The ultimate makeover awaits golf's top 30 at FedEx finale

Only the name stays the same: while the routing at East Lake is identical, everything from the greens and tees and bunkers and fairway contours and grasses is completely different, as Scott Michaux explains

Xander Schauffele walks off the 12th green during the final round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club last year. He sits second gos into this season's finale. Pic: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR

RORY McIlroy has previously qualified for the Tour Championship in 10 seasons and won it three times. Shane Lowry’s never made it to East Lake Golf Course before. But both Irish men will share the same level of experience on the layout that greets them this week for the PGA Tour’s FedExCup finale.

The Tudor-style clubhouse; the lake that bisects the front and back nines; the holes set in all the same places on the 178-acre rectangular plot east of the downtown skyline – those things will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s finished the season at East Lake before.