Sitting adjacent to Muirfield on 300 acres along the famous golfing coastline off the Firth of Forth in North Berwick, Scotland is The Renaissance Club. Completed in 2008 by famed architect Tom Doak, it was designed from the swath of an ancient pine forest. With only four holes by the ocean, undulating terrain, thick rough off the fairway and numerous wooded areas, The Renaissance Club is not a traditional links setup. It does have links qualities with firm turf, and deep pot bunkers, and its greens encourage the use of the ground game.
Over the past decade, the club has become a mainstay in the Scottish golfing scene, having hosted three other Scottish Opens along with professional women’s and senior events. This year’s Scottish Open makes its debut as a co-sanctioned event between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. With many of the PGA players typically viewing this as a warm-up event for The Open Championship, each of the past six winners, and 22 of the past 24 have been a European Tour regular.
Other than being on the Scottish coast and the “linksy” aesthetics that are part of The Renaissance Club, this event hasn’t proven to be the most challenging of Open Championship warm-ups. With calmer winds in play, the tournaments here in 2019 and 2021 averaged 1.87 strokes under par.
The Field
With 14 of the top 15 players in the world making the trip to North Berwick, the field for this year’s Scottish Open will be one of the strongest non-major events ever. The number of PGA Tour players and DP World Tour players is evenly split with 75 players in attendance from each. Motivation for many will be high as three spots in the Open Championship are up for grabs to the top three finishers who have not already qualified provided they finish in the top 10 at Renaissance.
Other than Rory McIlroy and the suspended LIV golfers, every other upper-tier golfer will play. The headliners include world number one Scottie Scheffler, reigning FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay, major winners Justin Thomas and Matt Fitzpatrick and other standouts such as Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Smith, Sam Burns and Hideki Matsuyama. Also returning is last years winner, Min Woo Lee, who defeated Fitzpatrick and Thomas Detry in a three-way playoff.
Course History
Famed American architect Tom Doak had always embraced “Old Country” course designs. And in 2005, he finally received an offer to build a Scottish course which would be named The Renaissance Club. A group of American investors obtained a 99-year lease from the Duke of Hamilton on a 300-acre portion of the Archerfield Estate on the East Lothian coastline where they wanted Doak to create a private course worthy of major championships.
One of the main reasons Doak was hired to create a world-class course was because of his renowned ability to leave nature undisturbed. In that regard, Doak did not disappoint as he was able to showcase the natural features of the Archerfield tract. Speaking on the land, Doak remarked, “It was very different from other properties in the area because of the trees and lack of dunes, but as well as being sandy, the land has beautiful subtle movement.”
When three new holes along the coastline were added in 2013, it gave the course an entirely new feel. The holes from 9-11 gave the course a connection to the coastline for the very first time. Holes 9 and 11 are scenic par-3s while the par-4 10th hole has a narrow fairway with a sloped green that sits right next to the edge of the cliffs looking down on the Firth of Forth.
The Course
Due to potential windy conditions, The Renaissance Club was built with extreme versatility in tee placements and can play as short as 5,400 yards out to its Scottish Open length of 7,237 yards. While it was a par-71 course in previous editions, this year it is a par-70 course with a unique mixture of ten par-4s, five par-3s and three par-5s. Overall, it is a hybrid of parkland, heathland and links-style courses. The layout was carved through a forest of evergreens and has an undulating sand-based terrain that includes ancient rock walls, ocean cliffs and forested woodlands.
While the architecture may be bland overall, the routing is superb moving from heathland to heavily treed areas to coastal dunes and back to the forest and heath. The holes also alternate in facing different directions which provides for a variety of wind conditions on different holes.
f684b2f3d4218ee06dad551b3bb2074bThe course is not a pure links setup with the numerous tree-lined holes, undulations and heavy rough in play just off the fairways (especially on the back nine). But there is a definitive links-style component to the course. Not only is it off the coastline, and subject to windy conditions, but the fescue turf is firm and tight. This leads to fast-running surfaces on the fairways and aprons leading to the greens. Combine that with no bunkers in front of the greens and the use of the ground game and bump-and-run shots are encouraged. Many of the course’s 83 bunkers are also links-style pot bunkers with deep riveted faces.
