Opening in 2008 The Renaissance Club seemed destined from the outset to be a hit, given it was designed by one of modern golf’s most respected course architects and built right next to the venerable Muirfield course in East Lothian. Occupying classic links-like terrain, the Tom Doak design is typically well routed and conceived, and tests all elements of the golfers game. The conditioning is also from the top shelf, and the combination of beautiful outlooks across the Firth of Forth and charming, open green complexes that are great fun to play into and around are a compelling mix.
Strangely however, the Renaissance Club has struggled to really establish itself as a must-play Scottish golfing attraction. This is in part due to the Global Financial Crisis having hit membership sales reasonably hard, and also reducing visitor numbers to the North Berwick-Muirfield area. The other factor is that the softly moving terrain here is far less dramatic and glamorous than many of Doak’s other projects, and one suspects some golfers are underwhelmed by the lack of eye-candy at Renaissance. There are constant views of the Firth, but until now none of the golf gets right down by the water. This will change in 2013, with the opening of three new holes built on land that was previously owned by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers next door at Muirfield.
The advantage of this new land at Renaissance is that it gives a quality links raw aesthetic appeal, and is likely to lead to increased interest in the course. The new holes are quite spectacular, especially the left bending 10th which heads right along the cliffs and looks across to Firth to Fidra Island, but they will cause some routing issues. The connecting walk from the beach dunes back to the existing course is fairly steep, and the excellent 12th will need to be modified to tie the holes together. The upside is that the new holes are beautiful and the opening sequence was somewhat repetitive, in terms of holes playing along stands of Pine trees, so starting from the 4th might break things up a little. Also the current opening stretch will become a three-hole warm-up loop, adding to the already exceptional practice facilities provided for the membership.
Even prior to the change at Renaissance Club, this was a links that serious golfers were always bound to enjoy. It’s tougher than most of Tom Doak’s other courses, and is fairly unrelenting with tightly bunkered fairways and a number of raised or steeply contoured green sites that test all areas of approach and recovery play. As we have come to expect of Doak, the routing has a nice intimacy to it and transitions well from greens to tees. There are also a number of terrific holes, from the mid-length 7th, to the short par three 9th with its coastal backdrop and the rising par four 11th, with its narrow green squeezed between a dune and an old stone wall.
Despite boasting an impressive and expansive global portfolio, until he landed this project and was able to build a course in Scotland, one suspects that Doak’s design career might have felt incomplete. This is neither his best nor most interesting work, but The Renaissance Club is still very good and well worth a look for those golfing the East Lothian coastline.
This review from Darius Oliver
No comments:
Post a Comment