Renaissance Club return remains on the cards for Scottish Open

Austria's Bernd Wiesberger celebrates winning the Scottish Open title. Picture: Bruce White/SNS

In benign conditions on a rain-softened course, the Tom Doak-designed layout was ripped apart from start to finish in the $7 million Rolex Series event, which was won by Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger who beat Benjamin Hebert in a play-off after both finished at 22-under-par. Former Open champions Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson and Padraig Harrington are among those to claim the course had been “too easy”.

A decision has not yet been made about the venue for 2020, which is the last year under the current deal involving ASI, the Scottish  Government and the European Tour, but a return to The Renaissance Club seems likely. “The feedback so far is that the course is a bit too easy, but a links course when we’ve had as much rain as we’ve had and had no wind is defenceless and we are seeing that,” said ASI chairman Martin Gilbert.

“We’ve had a bit of a criticism about the speed of the greens, but these things are all solvable. The stimp reading on Saturday was 10.4, so we can speed them up a bit in the future and probably will subject to feedback. So far that’s been that it’s not been enough of a test, but we’ve had criticism the other way in the past.”

After the end of long run at Loch Lomond in 2010, the event was held at Castle Stuart three years in a row and returned there in 2016 at a time when moving it around the country also saw visits to Royal Aberdeen, Gullane and Dundonald Links.

However, East Lothian has become the preferred option – Gullane was the venue in 2018 – since Aberdeen Asset Management merged with Standard Life due to the company having its headquarters in Edinburgh.

“Look, our preference is to come back [to The Renaissance Club] subject to feedback from the people that matter – the players,” added Gilbert.

“As far as ourselves, VisitScotland and the tour are concerned, this venue works in terms of location and facilities.

“The TV pictures have been as we wanted, making it a great success for TV, especially in the US, which is one of VisitScotland’s prime objectives. This coastline has looked good on TV.

“I was speaking to the chief operating officer here and he said this is the easiest he has ever seen the course in his time here, so we have been a bit unlucky in that respect.”

McIlroy said on Saturday that he would have liked to have seen the pre-Open Championship test a “little more difficult” and said that speeding up the greens would have “made a world of difference” as shots that left players short-sided in the event were not being punished as they normally would.

“There are so many positives and the negatives we have heard are easily solvable,” continued Gilbert. “We are not talking here about structural issues. We are dealing with how the course is set up and Rory’s points are very valid. There is not enough punishment for a bad shot.

“It would have helped if it had been drier, but let’s see what happens in the Ladies’ Scottish Open back here in three weeks’ time. We may have a spell of dry weather and it would be interesting to see how it plays if that is the case.

“The facilities here are second to none and East Lothian is a brilliant area for us to have the tournament. We had the record Saturday crowd – just over 17,000 – yesterday and the bars had record takings yesterday as well. The atmosphere was good.”

The Scottish Open has been held the week before The Open since 1987 and, though organisers of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open would love to get their hands on the prized slot, when the discussions over a new deal begin the priority will be keeping it where it is on the schedule.

“We are reluctant to give up this date – this is the ultimate date in the calendar,” said Gilbert. “If you look at the field in the other events that are on at this time, there is no one in the world’s top 50 playing. I think we have maybe 20 playing. It is a strong field.”