I played Renaissance Golf Club last Saturday with David Gunas, the golf club's membership director (probably better known as "Barefoot Dave" from Season 2 of the Big Break). Mr. Pioppi said a couple of weeks ago that Renaissance is "better than the three courses at Bandon for sure." I'll try to offer a more objective view here.
The course really defies description. The scale of the complex is impressively big: Big, bold bunkering (much of the time perpendicular to the line of play); wide playing corridors; and huge chipping areas on at least one side of every green. For this reason, Renaissance is unmistakably a "modern" golf course, and no amount of maturation will change that. It will never have the "coziness" of a Myopia or Salem. Still, the pushed up green pads, which are often guarded on one or more sides by flat bottomed bunkers, clearly were inspired by Raynor. And the bunker shapes have a touch of MacKenzie in them (though they are more deliberately placed, giving a much more engineered look and feel). So, the course's overall look and shot values do hark back to the classical era.
About half of the holes play in and around a spent gravel pit, with the other half in the wooded areas surrounding the pit. Brian Silva could have easily made the course a "tale of two nines," but his routing does an excellent job of continually weaving the player in and out of the gravel pit. I found that this really forces a player out of his comfort zone: He is constantly taken from the completely wide open gravel pit back into the woods where the shadows from the trees play tricks on the eyes, particularly because of the effective camoflouging techniques Silva integrated into the course. Thankfully, the wooded holes still provide ample room for the player, and I never felt like I had to play defensive golf.
The course has only been open for a short time, but it's already clear that they are getting it right. The conditions are already starting to show the potential for firm and fast, and essentially all of the greens are designed to accept the ground game. The greens are thoughtfully contoured, though not as nearly as dramatically as typical C & C or Doak greens. There is just enough movement in the greens to punish misplaced irons shots and shots that come in from the wrong angle. The movement in the greens also call for creativity around the greens, particularly from the chipping areas (my favorite being the uphill par 3 4th, which has a Biarritz shaped green that is pitched from back to front, with a huge chipping area short and right).
My favorite Silva hole is the 16th at Red Tail, and playing Renaissance didn't change my mind about that. But this course blows away Red Tail as a whole, I think. The 2nd, 4th, and 15th are some of the best par 3s I've played (though I think that the back tee on #2 is too far back). The uphill 6th, the switchback 8th, the dramatic 11th, and the reachable 10th (completed with a square, puchbowl green set below the fairway) have the potential to be four of the best two-shotters in New England. The par 5s require thoughtful shots (though I think that if the back tee on #3 were moved up about 30 yards, it would make it more realistic to go for the green, which is protected short and left by wetlands, in two).
The facility as a whole is going to be first class and really enjoyable. The practice facility is the best I've seen on a non-resort course, and it seems as though the course gets a sparing amount of play (despite having about 200 members already). I could easily see walking 36 holes in 5.5 hours (the routing is easily walkable; indeed, most of the holes only have cart paths for the first 100 yards or so). I haven't played Black Rock, so I can't compare the two courses. But I'd be shocked if Renaissance weren't at least Black Rock's equal.