The Renaissance Club Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Byeong Hun An ties Renaissance record to lead in Scotland

Clarkwin — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 08:03:07 +0000

Byeong Hun An carded a bogey-free 61 to match the course record at The Renaissance Club and establish a two-shot lead after day one of the Genesis Scottish Open.

The South Korean carded nine birdies to set the early target ahead of Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Belgian Thomas Detry, while American Davis Riley threatened his lead in the afternoon. Although he carded seven birdies in eight holes from the third, An would not be caught in the third Rolex Series event of the season.

Riley was also bogey-free to sit at seven under after a 63, a shot clear of Detry and McIlroy and two ahead of South Korea’s K.H. Lee and German Yannik Paul.

An is no stranger to claiming big wins on the DP World Tour, having triumphed at the BMW PGA Championship in 2015 en route to finishing seventh in the Race to Dubai and winning the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award.

He also has a win on the European Challenge Tour and revealed he felt right at home in Europe and on links having played in eight Open Championships.

“It’s great,” he said. “I feel like I’m back home. This is the Tour where I started my professional career. It’s been great coming back and playing links golf, definitely it’s nice.

“I started on the Challenge Tour playing links courses and played The Open many times. I like links golf.

“It’s different than the courses we play in the US. You just have to land it in different spots. I really like it and as long as the weather is nice, and I prefer warm weather, but a links course, I feel comfortable. It can get tricky hitting shots into (the wind) but I think I did well today.”

An got up and down to birdie the par-five tenth and then rattled off four birdies in a row from the 13th. Brilliant iron play saw him make a hat-trick of gains from inside seven feet before he made another up-and-down birdie on a par five at the 16th.

He made a nine-footer on the second and a smart chip helped complete his set of par-five birdies on the next before he put an approach to six feet at the short par-four fifth and holed from 24 feet for a closing gain.

“It was nice, always, bogey-free nine under par,” he said. “I couldn’t play any better. I drove it well and hit it well and chipped it well and putted well. That’s a clean scorecard.

“I hit a lot of shots close, a lot of wedges close. It’s one of those days, every shot you hit just has a perfect number. Pitched right, exactly, and how the ball reacted on the greens, everything was perfect.

“Some of the putts I had were very straightforward putts that I think I left in a good spot.”

Riley made a two-putt birdie on the third and then put on a masterclass with the short stick to make four more in a row from between five and 26 feet.

A tee-shot to seven feet on the difficult par-three ninth saw him turn in 29 and he added another birdie with a two-putt on then tenth before parring his way home.

Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex leader McIlroy made a two-putt birdie on the par-five tenth and then holed from around 20 feet on the 12th and 13th.

A 41-foot putt on the 15th was followed by an up-and-down birdie on the par-five next and, while McIlroy bogeyed the 17th and second, he eagled the par-five third with a 30-footer from off the green after a 360-yard drive and made the most of the short par-four fifth after leaving himself a flick in.

Detry made birdie from inside 12 feet on the tenth, 11th, 12th and 14th to get off to a lightning start and, while he dropped a shot on the 16th, he left himself a tap-in on the next.

Another bogey came on the fourth but smart approaches to the fifth and eighth were followed by another stunner on the ninth as he got to six under.

Lee was bogey-free in his 65, while Paul carded four birdies, an eagle and a bogey to sit a shot ahead of American duo Max Homa and Will Gordon, local favourite Ewen Ferguson, South African Oliver Bekker, Frenchman Julien Brun, England’s Ross Fisher, South Korean Tom Kim and Swede David Lingmerth.

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Genesis Scottish Open: Renaissance Club to host PGA Tour/DP World Tour co-sanctioned event until 2026

Matt Smith — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 11:06:05 +0000

By Matt Smith
Following the recent success at the traditional Open Championship warm-up event, the Genesis Scottish Open will continue to be hosted at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian until 2026, with the PGA Tour/DP World Tour co-sanctioned Rolex Series competition returning for a fifth consecutive year from July 13-16, 2023.

Scotland’s national open was won this year by Olympic champion Xander Schauffele, securing a one shot victory from fellow American Kurt Kitayama.

Founded in 2008, The Renaissance Club sits on 300 acres along the Firth of Forth and is one of the newest additions to the world-famous stretch known as Scotland’s Golf Coast.

