Venue of Scottish Open 2019
DG: What additional work was required or
recommended in order to get the course ready for
the two Scottish Opens?
DG: Finally, what is your favourite hole and why?
TD: I have two favorites, the 7th and 8th. The par-5
7th was really designed by my friend John Ashworth,
Tom Doak: We haven’t done anything to the course the golf-fashion icon, when he was looking at the
since the new holes were added to the point several site years before The Renaissance Club came to be
years ago, and that was more about the member ... the green site, tucked in the back of a little dune
experience than the Pros. The club has, however, ridge, is very hard to reach and hold with a second
continued to thin trees to open up views across the shot. The 8th is the strongest par-4 on the course,
course. and it came together when we uncovered a broken-
DG: At its full length, what will the greatest challenges
be for the Professionals (men and women)?
down stone wall while clearing gorse in the area. I
loved how the wall to the right and the dune to the
left frame the green, so we extended the green back
TD: It is a relentless test of golf and it will require focus into that space, making a bunch of little terraces for
on every shot, including around the greens. A lapse of potential hole locations.
concentration can easily lead to a double bogey on
almost any hole.
By Kevin Markham
Editor, DG Ireland/ DG Scotland
Email:
[email protected]
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