Golf with a Purpose

[Music] the team here and working for a purpose and the story of the property make East Lake one of the best golf stories in in the game East Lake's Rich history includes names such as John Heisman Alexa Sterling and Bobby Jones originally formed as the Atlanta Athletic Club and 1898 it has hosted several high-profile events including USGA championships and even the Ryder Cup but its history was almost lost because of the decline of the area around it with the kind of the decay of the neighborhood the golf course kind of started losing stature and basically fell into somewhat disrepair and was ready to become something else other than a golf course crime drugs and poverty plagued the East Lake community and its status as a championship venue was becoming a distant memory until 1993 when local businessman and philanthropist Tom cousins purchased the property with a vision of restoring the course along with the Eastlake Community the club became the centerpiece of a new mission to elevate the East Lake community and the lives of the people that live there the East Lake foundation was formed to help create new opportunities for residents including mixed income housing quality Education Health and Wellness programs and much more East Lake Golf Club and the Tour Championship have played a tremendous role in delivering resources to the foundation to execute on the vision of improving the lives of those that called the East Lake Community Home you know premiss cousins it was a really tough neighborhood to be in uh I think it was drugs crime we running ramping Mr cousins had a vision to to take this neighborhood and get it back to what it's supposed to be Mr cousins you know had the wherewithal to see the the potential in this place and you know turn it into what it is again today we're probably one of the only golf courses that use the proceeds from the club to benefit uh nonprofit specifically something to better the neighborhood and the community around us it's it's pretty incredible what it what it was what it turned into and what it evolved into again golf with a purpose isn't just a saying at East l it's a way of life we truly do build the community up here we're not just we're not just part of the community we we help the community grow and and Thrive with us so it's it's specially be a part of that that knowing that it's not just Tee It Up go play your 18 holes and get out of here it's everything that we do is is in this community part of the community and try to be good neighbors to everybody around us so you know the fact that somewhere with somewhere with such strong ties to Bobby Jones would have been lost for forever and Tom was able to take it and renovate it and revive it and kind of create the model that he did for the business that we are now it's specially be a part of this place just based on the fact that you know that everything that we do goes back to this community to help build this community up [Music] [Music]