Keith Pelley, DP World Tour Chief Executive, said: “The Renaissance Club has proved to be a wonderful home for Scotland’s national open over the past four years, and we are delighted to extend our stay in East Lothian through to 2026.”

Jerry Sarvadi, CEO, The Renaissance Club, aded: “The Renaissance Club is extremely pleased to confirm our partnership with Genesis, the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour, to host the Genesis Scottish Open for the next four years. As we continue these relationships, The Renaissance Club, along with our architect, Tom Doak and our player consultant Padraig Harrington, will strive to improve our golf course and our facilities to better the event experience for all participants, our members and their guests and general public spectators.

“The 2022 event was truly spectacular, with 14 of the top 15 in the world rankings participating and world No. 6 Xander Schauffele winning with a score of seven-under par.”

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Xander Schauffele aims to double up at Genesis Scottish Open as Dubai’s Rafa Cabrera Bello looms

Matt Smith — Sat, 09 Jul 2022 20:07:24 +0000

By Matt Smith
Days after winning the star-studded JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor in Ireland, Xander Schauffele continued his rich vein of form by carding a brilliant 66 at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick to take a two-stroke advantage into the final day of the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open.

The American started the day four shots off the lead but three birdies put him in share and when he picked up another three gains in four holes from the 13th, he led by four.

A bogey-bogey finish took some of the gloss off his round but Schauffele will head into day four at seven-under as he looks for a first Rolex Series win.

“I had pretty much everything going,” Schauffele said. “I was judging the bounces well and making sort of the putts I need to and getting up-and-down when I was missing the green. Six birdies through 16, no complaints, and a tough finish.

“I’ll go to the range, get some better feels going into tomorrow but those are hard finishing holes. So overall, pretty okay with the day.

“I don’t want to think too far ahead but it would be very nice. It would be very special. It just proves that the game can travel, and beating an incredible field, one of the best of the year. I’m just going to focus on what I can do now and not get too carried away.”

Dubai-based Rafa Cabrera Bello is already a Rolex Series champion having won this event in 2017 and he was the closest challenger at five-under, a shot clear of England’s Jordan Smith and American duo Ryan Palmer and Jordan Spieth.

Schauffele arrived in Scotland as a man in form having also won his last start on the PGA Tour at the Travelers Championship after a run of four consecutive top-20 finishes.

Cameron Tringale started the day with a three-shot lead but he stumbled to a two-over 74 despite an eagle on the third

to sit at three under alongside U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who carded a 70, and American Alex Smalley who went round in 67.

There was then a group of eight players five shots off the lead including Swede Alexander Björk and Dane Rasmus Højgaard.

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Justin Thomas is still figuring out links golf, but feels like he’s getting close

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 10:13:49 +0000

Justin Thomas plays a shot during a practice round prior to this week’s Genesis Scottish Open. Andrew Redington

By John Huggan
Justin Thomas will always have a great story about his first trip around the Old Course, where he will play next week in his sixth Open Championship but his first at St. Andrews. The 29-year-old recalled it on Wednesday ahead of competing in the Scottish Open, taking himself back to his first start as a professional at the 2013 Dunhill Links Championship.

“I remember the first time I ever played St Andrews in my life,” he said. “It was pretty similar to today [dull and windy] but raining. My dad was caddying for me. We said, ‘let’s go play a practice round in this because if it’s in the States I’m just not playing golf. I tried to get used to it, and I remember thinking if I miss this fairway, I probably need to retire before this year starts. Then I hit driver, 6-iron into one and holed it for a 2. That was a pretty good first experience of St. Andrews.”

The two-time PGA champion’s subsequent experiences in the Open haven’t quite matched up to that incredible beginning at the Home of Golf. Since his debut at Royal Troon in 2016, Thomas’ best result is T-11 at Portrush three years later. Illustrating how much he has struggled with links golf, his next best finish is T-40 last year. Twice Thomas has missed the cut in golf’s oldest championship, although there are, at least in his own mind, some mitigating circumstances. More than once he has been a victim of the United Kingdom’s notoriously unpredictable weather.

