the skill by establishing repeatable stroke-to-distance references. Roll putts from several distances while attempting to finish them in a defined zone. Then take those references outside and learn how much they must change when fringe or shortgrass is added to the beginning of the roll.
PrimePutt Takeaway of the Week
East Lake is going to give us plenty of obvious putting theater. This is the Tour Championship, and a 12-footer for birdie late Sunday will naturally receive more attention than a putt from shortgrass on Thursday afternoon.
Do not overlook the quieter shots.
Andrew Green’s restored putting surfaces require players to understand sections, slopes and where an approach needs to finish. The additional Prizm zoysia shortgrass surrounding five greens extends that problem beyond the putting surface itself.
That is a useful lesson for the rest of us.
The next time your ball finishes on the fringe, resist the instinct to grab the putter and simply hit the ball harder. Look at where the ball changes surfaces. Decide what speed you want it traveling when it reaches the green. Then create the stroke that produces that result.
At East Lake this week, the player who best understands that transition will not necessarily hole every one.
He may simply leave himself far fewer uncomfortable next putts.
Editor’s note: Course setup, turf and agronomy details reflect information available before tournament play and may be adjusted as weather and championship conditions evolve.
