2024 Scottish Open Preview Renaissance Club

July 10, 2024

The Genesis Scottish Open is being held at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian Scotland from July 11th to 14th, 2024.

The South Korean luxury brand also sponsored The Genesis Invitational at The Riviera Country Club in February of 2024.

The tournament is also unique in that is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and PGA Tour and counts toward both the Race to Dubai and FedEx Cup.

The Renaissance Club

A private members club in Scotland is Rare Indeed - the strapline of the club. A Tom Doak design, it was his first design in Scotland with his second at Cabot Highlands (formerly Castle Stuart). The Renaissance Club opened in 2008 and just five years later they added three new holes along the coastline after a land swap with next-door neighbour, Muirfield.

The golf course is currently ranked 72nd in GB&I, 23rd in Scotland and 4th in East Lothian, behind Muirfield, North Berwick West Links, and Gullane No.1.

Officially, the golf course plays to 7237 yards with a par of just 70. Three par 5's are offset by five par 3's. As with most links courses, yardage is just a number. Wind and rain will always play a role and the 600-yard 3rd could be an easier hole than the 147-yard 6th if the wind wreaks havoc on the day.

Last year provided one of the best shots of the year in Rory McIlroy's 202-yard 2-iron. Rory hit driver on the 444-yard 18th in a gusting 22 mph wind before he cut a sawed-off 2 iron to set up the birdie that won the tournament. Firm, fast conditions coupled with wind on a links course that rewards the ground game is a beautiful sight to behold.

It looks as though the conditions will provide the test this week again. Wind speed will be as high as 18 mph with rain forecast for three of the four days. As always, if it's wet and the wind doesn't blow, links golf courses are gettable for the tour players.

For many, the thought of Tom Doak building a links golf course on a piece of land that shares a boundary with Muirfield would almost guarantee a World Top 100 course. I guess that shows how hard it is to crack. Other architects have done it at Cabot Highlands, Trump International, and Kingsbarns, whilst others have suffered a similar fate to Tom... namely The Castle Course at St Andrews and more recently, Dumbarnie Links.

Many of the tour players will be using this week to refamiliarise themselves with links golf again. The American-based players used to the aerial game and warmer weather will need to adjust as the real test of the Open will ratchet up the challenge in a week at Royal Troon.