“It sounds awful to say, but I haven’t had a good draw in an Open, so that definitely hasn’t helped,” he claimed. “In my first Open at Troon, I’ve never in my life played so well and ground so hard to finish 60th. Every morning I would go out and it would be blowing 25 [mph] and raining, and I would grind my tail off. Then I’d watch in the afternoon and the sun would come out. I was like, ‘Well, welcome to the Open.’

“Of course, that’s just part of it all over here,” he continued. “I hope over a 20-year, 30-year span of playing in the Open, I’m going to get my fair share of good draws. But I think it’s also about adapting my game plan based on the weather conditions. And a lot of people are going to have to deal with the same thing.”

On that front, Thomas is typical. When it comes to golf by the seaside, he is learning more from his mistakes than any successes. So, given his poor Open record, he has presumably taken on board rather a lot since 2016. An example from 2018:

“I remember specifically the par-5 sixth at Carnoustie. In the practice round I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to hit driver.’ I can hit it past the bunkers if I hit it right. At worst I’ll be in the fescue and I’ll lay up anyway. But if I have an opportunity to knock it on this green, this is a good chance for me to make a three or a four.”

So far so good. But things can change on the east coast of Scotland. And they had. When Thomas reached the sixth tee during his opening competitive round, it was raining and the wind was blowing in off the left, from the out-of-bounds fence on that side.

“I stuck with my game plan and decided to hit it driver,” Thomas said. “And, of course, I hit into one of those little pot bunkers. I couldn’t get over because it was raining, and I made 7. I should have the maturity and understanding of what’s going on to hit a 2-iron or 4-iron and play the hole with what the conditions are giving you. I’ve unfortunately learned the hard way but hopefully I’ll adapt to that going forward.”

No time like the near future.

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Viktor Hovland currently without clubs or clothes at Scottish Open, has terrible travelling luck

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 05:50:43 +0000

Andrew Redington

By Christopher Powers
No professional golfer is immune to a few travel issues throughout the course of a long season. It’s part of the deal when you’re trekking all over America, and sometimes the world, all year. But Viktor Hovland has been treated particularly unfairly by the travel gods in 2022.

Back in January, the Norwegian’s clubs failed to arrive until the day before the first round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first PGA Tour event of the year. When they did arrive, Hovland’s driver was snapped in half, a rather ominous omen.

Fast forward to July and Hovland is still having major airline issues again, and this time it’s not just his golf clubs. As Espen Blaker of Eurosport first reported on Tuesday, not only have Hovland’s clubs not arrived at the Genesis Scottish Open, but his clothes have not arrived either. The 24-year-old flew to Scotland via Frankfurt, Germany, where all of his belongings still remain.

“I’ll cross my fingers,” said Hovland, who hopes his sticks arrive, unharmed, before his 8:05 a.m. tee time on Thursday at The Renaissance Club.

At Kapalua, Hovland was able to borrow his caddie Shay Knight’s clubs for practice rounds, but he’s unable to do the same this week, per Blaker. Knight’s wife brought his clubs back to the U.S. on Sunday evening.

The good news is that Hovland is a world-class tour pro, and world-class tour pros can scrounge up a strong backup set, free of charge, much quicker than us choppers. According to Knight, there is a PING bus on site this week and they will have a new set ready to go for Hovland on Thursday should his clubs still be lost.

Hovland, who had won each of his prior two starts before the Sentry TOC, finished T-30 out of 38 golfers that week after the travel snafu. This week he’s making his first start since the U.S. Open, where he opened with 70 but then missed the cut after a disastrous second-round 77. He’s in search of his first top-10 finish since the Players Championship.

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Collin Morikawa to play Scottish Open before defending Open Championship title at St Andrews

Matt Smith — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:45:06 +0000

Collin Morikawa

By Matt Smith
Collin Morikawa, the Open champion, has insisted he will stay faithful to the Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick in July as he prepares for his bow at St Andrews and Open Championship title defence.

The American world No. 3 struggled to a disappointing 71st at the Scottish Open last year before going on to claim the Claret Jug on his Open debut at Royal St George’s a week later.

But he plans to follow the same plan this time around as he gets set to play the famous Old Course in Fife following, hopefully for him, a better showing in the Scottish Open, the third Rolex Series event of the 2022 DP World Tour season, with $8 million in prize money.

“The plan is absolutely to come back and play the Scottish Open,” Morikawa told the BBC. “I owe a lot to that tournament for getting me ready and actually making me realise that I needed to change some irons.

