Entrance to The Renaissance Club
Congratulations to Xander Schauffele, winner of the 2022 Scottish Open with a final score of seven under par for the four rounds played over July 7-11th at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian. The course was spectacular, and the weather just amazing: very warm and enough wind to make the course a real test. Seven under was the tightest winning score since Ian Woosnam won it at Carnoustie in 1996 with a score of plus 1. A great deal of work had been done at Renaissance to toughen up the course and it showed in the scores, as prior wins were -18, -11, and -22. Padraigh Harrington and course Architect Tom Doak did a very nice job adding shape to fairways, and installing several new bunkers after the last Open. Schauffele played so well, particularly round the greens, especially as the tight lies and bump and run shots are not necessarily what such players are used to.
This is Schauffele being interviewed right after the win: https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/rolex/news/video/xander-schauffele-honour-to-win-such-a-historic-event/?dm_i=73AP,7XQA,NPAN4,XPTW,1
The calibre of player attracted to this event was quite incredible: Here’s some of the top 50 players in the world who competed in the first ever joint PGA-Euro Tour event (world rankings shown):
1. Scottie Scheffler 2. Jon Rahm 4. Collin Morikawa 5. Justin Thomas 6. Cameron Smith 7. Patrick Cantlay 8. Viktor Hovland 9. Sam Burns 10. Matt Fitzpatrick 11. Xander Schauffele 12. Jordan Spieth 13. Will Zalatoris 14. Hideki Matsuyama 15. Billy Horschel 18. Joaquin Niemann 23. Sungjae Im 27. Tyrrell Hatton
Amazing. Only Mclroy was missing of the top 15 golfers in the world, plus some others banned under the LIV fiasco taking place. Poulter took it to court and was allowed to play, and was notably savaged by the event organisers and the crowd: given the early start - so no US time zone tv coverage - then not a murmur nor much applause from the crowd on 18 when he finished. And this guy was the former hero of Ryder Cups. Who knows how all this plays out.
I played in the pro-Am with David Law and Charlie Hoffman on the Wednesday. David Law is a Scot from Aberdeen with a fantastic game and super nice fellow.
This is a link to a story about him: https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/news/articles/detail/david-law-player-blog/
The Genesis Scottish Open was a fantastic tournament to be a part of. I was lucky enough to receive an invite on the Sunday night after finishing tied fourth at the Horizon Irish Open. I was really grateful to get that opportunity to play in such a high-calibre field in what was a historic event for both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR. To have 14 of the top 15 players in the Official World Golf Ranking in East Lothian was something the crowds really enjoyed it and reflected the stature and history of the tournament. For our tournament to have the backing of global players was fantastic and we had four great days of weather too.
All in all, it was a positive week for me personally at The Renaissance Club. I was in the tougher half of the draw so to play all four days was pretty good in itself. My game was good on Thursday, poor on Friday, Saturday and then I managed to shoot a one-under-par 69 in the final round on Sunday. There were some good lessons to be learned ahead of this week in respect of my attitude when playing in the wind.
It was pretty wild when we played hence all that extra gear on. The pros had it easy!
Charlie Hoffman is also such a nice bloke, and the whole experience of playing with a pro was terrific. This is me teeing off at hole 1:
Me teeing off at Hole 1 with Charley Hoffman in the pro-Am
That was a nice shot! Thankfully. Here’s a couple more pics:
Gill and I marshalled at the event - it was so good to see so many golf fans back and able to enjoy such a world class field perform on a marvellous golf course in such amazing weather conditions.
We had played Muirfield on the Sunday before the event with Colin and Joanna. A great golf club and a fabulous golf course. Colin is the super at HCEG and was very focussed on getting the course right for the AIG Ladies Open.
Heading to the 18th at Muirfield
You can tell how dry the course was. Scotland had very little rain since the start of the year causing the fairways to run faster than the greens which makes links golf even harder.
During the practice and pro-Am events at TRCAA, the pros were generally friendly. Some most definitely not, however. Francisco Molinari may have had a very poor tournament but he signed both a flag and a picture of my grandson Cameron. Terrific guy.
Francisco Molinari signature on the flag and a very kind message for Cam!
For the marshaling, I was inside the ropes and walking alongside the best golfers in the world. players. Incredible experience!!
Looking back towards Fidra on the Championship’s 13th hole.
