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Renaissance Club, Scotland |
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The Renaissance Club
Cowden Hill Drive
Dirleton
North Berwick
EH39 5HS
Scotland |  | Tom Doak |  | David Armitage |
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 | +44 (0) 1620 850 901 |  | 2 miles E of Gullane |
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Golf Club Website
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 | Members and their guests only |  | Jerry Savadi |
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The acclaimed American course architect Tom Doak has been associated with some fantastic contemporary course designs around the world in recent years – think Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, Barnbougle Dunes in Australia, Pacific Dunes in America – all of them very highly ranked in our World Top 100 rankings.
Now, with his first course design at the Home of Golf in East Lothian’s Archerfield Estate, next door to Muirfield, Doak has added another brilliant layout to an already outstanding portfolio with the opening of the Renaissance Club course in April 2008.
The 18 holes were carved out of around 300 acres of pine forest – developer Jerry Sarvadi told us there were over 8,500 tonnes of wood cleared – but the design retained a number of these trees in strategic fairway and greenside positions, adding both definition and a very pleasing aesthetic quality to the landscape.
The course has been built with tournament golf in mind and it can play as long as 7,426 yards, though normal member positions will be around the 6,250-yard mark. Par is 71, with only one par five on the front nine, the right doglegged 6th, which measures 601 yards from the championship tee.
The four holes that run from the 10th to the highest point on the course at the 13th are closest to the Firth of Forth, where the water sits some way below and beyond this ridge on the property – in time, this stretch may well constitute the feature holes on the course, with the stunningly photogenic 11th set to become the signature hole on the layout. | |
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If the above course review article is not accurate, let us know by clicking here |
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In the section below, headed “Your Reviews”, are golf course reviews posted by visitors to the Top 100 website. There are no specific rules for reviewing a golf course except you MUST have played the golf course first. Merits of each course are left entirely to your discretion. Important factors, such as course location, condition (or presentation), course difficulty and historical importance are all left for you to judge and we have developed a simple rating system where you can allocate one score to each course. | |
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 |  | | Average Reviewers Score: |   | | So unnecessary that they are not open to visitors. You have to know a member to get on here. They're trying the rich American CEO golf experience in East Lothian and I found it ridiculous. For example, when you arrive, an employee takes your clubs for you and has them "ready for you on the 1st tee". Come on, what is the point?! The course itself has a very average front 9 (NOT a links course, more like a heathland) and an excellent back 9 (holes 10-13 are stunning, with great views of the Firth of Forth and over to Fife). Sure, I was lucky to get a game here, but what they are doing at Archerfield, both the Renaissance and the two adjacent courses, is fundamentally against the spirit of the game. If they welcomed visitors even with high green fees, they would blend in so well with the top quality golf stretching from Longniddry to Dunbar. Such a pity.  | | 01 July 2009
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| Response: | | | Cornwell | 30 May 2010 | | 'In the spirit of the game' like Muirfield you mean? I also think that you have your courses confused. Your clubs are taken at Archerfield, not Renaissance. Of the 3 in the area, Archerfield Fidra is a lot of fun and stunning, Archerfield Direlton is a great, 'proper' links and Renaissance is a long, long slog which is undeniably beautiful in parts but just too hard off the backs even for very good players. | | | tsjs | 29 June 2010 | | Good lord, not Muirfield! 'The spirit of the game' meaning that any half-decent golfer should be able to get on. I don't have my courses confused. My clubs have been "ready on the 1st tee" every time I have played Renaissance. Absolutely crazy and out of character with 99% of Scottish golf. |
| | | It was hard not to come away from my morning at the Renaissance Club feeling anything but a little disappointed. I had read many of Doak's comments on the course design, enjoyed the photos and watching videos of the club. The problem was it was just not as much fun as it should have been. There were just one set of tees in play the day I was there and anyone who thinks a 516 yard par 4 uphill into the wind is anything but punishment is playing off a lower handicap than I! While the land was beautiful and much of the work done on the course was technically great and interesting it just felt like this course had been built with one thing in mind only - to build a course for a big tour event. Anyone expecting a modern interpretation of a Scottish Links should think again - the course is very hilly in parts and does not have many of the characteristics you would expect on this coastline. I am glad I have played it once but frankly if you offered me a round there again or at Gullane, North Berwick, Archerfied or Muirfield the Renaissance would definitely be at the bottom of my list. | | 17 November 2008
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| | It takes some cajones to open a course in East Lothian’s stockbroker belt but, that is exactly where Renaissance brashly, decided to pitch their tent. Such is their confidence; they chose to rub shoulders with golfing heavyweights at Muirfield and Gullane not to mention the much lauded newcomers of Archerfield. Is this confidence misplaced? …Absolutely not, as this up and coming gem further enhances the already illustrious neighbourhood. This is quality with the largest capital Q, and already recognised with the award of a Tartan Tour event in the course’s maiden year. Complements don’t come much higher than that As you would expect no expense has been spared here, tees and greens are like freshly vacuumed green Axminsters. Fairways, so well maintained they could impress the toughest Sergeant Major on parade day, the whole place is immaculate. But don’t think that it style over substance because nothing could be further from the truth. Such is the quality of the terrain that no tricks, gimmicks or water features are required here, Tom Doak and his team using what Mother Nature has already supplied just making some subtle nips and tucks a Beverley Hills plastic surgeon would be proud of. I must make comment on the bunkering which is just magnificent, positioned where you don’t want them to be and big enough to sleep a family of 9. Holes just effortlessly flow one after the other with the 10th and the 11th being as good as anything you will play anywhere. Sadly for many, playing at Renaissance will remain a pipedream as I believe it will be open to members and guests only. If however, you are lucky enough to get an invite to play here drop everything, thank your lucky stars, then like me, you will be one of the privileged few to have sampled this special course. MPPJ  | | 11 November 2008
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| | I was fortunate enough to play the course when it first opened in the middle of April 2008 and I loved it from first hole to last. Having peeped into the site when visiting the nearby Dirleton course less than two years ago, in the middle of tree-felling,  I was astounded to see how well the land had been transformed, with newly laid fairways giving a very linksy feel to the round. As one might expect at an exclusive golf club where membership bonds cost a substantial five-figure sum, the condition of the course was immaculate from start to finish and, surprise, surprise for an American design, it’s been built for walking with not a cart path (or any extraneous water features!) in sight - but then if you know anything about designer Tom Doak then you’d never expect any such blots on the landscape anyway. The gentle mounding and greenside bunkering is exceptional throughout (though I’d keep them all as they are instead of introducing an intended program of revetting) and the enormous greens, though slow when I played, will be a joy to putt on when fully up to speed. I really enjoyed several aspects of the Renaissance course; the isolated trees that have occasionally been positioned beside fairways and near greens (like left of the 4th fairway), the wee walls that have been incorporated into some of the holes (especially at the 18th), the feeling of openness - even when playing at holes lined by trees on one or either side of the fairway - and the subtle changes in elevation on the more undulating back nine. The par four 11th (514-yards from the tiger tee!) is a real cracker, played to one of the most wickedly contoured greens I’ve ever putted on. It’s flanked by rough to the left, a lovely bunker front right and a broken stone wall to the back left – expect to see lots of photos of this hole on golf magazine covers and brochures very soon! Doak’s understated touch is a real joy to behold and it raises the bar of golfing excellence along this coastline yet another notch higher. Jim McCann | | 22 April 2008
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