“Those two weeks last year my game was in some of the best shape I could have had then at the Scottish I started hitting irons shots, nine irons to 45 feet, missing greens and it was just frustrating.

“I wanted to blame it on my clubs and rarely that’s the case, but I really did and stuck with it, I made some changes at Royal St George’s on the Monday and ended up winning.”

Morikawa cannot wait to play at St Andrews for the first time, and is delighted the fans will be back in force after the R&A announced record crowds are expected this time around.

“The fans make everything,” he said. “We go back a couple of years and Covid came by and it was getting a little bland.

“We love playing golf, but the energy of the fans brings out the best in us.

“When it comes to St Andrews, there is obviously the history and everything it represents. People ask me if I’m going to go over early or take a couple trips. I really have never done that for any majors.

“I need to go out there Monday through Wednesday and do my normal work. I can’t play it like people have played it in the past. We don’t know what the weather is going to be like. We don’t know what the little changes might be in front of us.

“In the long run, I just have to be prepared and know how I’m going to prepare now for links golf.

“Last year I took a lot of risks, changing some irons, changing a little bit in the putter set up. But I think I’ll be a little more prepared this year to just be out there and ready to figure out how to dissect this golf course to the best of my abilities.”

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Why the next two weeks will feel like old times on the European Tour (except for the odd ski cap)

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 03:02:05 +0000

Ross Kinnaird
Joost Luiten works on his putting during a practice round prior to this week’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.

By John Huggan
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — “Too easy,” was Rory McIlroy’s reaction to the set-up of The Renaissance Club that yielded a 22 under par winning score by Bernd Wiesberger in last year’s Scottish Open. Things are likely to be a little different this time round though. For one thing, Scottish weather in early October is more than likely to contrast more than a little with Scottish weather in early July. Although there are never any guarantees on that front.

“The main difference is the time of the year,” confirms Wiesberger, who prevailed in a playoff with Frenchman Benjamin Hebert 15 months ago. “It’s four layers cold and the wind has picked up. That’s a lot different from last year, when we had perfect conditions. That led to the very low scoring.”

That isn’t likely to happen this time round. A combination of course lengthening—a couple of holes by 70-80 yards according to Wiesberger—re-routing and a bit more rough will ask a series of harder questions of the 126-man field.

“You will want to be a bit more precise off the tee,” continued the Austrian. “All in all I’m assuming that scoring is not going to go anywhere near where we had it last year.”

Happily, this week and next, when the BMW PGA Championship is held at Wentworth, also represents at least a brief return to what used to be normal on the European Tour. Financially anyway. A dozen events have been played on the Old World circuit since the restart from lockdown in early July. In total, those tournaments have (at today’s exchange rate) offered just more than $13 million in prize money. Together, courtesy of their status as Rolex Series events, the purses at the Scottish and the BMW total $14 million. But, after Wentworth, the next four European Tour tournaments are together paying just over $4.5 million.

The contrasts are both stark and obvious.

Andrew Redington
A bundled-up Tommy Fleetwood is ready to make his first start in the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open since 2016.

More cash has had a predictably positive effect on the quality of the fields over the next fortnight. Last week’s Irish Open “boasted” only four players from the world’s top 100. This week, 19 of that elite group will tee-up, albeit only six are in the top 50.

Tommy Fleetwood, at No.17 is the highest-ranked player in the field, is competing in his first Scottish Open since 2016 and returning to a land where he has recorded victories as an amateur and a professional. He even credits a first-round defeat to compatriot Graeme Storm in the Paul Lawrie Matchplay event at nearby Archerfield in 2016 for resurrecting a career that had faltered badly in the 18 months or so prior.

“I actually look at that as the turning point, when I started coming out of my slump that has last for more than a year,” Fleetwood says. “OK, I lost. But as I drove home I thought to myself I hadn’t played like that for so long. I didn’t miss a shot. So Archerfield was a turning point where I got things going on again. That’s a nice little positive and nice memory. I genuinely love coming to Scotland. I get a great vibe every time I come here. Playing in front of Scottish fans is always a pleasure. They know exactly what they are doing and they will be missed this week.”

Still, apart from that lack of atmosphere, things are looking up all round, at least briefly, on the European Tour.

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