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 swat𓆏h 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. But it does have links qualities with its seaside location, firm turf, and deep pot bunkers with riveted faces. And its greens encourage the use of the ground game.
It hasn’t always played as tough as a typical links course either thanks to Mother Nature bestowing light breezes in two of the past four years. With calmer winds in play, the tournaments here in 2019 and 2021 averaged 1.87 strokes under par, which hasn’t allowed it to be the most challenging of Open Championship warm-ups. But when the coastal breezes kick up, scoring becomes very tricky as evidenced by it playing 1.73 strokes over par last year. With hardly any penalty last year for missing the fairway, the course favors length off the tee along with accurate long iron players who can flight their ball in the wind and avoid 3-putts on the huge, undulating greens.
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. For the second straight year, the Scottish Open continues as the only co-sanctioned event between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Before last year’s event each of the six prior champions, and 22 of the past 24 have been a DP World Tour regular. PGA players have typically viewed this tournament as a warm-up for The Open Championship. But last year, American, Xander Schauffele broke through with a winning score of 7-under.
The Field
With 20 of the top 30 players in the world making the trip to North Berwick, the field for this year’s Scottish Open will be its strongest ever and will rival that of many of the other elevated events from earlier this season. With it being a co-sanctioned event, 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.
With world No. 2 Jon Rahm choosing to prepare on his own for next week’s Open Championship, he is the only eligible top-10 player not in attendance this week. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler returns after missing the cut in his first appearance here last year. He will look to extend his amazing streak of 18 consecutive finishes inside the top-12 on the leaderboard. Other notable PGA Tour members teeing it up in Scotland this week include Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland, Schauffele, Max Homa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth and Wyndham Clark. Tony Finau, Keegan Bradley, Cam Young, Collin Morikawa, Jason Day, and Sepp Straka are the other eligible, non-injured players in the top-30 that are skipping this week.
From the DP World Tour side, the top players in the field this week inside the top 100 in the OWGR include Ryan Fox, Min Woo Lee, Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert, Pablo Larrazabal, Victor Perez, Thriston Lawren💦ce, Rasmus Hojgaard, Adrian Otaegui, Thorbjorn Olesen, Jordan Smith, and Alexander Bjork.
The Renaissance Club – 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.
Finish Position and Strokes Gained Event History (2019-2022)
*This includes the average finish position and Strokes Gained per round in each category. Players are sorted by SG: Total. The sheet now includes each year’s tournament Strength of Field rating which measures the quality of every player in the event. The higher the SoF, the stronger the field.
Course Features
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 throu♚gh 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 sꦛuperb moving from heathland to heavily treed areas to coastal dunes and back to the forest and heath. Tꦉhe holes also alternate in facing different directions which provides for a variety of wind conditions on different holes.
The 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 th𒈔e 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. And last year, Schauffele’s winning score was 7-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.”
As to how easy or difficult the course will play this year, it cannot be emphasized enough that weather will be the main determining factor. Said Schauffele on the conditions after his win last year, “I don’t know if it was love at first sight, but I did enjoy playing with winds blowing 30 (mph) and playing the ball down closer to the ground and you know, it being okay to sort of aim 100 yards away from a bunker you can’t go in and just play from there. It’s just fun golf for me.”
While Schauffele had a blast in the conditions last year, many golfers struggle when playing in the elements. This is definitely a week where the weather forecast needs to be monitored up until tee time on Thursday to g🌼et the best idea on how exactly the course will play.
Strokes Gained Analysis
Off the Tee
The effects of potentially windy conditions really shouldn’t impact how one views performance off the tee this week at The Renaissance Club. In gusty conditions last year, the Driving Accuracy rate was only 49%. Yet it ranked as the second easiest course in “Missed Fairway Penalty”. A big part of the reason for that is there just aren’t many hazards to trouble players off the tee. Greens were still hit in regulation 59% of the time. If the winds are a factor, everyone will struggle to hit these fairways which rank on the narrow side at only 31.5 yards wide on average.
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. Last year, the average driving distance was 295 yards which is well above the Tour average. And with the reputation of playing longer than its yardage, along with four par-4s over 475 yards, a driveable par-4, and three lengthy 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.
While shorter hitters like Aaron Rai and Tommy Fleetwood can definitely have success here, last year’s leaderboard was filled with longer drivers of the ball including Schauffele, Kurt Kitayama, Thomas Detry, Dean Burmester and Rasmus Hojgaard.
Approach
On approachin💃g 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 quad♛rants 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 2021, 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 h✨ole and positioning approach shots relative to the pin, and leaving an uphill putt is vital. The course definitely favors strong iron players ❀as in that same year seven of the top-15 on the leaderboard had gained at least 4.6 strokes on approach.
Similar to off-the-tee, last year’s windy conditions allowed the Renaissance Club to play much tougher in every area as it ranked as the fourth toughest course to gain strokes on approach. With last year’s event being the only one with ShotLink, a whopping 48% of approach shots came from outside of 175 yards.
Around the Green and Putting
While scrambling and performance around the greens would seem to be important on most links courses, this is another stat at the Renaissance Club that is weather-dependent. In 2021 with calm winds and players hitting so many greens in regulation, it didn’t factor in much. Out of the top 20 that year, only four players gained more than two strokes around the green, with seven of them actually losing strokes. But if greens are firm and the winds increase as they did last year, 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. Last year these greens ranked as the fifth most difficult on which to gain strokes. Putting insideꦚ 15 feet, especially in windy conditions, will be crucial.
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. With such large green surfaces, lag putting and three-putt avoidance will be huge this week as last year’s tournament saw one of the highest 3-putt rates on Tour at 4.91%.
Most Important Stats For Success at The Renaissance Club
*In order of importance
