Good News (I assume) for Renaissance

[Marty Bonnar]

...and East Lothian for next year. This should also help expose more UK golfers to the Doak ‘brand’!

http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/16347490.scottish-open-the-renaissance-club-to-stage-2019-tournament/

[Niall C]

Excellent stuff and congratulations to Tom and his team, and to Mr Savardi also.

The question is, will Mr S take the Mark Parsinen approach and have the fairways at the width they were designed at, or will they bring them in as they have before ?

Supplementary question, what particular greens will the pro’s moan about after the comp ? 

Niall

[Ben Stephens]

...and East Lothian for next year. This should also help expose more UK golfers to the Doak ‘brand’!

http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/16347490.scottish-open-the-renaissance-club-to-stage-2019-tournament/

I hope they don't set up the course like they did at the Renaissance Cup in 2014 which we played in. Boy the rough was brutal and it took away the strategic approach by Doak & Co.


Whilst at the 2014 Renaissance Cup noticed that Tom was not happy with the course set up at the time and hope they come to common sense that it can be a fun course for the pros as well as the amateurs

[Niall C]

Ben

You should bear in mind that was for a major comp, this is just a couple of local events 

Niall

[Niall C]

I might have used a smiley but my question on the greens was actually only half in jest. I suppose it will depend on the speed of the greens also. For the Open they generally try to get the greens running at 10 to 10.5 on the stimp. I wonder what they were this year at the Qualifier (Renaissance was used as an Open qualifier) and what speed they were designed for ?

Tom ?

Niall

[MCirba]

This is excellent news. I can't wait to watch.

[Tom_Doak]

We are happy for our client.  Hosting a regular Tour event has always been a goal for them and I was never sure if the politics would allow it to happen.  Ironically, American politics have shifted the thinking in Scottish golf politics.


I would expect the fairways to be on the narrow side.  (Y'all should know by now that architects don't get to do "setup".) Thankfully they have thinned the roughs considerably over the past four years so they are at least playable now - that first year when they were as dense as the fairways was terrifying.


I hope I have the time to go and watch some of the event, but we may be pretty busy next summer!

[Ben Stephens]

Ben

You should bear in mind that was for a major comp, this is just a couple of local events 

Niall

Ah I see the Renaissance Cup is a major comp 


I remember, correct me if I am wrong, it was a mock set up to see how it pans out for a future Scottish Open which the organisers had inspected prior to us playing. Played Angela Moser in the first round of the cup and Angela mentioned that there was a bunker in the rough some 50 yards away from the realigned fairway on I think the 3rd hole which was a dogleg right. Then I was astounded how wide the fairway was originally intended.

[Ben Stephens]

I might have used a smiley but my question on the greens was actually only half in jest. I suppose it will depend on the speed of the greens also. For the Open they generally try to get the greens running at 10 to 10.5 on the stimp. I wonder what they were this year at the Qualifier (Renaissance was used as an Open qualifier) and what speed they were designed for ?

Tom ?

Niall

Niall,


The Final Open qualifying finished on a long par 3 hole - which I assume was hole 15 when we played in the Renaissance Cup. That configuration gave two loops of 9 which meant it was easier to get groups out on two separate nines. I assume that they may use this configuration for the Scottish Open or maybe with the nines flipped over so that they use the original 18th


Cheers
Ben

[Ben Stephens]

We are happy for our client.  Hosting a regular Tour event has always been a goal for them and I was never sure if the politics would allow it to happen.  Ironically, American politics have shifted the thinking in Scottish golf politics.


I would expect the fairways to be on the narrow side.  (Y'all should know by now that architects don't get to do "setup".) Thankfully they have thinned the roughs considerably over the past four years so they are at least playable now - that first year when they were as dense as the fairways was terrifying.


I hope I have the time to go and watch some of the event, but we may be pretty busy next summer!

Hi Tom


Do you think there will be extra work required for the course prior to the Scottish Open other than the set up? like new fairway bunkers or tees considering the distances that tour pros hit these days.


The 18th at Gullane has a new tour tee so that it plays 460 yards.


Cheers
Ben

[Jason Topp]

We are happy for our client.  Hosting a regular Tour event has always been a goal for them and I was never sure if the politics would allow it to happen.  Ironically, American politics have shifted the thinking in Scottish golf politics.


I would expect the fairways to be on the narrow side.  (Y'all should know by now that architects don't get to do "setup".) Thankfully they have thinned the roughs considerably over the past four years so they are at least playable now - that first year when they were as dense as the fairways was terrifying.


I hope I have the time to go and watch some of the event, but we may be pretty busy next summer!

How do they thin out rough? 

[James Boon]

Interesting news. Will they still be hosting Final Open Qualifying the week before the Scottish Open? If so, then FOQ, Scottish Open and Ladies Scottish Open all in one year will keep the greenstaff on their toes!



