Akshay Bhatia Drains Birdie at No. 17 After 121-Yard Approach at TOUR Championship

Q: How did East Lake's dramatic 2026 redesign secretly orchestrate the jaw-dropping birdie setups by McIlroy and Schauffele?

East Lake’s redesign helped create those birdie looks by turning the 15th into a more exacting but more revealing risk-reward par 3, where a well-struck tee shot is rewarded with a realistic makeable putt. Andrew Green’s restoration, completed ahead of this new East Lake era and refined again for 2026, restored Ross-style green contours, expanded closely mown areas and added more strategic volatility around key greens, including No. 15. That hole now features a tricky heart-shaped peninsula-style green and tighter short-grass surrounds, so misses are punished by awkward recoveries rather than just rough. The flip side is that players who commit to the right line and distance can attack. That is what McIlroy and Schauffele did Thursday. McIlroy’s tee shot to 6 feet and Schauffele’s to 15 feet were not random highlights; they were exactly the kind of outcomes the redesign was built to produce. The new architecture asks for precise trajectory control and rewards elite iron play with clear birdie chances. The broader 2026 setup reinforces that effect. East Lake is still a long par-70 at 7,440 yards, but the course now emphasizes angles, contour and decision-making more than simple brute difficulty. On No. 15 in particular, the restored green complex creates sharper separation: average shots leave nervy pars, while premium strikes like McIlroy’s and Schauffele’s produce the sort of dramatic, TV-ready birdie setups the renovation was intended to showcase.

Q: With $10 million on the line, will the newly volatile closing holes at East Lake crown a champion or cause a shocking collapse?

Yes — East Lake’s reworked closing stretch is far more likely to decide the FedExCup than merely stage-manage it, and that means it can crown a champion with brilliance or expose a leader with one bad swing. The evidence was visible immediately Thursday. Akshay Bhatia’s precise wedge into 17, Rory McIlroy’s tee shot to 6 feet at the par-3 15th and Xander Schauffele’s shot to 15 feet on the same hole showed that the final holes now reward nerve and execution. But those same holes are built to punish hesitation. The restored layout by Andrew Green added more contour, short grass runoffs and strategic hazards, while the closing sequence from 14 through 18 asks players to survive a long par 4, attack a demanding par 3, handle a treacherous par 4 at 16, thread a tighter 17th fairway and then make a risk-reward decision on the par-5 18th. That volatility matters more under the current format because all 30 players start even par. There are no staggered starting strokes to protect the season-long leader. A player such as Scottie Scheffler arrives with the strongest résumé, but not a built-in cushion. McIlroy and Schauffele also have the East Lake pedigree and shotmaking to capitalize late. So the $10 million likely will be won on those closing holes — but not necessarily by the player leading when the back nine begins. East Lake’s finish is now designed to reward conviction and punish indecision, which is exactly how a season finale should work.

3 articles · Updated · PGA TOUR · Aug 27

Akshay Bhatia stuffed a 121-yard approach on the par-4 17th at East Lake, setting up a birdie during the opening round of the TOUR Championship.
The shot was one of the latest highlights in a round still in progress Thursday in Atlanta, where the FedExCup Playoffs finale runs Aug. 27-30.
Rory McIlroy also created a birdie chance with a tee shot to 6 feet on No. 15, while Xander Schauffele hit to 15 feet on the same hole.