Renaissance Club at Archerfield-pics

[Daryl David]

I recently had the pleasure of a tour of the Renaissance Club.  Many thanks to Jerry Savardi for sharing his time and wonderful enthusiasm about this project. He is definitely living the dream! Tom Doak and team have created something that is certain to make a huge impact on the Scottish golf scene.  I can hardly wait for the conversations around how you would split rounds in East Lothian between the Ren Club, Muirfield, North Berwick, etc.  We had some great debates among my group with the Ren Club doing very well in the argument.

As a disclaimer, I am not much of a course photographer.  I just tried to capture some of the flow and a few of the greens to give an idea.  As you can see the bunkers are still in process, but the grow in has been very successful.  Maybe Tom will chime in with some comments.

[Tom_Doak]

Daryl:

Thanks for the compliments.  At the start of the project I would have been amazed if visitors to Scotland wanted to pass up ANY rounds at Muirfield or North Berwick to play a new course, period; but the course turned out better than I expected and I hope it will get its share of play now.

Your next-to-last picture shocked me -- is that the view back from the 15th green?  If so, there are a LOT of trees that have been felled since I last saw it.

The ground is relatively subtle and so are the features of the course (bunker depths and green contours and so forth), so it's not a course that is going to produce spectacular photos.  It's meant to be played.  It is quite long and the contouring has all been done at the expectation that people will be hitting long irons and hybrid approaches into some of the greens.

[Daryl David]

Tom,

The day we were there they had just taken down a ton of trees on the back side.  I much prefer the open look, especially that look back toward 11 and 12 without the groves of trees.  And of course that will also bring some more wind into play.

Your comment about the course being meant to play really makes sense.  The comments from the group all centered around how much more interesting the greens were than what we had seen on the trip to that point and how many run up shots are going to be necessary with the length.  I think that is where the fun is going to be.  While everyone loves North Berwick, unless the wind is really howling, you just don't get to pull out the long clubs for second shots much.  

I think visitors to East Lothian will always want to play Muirfield, but they are likely to have more fun at the Ren club.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Daryl, thanks for the update, the pictures look good to me.  Here are some from the end of March this year - it just shows what a wet summer can do for grass. At this point there was no attempt to differentiate between rough and fairway.







Tom can you explain more about?

the course turned out better than I expected and I hope it will get its share of play now.

Also when we saw it the grass was just getting established.  Are these pictures proof that fescue is the ideal plant for both fairways and rough in this part of the world or is it the mix you seeded, where the rough and fairway show how  different species will thrive depending on how they are irrigated and cut?

[Tim Pitner]

I take issue with Tom D's statement that the course doesn't yield spectacular photos--more subtle than some, I suppose, but some of the pics look pretty fantastic to me.  Thanks Daryl.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Daryl,
You may not be much of a golf course photographer... but those pictures are great.

Tom,
That looks great.
It also looks big.
Is it "bigger" than you expected?

The 5th picture looks like a very cool green.
My favorite green site is the one draped up against the small mound - 5th to last pic.  I hope it was an existing feature, although the little point in the back middle of the green sticks out a bit in the photo - I assume it is there to keep that back right pin reasonable ly sloped.  Am I close?

[Tom_Doak]

Mike:

The first picture you referenced is the eighth green.  That picture is actually taken from the back left of the green ... there are a couple of little pockets in the back of it (inspired by the 3rd green on The Old Course) behind a shallow shelf (inspired by the 12th green on The Old Course).  It's a cool green for the shortest par-4 on the course.

The fifth-to-last picture is of the 14th green and the photo is a bit misleading as the camera was a bit tilted.  It's a downhill approach, and the green doesn't tilt very much from right to left as it looks.  When we built it that big mound in the distance wasn't there -- that's where some of the trees are buried.  But you're right about the little mound, it was built to hold up shots from rolling off the back of the green as the green falls to the rear and left.

[Daryl David]

Thanks Mike,

It is big. There is a real sense of being spread out, especially with the trees coming down between some of the holes.  When those areas are converted to the wispy long grass it will really be striking.

The wet summer must have been exceptional for growing grass.  The fairways, tees and greens look like they have had an extra year to mature.  It will be in prime shape next spring.  Infrastructure is also coming along also as you can see from these pictures of the lodge.

[Jeff Doerr]

Daryl,

Really great capture on a number of the green contours. My hope is that the new wave in GCA will be to follow the lead by Tom and others to build these sort of natural/beautiful greens.

[Jim Sweeney]

Tom D.:

What is the history of the stone walls? Were they there or are they part of the construction? Are they ancient or historical?

Thanks.