On Thursday it was Speith, Cameron Smith and Tyrell Hatton - what a group! Some amazing shots, and also some definite getting used to windy conditions and slower (for them) than usual greens. Plus very difficult chip shots. Hard to get the pace for short shots on very hard dry ground. I was so close I managed to get on the tv several times…
Me and Spieth
Jordan was interviewed later and admitted he was the most unprepared ever for a Tournament: he had not seen the back 9 prior to playing it on day one. I thought he looked pretty good, however. I was hoping he would do well at The Open. Some pics from that group…
Friday was Thomas, Fleetwood and Matsuyama. Thomas was very focussed and Fleetwood much more in tune with the fans. Another excellent experience of walking inside the ropes and helping find the odd ball and keeping the crowd quiet when needed!
me getting in the way of JT.
That last pic of Fleetwood is instructive: all these pros have different swings - the backswing and finishes are all over the lot, but they do all have some commonality when striking the ball:
Amazing power generated by that lag and whipping the hands through the ball.
The tournament went really well. The marshaling experience was spoiled only by failure to deliver some of the kit to wear and the sizing was all wrong; Marshals could have been given a back sack and there might have been better food arrangements made as well, but otherwise no real complaints at all. There were hundreds of volunteers out there; keen golfers of all standards. They make the tournament work, and they deserve better acknowledgement. These tournaments would not be possible without those volunteers.
There were more concessions than previous years, but the merchandising was awful, a complete embarassment. I also thought the general food selection was dire; some very odd choices and clear price gouging. That’s really not on for an event like this. It’s one time real folks can access an event and get up close to the action. To provide crappy and expensive food was a shame. I hope that changes. Also, for goodness sake, get some more and decent loos out there!!
There were some attempts to lessen the environmental impact of the event. Water fountains were installed all over the course, meaning no need for plastic bottles. But really, it’s only a small step to mitigate what clearly has a high negative impact. All the work needed to get the course in order. The trucks bringing all the infrastructure in then out again. All the concessions creating so much waste, and of course all the travel to get to the event. I heard the Super at St Andrews talking about electric mowers, and experimenting with various grasses to limit chemical and water needs. Given the record and dangerous heatwaves all across Europe right now, and the lack of rain in the area it should mean continued heightened awareness of the climate emergency. Golf Clubs are going to have to better demonstrate their efforts to mitigate and adapt. After all, so many great courses in Scotland are Links style and located in areas where rising sea levels may pose a serious threat to their continued existence.
East Lothian, however, really came up trumps this week. This is a link to a really good site that goes through all the main courses and a few other things in the area: https://scotlandsgolfcoast.com/blog/playing-links-golf-on-scotlands-golf-coast/
One of my most favourite clubs is North Berwick. Here’s a shot of that amazing 16th green:
16th green at NBGC
It is quite possible to blow your round on this hole. You have to navigate a burn off the tee- no real danger - but the approach into this green is wicked and chipping from off the green and holding on the green is a real test.
And there were some great stories of players and caddies involved in The Scottish Open also playing the West links: https://golf.com/travel/north-berwick-scottish-open-golf-utopia/. This is a story about one golfer who found himself hitting under a car on the 18th.
So, an amazing experience and a visit the following week to the home of golf for The 150th.
I drove early Thursday with Stuart M and Colin I from Muirfield. St Andrews is a lovely town and the Old course has a storied history but frankly from a spectators point of view, it’s not the greatest. Because of the course layout, you really have to walk round the outside and getting into the stands can be bear. The concessions were ok, but with long, long lines at times. I am always amazed at the number of folks who go to these events and just watch the golf on the big screen or in a tent on a little screen!
I stood at tee 16 for an hour or two and saw some marvellous shots by some of the great players. John Daly was looking a little ragged however…:
I did move round to 17 green/18 tee/ 1 Green. Saw Schauffele hit it off the road, and McIlroy drive to make an easy birdie on 18 for a round of 66. But, I also saw Tiger put it in the water on 1 and his round seemed to get worse from there. Too bad.
Met some Winged Foot pals out on the Links which was fun, and some local friends too. Even met Zinger and Feherty in the booth with Dan H. So, a very nice way to close out my trip to Scotland.
View of 1 and 18 towards the end of Day One.
Despite his best efforts, Rory could not handle Cameron Smith’s red hot final round. A fantastic exhibition of gold by the Aussie. I feel I was very fortunate to have marshaled his group at TRCAA, and he was very chatty with Gill during the practice and pro-Am rounds. There are rumors he’s going to go with LIV; that would be a bore but money talks and he might decide to bank $100m and live an easy life while he’s still very young. Rory remains the cheerleader for the PGA, but we’ll see how many others get tempted away.