Atlanta Athletic Club

Atlanta Athletic Club

Club information
Location	Johns Creek, Georgia, U.S.
Established	1898 (1904 for golf course)
Type	Private
Total holes	45
Tournaments hosted	U.S. Open (1976) PGA Championship (1981, 2001, 2011) U.S. Women's Open (1990) U.S. Amateur (2014) Women's PGA Championship (2021)
Website	Atlanta Athletic Club
Highlands Course
Designed by	Robert Trent Jones, back 9 Joe Lee, front 9 Rees Jones (2006 redesigned)
Par	72
Length	7,613 yards (6,961 m)
Course rating	77.0
Riverside Course
Designed by	Robert Trent Jones Rees Jones (2003 redesign)
Par	72
Length	7,428 yards (6,792 m)
Course rating	76.2
Par 3 Course
Par	27

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 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.

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.

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, AAC hosted the U.S. Open Badminton Championship. During the 1990s, AAC hosted the AT&T Challenge, Atlanta's ATP professional tennis stop.

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 AAC include golfers Bobby Jones, Charlie Yates, Alexa Stirling, Watts Gunn, Dot Kirby, and Tommy Barnes; football player Daddy Barcomb; tennis player Nat Thornton; and basketball player Bob Kurland.

In the 2004 film Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, many of the golf scenes were filmed at AAC.

Pictures[]

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  Statue of Bobby Jones at the entrance to Atlanta Athletic Club.

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  The 15th green on the Highlands course.

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  1. 17 on Highlands.
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  Behind the 17th green on the Highlands course.

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  Back of the clubhouse from the practice putting green.

Key dates[]

• 1898 – first organizational meeting and granting of club charter
• 1899 – Official opening of 56 Edgewood Avenue facility
• 1902 – Move to new clubhouse at 37 Auburn Avenue
• 1924 – purchase of Carnegie Way property (10 story downtown club)
• 1926 – opening of Carnegie Way property
• 1930 – winning of Grand Slam by Bobby Jones Jr.
• 1963 – purchase of River Bend property in Duluth
• 1967 – opening of the new 27-hole golf course at River Bend
• 1968 – vote by stockholders to sell East Lake Country Club
• 1969 – selection of Atlanta Athletic Club Country Club as name for River Bend club
• 1971 – decision to sell Carnegie Way town club
• 1973 – destruction of Carnegie Way town club
• 2016 – second redesign of Highlands by Rees Jones

Scorecards[]

Major tournaments hosted[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Highlands Renovation in Preparation for 2011 PGA Championship
• AAC voted #1 Athletic Club

Coordinates: 34°00′14.40″N 84°11′34.96″W / 34.0040000°N 84.1930444°W / 34.0040000; -84.1930444