Cousins and his wife Ann decided their family had to dive in. He created the East Lake Foundation and began to woo housing project residents like Eva Davis, the famously strong-willed head of the residents association.

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“I was kind of nervous,” said Davis. “Here’s this big rich man with all this money. And he willing to come over here messing with us. And ain't nobody else been wanting to be bothered with us."

Long before she was mayor, Franklin was part of Cousins’ East Lake team.

“I was like a lot of other people; I thought he was crazy,” she said. “I thought he was overreaching. But he was taking on something that frankly the rest of us felt helpless to do."

Cousins says he didn’t know whether his plan would work.

“But I knew we were going to try,” he said.

When a faltering golf club bordering the housing project came up for sale, Cousins and his family put up $25 million and used the club as the cornerstone of one of the most audacious redevelopment plans ever conceived.

The urban nightmare that was the East Lake Meadows housing project was literally just a chip shot away from the fourth hole at East Lake Golf Club. Founded in 1904, this historic, very private club had itself fallen into disrepair from neglect and was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Incredibly, when a plan was developed to transform the housing project, the game of golf —traditionally exclusive, traditionally white — become the driving force to help turn around the neighborhood. It was golf, of all things — privileged, pristine, genteel golf — that helped save East Lake.

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East Lake wasn’t just any golf course down on its luck. It was the home course of perhaps the greatest golfer ever: Bobby Jones, the only sportsman Wall Street would throw two ticker-tape parades for.

Cousins and his team came up with a unique strategy to leverage the legendary golf club: Only 100 new corporate members would be allowed to join the existing members. And each would fork over a “suggested” $200,000 — bringing in a total of $20 million. That money would literally go across the street to help rebuild East Lake.

Raising money was one thing; winning trust with residents was another. Cousins had to persuade hundreds of them to move out of the housing project and have faith they’d be able to return.

CONTINUED: Golf lessons become life lessons

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