Atlanta Athletic Club pin flag Robert Trent Jones pga open ryder british

Description

The
Atlanta Athletic Club
(
AAC
), founded in 1898, is a private athletic club in
Johns Creek, Georgia
, a suburb 23 miles north of
Atlanta
. The original home of the club was a 10-story building located on Carnegie Way, and in 1904 a golf course was built on Atlanta's East Lake property. In 1908,
John Heisman
(the Auburn and Georgia Tech football coach for whom the
Heisman Trophy
was named) was hired as the AAC athletic director.
While it was downtown, its team placed third in the 1921
Amateur Athletic Union
National
Basketball
Championship defeating
Lowe and Campbell Athletic Goods
36-31 in the third place game.
[1]
At the time colleges, athletic clubs and factory-sponsored clubs all competed in the same league.
In 1967 the AAC sold both properties and moved to a big site in a then-unincorporated area of
Fulton County
that had a
Duluth
mailing address and would eventually become Johns Creek in 2006. The vacated East Lake site became
East Lake Golf Club
and was refurbished during the 1990s. It is now the home of
The Tour Championship
, currently the final event of the
PGA Tour
golf season.
The AAC hosted the 1950
U.S. Women's Amateur
and 1963
Ryder Cup
at East Lake, the 1976
U.S. Open
, the 1981, 2001, and 2011
PGA Championships
on its Highlands Course, and the 1990
U.S. Women's Open
on its Riverside Course. The AAC used both of its current regulation courses to host the 2014
U.S. Amateur
, with stroke-play qualifying on the Riverside Course and match play on the Highlands Course. The Riverside course, renovated by
Rees Jones
in 2002, was recognized among the top 10 new private courses in 2004 by
Golf Digest
.
The AAC has hosted many non-golf events including the first two
Southeastern Conference
men's basketball tournaments in 1933 and 1934. In 1984 and 1985, the AAC hosted the
U.S. Open Badminton Championship
. During the 1990s, the AAC hosted the AT&T Challenge, Atlanta's ATP professional tennis stop.
The AAC has two 18-hole golf courses, a health center, indoor and outdoor tennis, a par-3 course, Olympic-sized pool, as well as dining.
Famous members of the AAC include golfers
Bobby Jones
, Charles R. Yates,
Alexa Stirling
, basketball player
Mark Price
,
football
player and coach
Dan Reeves
, Daddy Barcomb, football player
Matthew Stafford
, and Michael Nicklaus, youngest son of
Jack Nicklaus
. In the 2004 film
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
the AAC was used to film many of the golf scenes.
Major tournaments hosted
[
edit
]
Year
Tournament
Course(s)
Winner
1976
^
U.S. Open
Highlands
Jerry Pate
1981
^
PGA Championship
Highlands
Larry Nelson
1990
#
U.S. Women’s Open
Riverside
Betsy King
2001
^
PGA Championship
Highlands
David Toms
2011
^
PGA Championship
Highlands
Keegan Bradley
2014
U.S. Amateur
Riverside (stroke play)
Highlands (match play)
Gunn Yang
2017
Arnold Palmer Cup
Highlands
U.S.19.5-11.5