[Mike_Cirba]

While not spectacular in the Barnbouglian sense, I've seen few courses that look more mysteriously intriguing and enchantingly inviting.

[Daryl David]

Jim,
My understanding is the walls were there.  Not sure of the age.  They had to be restored and some openings made, but they are original to the estate.

[Jerry Kluger]

Tom: Could you expand your comments with respect to the trees.  Are they removing more trees than you wanted or are you simply surprised as to how quickly they were able to remove them?

[Tom_Doak]

Jerry:

They are removing more trees than we were supposed to be allowed to remove, so I didn't even weigh in on some of them.  I hope they're not going overboard but I can't really tell.

Jim S:

Nearly all of the stone walls are historic, although we added a couple of small stretches around the clubhouse area (tying into historic walls) to set it off.  The "rolling wall" behind the 11th green is my favorite.  You would not believe how many people I had to convince to leave it as it was.  Some wanted to "restore" it to a flat-topped wall, and others insisted we couldn't preserve it in broken-down state because it would be a safety hazard.  I finally got my way on it though.  

[Mike Sweeney]

Has this opened? I could not find any recent threads?

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike - thanks for bringing this back up.

Daryl - thanks much for the pictures.

Tom D - please take this as the compliment I intend it to be: those photos of the Renaissance Club are the first ones from any course I've seen profiled here that capture something of Sean Arble's Mini Tour of lesser-known English courses.

Peter

[Daryl David]

Just a disclaimer on the pictures. They were taken just Sept of 2007 so I imagine the course has matured quite a bit since my visit.  It is an amazing course in an amazing golfing area.  I can't wait to get back to see how it has come along.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I had the fortune of playing the course last month...

...it was one of the most playable, fun courses I've ever experienced...

[Mike Sweeney]

I had the fortune of playing the course last month...

...it was one of the most playable, fun courses I've ever experienced...

More infformation please.

Tom certainly has a following here, why have there not been more players on the course since we are in prime season now?

Was their a Grand Opening or Press Day?

The club in asking for $100,000 for membership on their website, which seems like a big number in Scotland from over here. Any idea on how that model is working?

What is the relationship to Big Brother The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers next door?

Thanks

[Tom_Doak]

Mike:

They have not been hosting many "panelist" types, just people who are real prospective members ... which explains everything about the sparse commentary here.

The client has seemed very happy with initial membership sales and interest.  More of the memberships are being sold in London and in Europe than in America, which is okay with them.

[Dan Herrmann]

Wow...  What a place.

Love the stone walls!  Love the "feel" of the course.  Congratulations!

PS - Another Doak course with "Stonewalls:"

[Mike Sweeney]

More of the memberships are being sold in London and in Europe than in America, which is okay with them.

Tom,

I start to see why when I looked that you have housing on-site similar to a destination club aka Sand Hills and Sebonack. Thanks.

[rchesnut]

I'd like to add my thanks to Jerry Savardi for hosting me and my friend last week.  It's a great course and, from the looks of the almost completed first lodge, the facilities are going to be first class, and the people were very nice to us during our visit. Congratulations to Tom and his team for building another outstanding course, it's quite a place.

The course is growing in nicely, that area has gotten a lot of rain over the last month and the fairways were green, contrasting very nicely with the tall brown grass in the rough.  The rough was calf high in many places and very thick, balls that went in often couldn't be found -- we played without caddies in high winds and lost twice as many balls there than at any other course.  I didn't pull out any measuring tape but the fairways certainly didn't seem as wide as, say, Pacific Dunes or Ballyneal or Barnbougle, so the rough came into play.  The wind was really up the day we played there, blowing around 25 mph, and the folks there said that the playing conditions were the toughest they had been all year.

I agree with Tom's comment about the beauty of the place, it's more wooded than the other courses of his that I've played and there aren't a lot of views of the sea.  The beauty is more subtle, in the design of the bunkers, the contrast of the rough with the fairways, the stone walls, and the green complexes.   It is a big course, and the stone walls give it a reallyl nice feel.  It's hard to evaluate it after playing it just one time particularly under those conditions, it felt long (7426 from the tips...we played from the next set up at 6863) and tough while we were battling it last week.

I have some pictures as well, but I've never posted pictures before and I  keep getting an error message that says  "uploader is full, please try a smaller file or contact administrator" -- the pics I'm trying to put up are only about 80KB, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong...if someone wants to drop me a note with some technical direction, I'll add some more pictures.

Rob

[Richard Hetzel]

Mr. Doak, I really like how that course looks and it probably plays even better. I would pass up a round elsewhere to play it!