Renaissance Club routing for Scottish Open

[Ally Mcintosh]

Ally


I think you might be being a tad generous in your comments on professionals and their idea of fairness. As for Harrington, it all sounded rather vague. I'd be interested to hear what specific suggestions he made and whether they take any heed of those suggestions.


Niall

I guess only Tom knows whether Harrington is giving valuable input: Difficult to tell from a 90 second promotional video that comes with obligatory “pointing in to the distance” style set-ups.


Of course you are probably right about professionals in general: They will want the entire course to purely be about execution. But do you agree that “unfair” is an even dirtier word than “fair”? (not that there is anything unfair at The Renaissance Club from my memory)… An element of luck can be healthy though…

[Thomas Dai]

Views from the rear and from in front of the same green at Renaissance.
Options galore. Fly it? Run it? Bump it? Roll it? Splendid.
atb
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[Niall C]

Ally


I think the biggest problem for me with "fair" or indeed "unfair" is what exactly do they mean ? They can be used as a pejorative term without actually explaining what they mean. And yes I was trying to coax a response from Tom as to what specifically Harrington might have suggested. He certainly looked a wee bit like a startled deer in the headlights in that interview and if he had a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve going out there then he kept it well hidden.


I'm not one to say courses shouldn't be tweaked or touched but when you have a course that has received a lot of positive comment and was designed by one of the leading architects, do you really want a layman buggering about with it ?


Niall

[Thomas Dai]

The good ol’ concept of fairness.
How about we start referring to ‘the rough’ as ‘the unfair’?
The fairways could then be simply known as ‘the fair’, the fringes as ‘the extra fair’, the first cut outside the fair would be ‘the unfair’ progressing as the grass gets longer to ‘a bit more unfair than the unfair’ etc whilst bunkers could become ‘the very unfair’, ponds and streams the ‘extremely unfair’ and OB ‘the totally unfair’? I’m sure the TV commentators would have a joyous time splitting hairs as to which category to call.
 

Atb

[Tom_Doak]

Ally


And yes I was trying to coax a response from Tom as to what specifically Harrington might have suggested. He certainly looked a wee bit like a startled deer in the headlights in that interview and if he had a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve going out there then he kept it well hidden.


I'm not one to say courses shouldn't be tweaked or touched but when you have a course that has received a lot of positive comment and was designed by one of the leading architects, do you really want a layman buggering about with it ?

Niall:


Padraig is a nice guy and I think he was just being very sensitive to not stepping on my toes and sounding like he was trying to redesign the whole course.  Most of his suggestions have been general in nature, plus talking through the weaknesses of certain holes and weighing in on my ideas for how to address them. 


For example, we’ve talked a lot about how players drive safely right of the bunkers on the first two holes, and left on #4, and whether bunkers on the opposite side or contouring/mounding would keep players honest off the tee.  But in the end, how we tackle those is going to be my call.

[MKrohn]

I could care less what most pro golfers want or don't want but also I don't own Renaissance. I thought the course presented brilliantly on TV from my "lockdown" couch. If I ever get released would love to play.


Was a long night in Australia with the weather delay but another great result for one of our own.

[Tom_Doak]

What the client wants is to host the Scottish Open on a long term basis.  And since the players are all free agents, for that to happen, it’s essential for them to want to compete there.  If they see the course to be a birdie fest, they might decide it’s not the best preparation for the grind of The Open the next week.

I got a nice note from Mr Harrington last night after he had played the course all week.  I think you all might have overreacted to his desire for fairness, as one of his thoughts was to mow the grass tight right up to the stone wall on #5 so that players would be more afraid of running up against it!  His last note was “ You guys have already created a great canvass that the players are warming to as they understand it more. ”

[Niall C]

Tom

If I inferred Harrington wasn't a nice guy then that is my bad. I would however be concerned if he had more of a say than you've outlined. I tip my hat though to the Savardis as their stewardship of the course appears to me to have been entirely positive notwithstanding your initial concerns on how narrow it was. It seems to me they have opened it up since the early days or is that just my perception ?

Niall