In regards to agronomy, the Renaissance Club was seeded with the most common grass choice in Scotland – red fescue. Fairways, rough and greens are all 100% fescue. The rough is much thicker here compared to the wispiness of other links-style courses in Great Britain. As is typical for most coastal courses, greens run very slow at around 10 on the stimpmeter. The greens here are cut at a minimum of 5 mm high. Most PGA Tour greens are typically cut to around 2.5 mm. With the greens playing so slow, many of the PGA Tour players who are used to faster speeds will have to make an adjustment.
Overall, the course has a great blend of long and short par-4s and 5s. Three of the four par-5s play over 575 yards and, dependent on the wind and firmness of the fairways, can each be reached in two shots. Four of the five par-4s are over 475 yards while three of the par-3s play over 200 yards. Distance off the tee and accuracy with longer irons will definitely be an advantage on this course.
Even with the menacing and strategically-placed bunkers, the thick rough and the undulated greens, when the winds are calm players have had very little trouble scoring in the brief history of professional golf at The Renaissance Club. Both the 2019 and 2021 events saw birdies made in bunches as the average score approached a full two shots under par with the winning score averaging 20-under. In 2020, when the wind and rain became a factor, Aaron Rai won at only 11-under. With the club exposed to the North Sea coastline, potential bad weather is the course’s best defense. As Doak himself said about the conditions, “The windier and firmer it is, the more ball-striking plays a premium. If it’s soft, it becomes more of a putting contest, and that’s not what the players want to see.”
Strokes Gained Analysis
Off the Tee
With reports of the typically wide and generous fairways being tightened on many holes for this week’s event, accuracy off the tee may increase in importance. While players high on the leaderboard in the past three events have not ranked high in driving accuracy for the week, with firm and fast conditions along with the penal rough and threatening pot bunkers, position off the tee is crucial. 12 of the top 17 players who finished 15th or better in the 2021 Scottish Open were inside the top-60 in SG: Off the Tee on either the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour heading into the Scottish Open.
Though atypical of links-style courses where shorter hitters can use rollouts on tee shots to make up for lost carry distance, Driving Distance appears to be a definite advantage at The Renaissance Club. With the reputation of playing longer than its yardage along with four par-4s over 475 yards, a driveable par-4, and four par-5s, distance off the tee brings many advantages. There are also a couple of longer carries off the tee into potentially gusty winds that favor the longer hitters as well. At the 2021 event, all three players in the playoff (Lee, Fitzpatrick, and Thomas Detry all ranked high off the tee last season entering the week.
Approach
On approaching the green this week, players will have a variety of options. If winds remain on the calmer side, longer players off the tee will have the advantage of hitting higher lofted irons into the proper quadrants on the tiered greens. Whether winds are high or not, thanks to Doak creating a firm surface with no bunkers or water in front of the greens, all players will have the option to utilize the ground game to run their ball onto the greens.
When the weather cooperates, hitting these greens is not even a remote issue. Out of the 77 players to make the cut in last year’s event, only 13 of them had a GIR rate of under 70%. 15 players were above 80%! That being said, with the greens being so huge and undulating, proximity to the hole and positioning approach shots relative to the pin, and leaving an uphill putt is vital. The course definitely favors strong iron players as last year seven of the top-15 on the leaderboard had gained at least 4.6 strokes on approach.
Around the Green and Putting
While scrambling and performance around the greens would seem to be important on most links courses, with players hitting so many greens in regulation, it hasn’t factored in much. Out of the top 20 in last year’s event only four players had gained more than two strokes Around the Green, with seven off them actually losing strokes. If greens are firm and the winds increase, the undulating nature of the green surfaces will repel shots into the pot bunkers and runoff areas, and that will produce chips off of tight lies.
The green complexes, in a word, can be described as adventurous. They are firm, large and well contoured with a variety of possible pin positions. Some players have commented that the breaks are very difficult to identify while others have said they look much more severe than they play. One thing is for sure, the speed will be much slower than typical PGA Tour courses and may cause some players to start slow while they adjust. Three-putt avoidance will be huge this week as the prior events at the Renaissance Club have seen a high rate of 3-putts at 3.78%.
Photo courtesy of The Renaissance Club