Cheers,


James

[Mark Chaplin]

I guess they think FQ won’t damage the course too much with divots so close to the Scottish Open.


We turned down a significant amateur event a couple of weeks before FQ as 5/6 days of wear would have hammered the course and risked a “divot incident” in FQ.

[Jon Wiggett]

Well, so much for having the venues spread around the country if they cannot even get it to move town.  Very disappointing.

[Thomas Dai]

Sponsor wishes? Follow the money and all that.
Atb

[Niall C]

Jon

I think Dai makes a good point about sponsors wishes. The two main players here are probably the title sponsor ASI, who presumably will be sponsoring next year, and Scottish government who are providing backing.

Aberdeen Asset Management, before they merged with Standard Life, were title sponsors and through their Chief Exec took the tournament to Royal Aberdeen before bringing it down here. Now that they have merged with an Edinburgh company (Standard Life) it makes sense for them to have it in East Lothian.

As for the Scottish Government, well through Visit Scotland they have been busy punting East Lothian as the “Golf Coast” so again it makes sense for them. The only surprise is perhaps that I think it’s a change of tune from the Scottish Govt as I have vague recollections of Wee Eck kyboshing a previous move to hold the Scottish Open at the Renaissance on the grounds of it being too elitist. How times have changed.

Niall

[Jon Wiggett]

Niall,


clearly so. Nuff said

[George Pazin]

We are happy for our client.  Hosting a regular Tour event has always been a goal for them and I was never sure if the politics would allow it to happen.  Ironically, American politics have shifted the thinking in Scottish golf politics.


I would expect the fairways to be on the narrow side.  (Y'all should know by now that architects don't get to do "setup".) Thankfully they have thinned the roughs considerably over the past four years so they are at least playable now - that first year when they were as dense as the fairways was terrifying.


I hope I have the time to go and watch some of the event, but we may be pretty busy next summer!

How do they thin out rough?

+1


Hoping someone can answer this, for the agronomically challenged, such as myself, if not Jason...

[Jon Wiggett]

George,


thickness of the rough depends quite often on the weather. This year we have had a very dry spring followed by some very hot (for us) weather which has stunted growth and kept rough quite thin. In a year which it is wet in April through June then the rough will be much thicker.


A couple of ways of thinning the rough is to cut it for hay or silage and take it away thus reducing the nutrients long term or graze it.

[Sean_A]

It is weather like this summer which exposes links for having shit grass in the rough.  If the grass is fescues it will be whispy.  However, 9.9 out of 10 there is a ton of shit grass mixed on which takes far longer to die back. 

Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

It is weather like this summer which exposes links for having shit grass in the rough.  If the grass is fescues it will be whispy.  However, 9.9 out of 10 there is a ton of shit grass mixed on which takes far longer to die back. 

Ciao

To an extent, Sean, but if you'd seen Renaissance four years ago, as referenced above, you'd be aware that isn't always the case. Because it was relatively newly-seeded, it was a beautiful stand of pure fescue, and it was as thick as all hell.

[Sean_A]

It is weather like this summer which exposes links for having shit grass in the rough.  If the grass is fescues it will be whispy.  However, 9.9 out of 10 there is a ton of shit grass mixed on which takes far longer to die back. 

Ciao

To an extent, Sean, but if you'd seen Renaissance four years ago, as referenced above, you'd be aware that isn't always the case. Because it was relatively newly-seeded, it was a beautiful stand of pure fescue, and it was as thick as all hell.

Adam

Yes, I recall the crazy rough, but there also wasn't the hot summer that we have this year. I bet now there is a ton of shit grass in there now!  If not, RC is the rare .1 out of 10 without it 

Ciao

[Ally Mcintosh]

It takes an awful lot of work to get rid of those broad leaf grasses in the first 15m of heavy rough on each side of the fairway. But what a difference it makes if that is one of the primary goals of the greens crew.

[Marty Bonnar]

It is weather like this summer which exposes links for having shit grass in the rough.  If the grass is fescues it will be whispy.  However, 9.9 out of 10 there is a ton of shit grass mixed on which takes far longer to die back. 

Ciao

Would the binomial for shit grass maybe be ‘Poo annua’?
 
F.

[Jon Wiggett]

It is weather like this summer which exposes links for having shit grass in the rough.  If the grass is fescues it will be whispy.  However, 9.9 out of 10 there is a ton of shit grass mixed on which takes far longer to die back. 

Ciao

To an extent, Sean, but if you'd seen Renaissance four years ago, as referenced above, you'd be aware that isn't always the case. Because it was relatively newly-seeded, it was a beautiful stand of pure fescue, and it was as thick as all hell.

Adam,


this is usually down to a lack of patience from the developer. Rough should be very sparsely seeded but this would mean the rough would take up to 10 years to really establish itself and most developers want a finished product on the opening day.