The Toughest Holes at The Renaissance Club

Scotland at its very best.

We take on the 5 toughest holes at The Renaissance Club, home of the Genesis Scottish Open, and it’s everything you’d expect — a word-class test, stunning views, and pure links golf.

Local hero Bob MacIntyre claimed an unforgettable win here last year, and Rory McIlroy lifted the trophy the year before. The question now is: who will conquer it this year?

Special thanks to John and the entire team at The Renaissance Club for the opportunity to play this incredible course.

Brought to you by Titleist.
#titleist #golf #RenaissanceClub #ScottishOpen #LinksGolf

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welcome to the five toughest holes at the beautiful Renaissance Club in East Llotheian in Scotland home to the Genesis Scottish Open a Rolex Series event on the DP World Tour and today we have John Cervi as our tour guide who’s going to show us around five of the toughest and definitely most interesting holes right here john absolutely thank you so much for coming to do this we’re so happy to have you it’s going to be a cracker on a day like this we got a perfect one for it didn’t we blue skies everywhere of course it’s always like this in Scotland absolutely and where have you brought us to first John so this is Tournament 13 it’s the signature hole uh at Renaissance uh the iconic Fidra Island with the lighthouse in the back uh it’s an intimidating drive as you see for us to start so uh it’ll be a great uh way to start the round it certainly will this is going to be an absolute cracker so hold on to your hats folks okay Iona you know the line on this one right well no harm in being reminded John so aggressive line is the uh right edge of the halfway house okay and if you succeed you got a flat lie and a better second shot in it’s a lot easier from the left side of the fairway but if you don’t want to bite off as much you end up right you’re still safe and you got a tougher second all righty okay not here for second place today that’s right let’s take on these lines we’re going to take it on yep oh yes right on it looks good john it looked okay we’ll see if it made it far enough you hit it exactly where you said you wanted to that was some hurting to the face today that is It’s hurting off the left hand side is pushing everything over to the safer side to be honest left if you hit this left you’re just you’re dead perfect that is perfect thank you thanks for being here for another episode of the five toughest holes take a look at this it is really really doesn’t get much better than this and we’ve got five crackers coming your way we also have two bonus holes if you’re part of our Inside the Ropes community so if you fancy seeing a little more of what the Renaissance Club has to offer host to the Genesis Scottish Open then come along and join us i’ve got about 135 um obviously everything here goes right to left kicks hard right to left so my line’s going to be right side of the green right edge of the green maybe that path up in the distance so okay strike got to go a little bit yeah oh I didn’t quite get it the wind just puffed up in face the wind got it it did gobbled it up wind feeling a bit inconsistent right now which makes tricky but I’ve got a little eight iron here land soft looks good get down get in oh great shot not bad there we go a couple of shots into the first of our five toughest holes here at the Renaissance Club and John it’s your family really that have been behind the making and what’s happened here at the Renaissance Club over the last 10 years or so yeah it’s been really special um you know it was part of the vision initially to have a a postp profofessional golf on the course and to see where we’ve come in a short uh 10 15 years is pretty amazing and the last couple of years of course if you’ve been watching at home have been filled with drama we had Robert McIntyre doing it for the for the Scots last year Rory Mroy the year before how are you going to top that this year we we it’s it’s a tough one isn’t it those were two of the best finishes in golf in the past two years no doubt about it um I don’t know we’ll have to figure out and see everybody will have to watch i’m sure we’ll have something uh special for everybody we’d love to hear in the comments who you think’s going to take the title at this year’s Genesis Scottish Open will it be Bob McIntyre going back to back or maybe it’s time for someone like Scottish Effler ricky Fowler ricky ricky loves coming here and likes to play here he’s won a Scottish before jordan Spe he’s coming into some good form he’s looking good and Justin Justin Thomas will be here and he’s he’s in good form as well they are all going to be right here this looks good little firm slow using the contours stop okay not bad not bad you can see the way it all peels round on this green greens look lovely they’re in wonderful condition and they’ll just get better and better as we build up towards the tournament down the hill here left to right it’s a tricky green this one i always think John you don’t see a lot of players holding putts on this green it is a very a lot of subtle breaks on the golf course um the greens are very nuanced go never had the gas never had the gas putting from above the hole makes you nervous i’ve got good four good during the tournament week a four here is a good score just a little bit left to right Douggee peace go on caught the hole little effort i’m in a good mood John so I’m going to give you that one yeah we’ll take it go on to the next on to the next one great start [Music] one hole done so Iona we we’ve got a really tricky one here we call this the uh the shortest par five in East Lotheian if you don’t play it right okay okay so uh we a very diabolical green with bunkers to the left one big bunker to the left and two to the right um and the green if you can hit a really good shot and you get that funny bounce and you end up in the bunker so um I’ve talked to some uh tour players Victor Perez is one who I said “What do you do when this pin is up front?” He says “He lays up.” So a tour player will lay up short and take your two putt and get out take five out of play really smart uh and the miss is short or long and left so short or long and left okay yeah it’s all kinds of trouble down the right hand side so trouble right uh long and left is okay short and left you could be in that bunker and that’s a problem as well so we’ll see we’ll see if we can execute here all right short of the bunker okay okay that’s short of it short see if I had taken the one extra that would have been right in it there won’t be many par threes in the world where you consider a layup especially when it’s less than 130 yards i’ve got my 52° wedge here and I’m going to need all of it now that’s well played hop up oh sit that’ll be good good well done thank you i feel like I finding the green and holding the green here on six that’s a bonus for sure pretty good that’s good during the week of the Genesis Scottish Open the media center is down the left hand side and that of course is where I spend a bit of my time and then there’s this amphitheater that surrounds this green if you are going to come down and watch this summer it’s a fantastic spot to perch yourself in the grand stands and they go you know the crowd really get into it don’t they this is the version of the waste management the Scottish version of the waste management 16th so the stadium hole they call it and they’re they’re a tough crowd to impress i remember seeing some quality shots in here but they went to like I don’t know 15 20 feet and just a gentle clap just a polite clap yeah it’s either you know five foot or closer and you might get a roar [Music] my fun on that well that was a tough one i didn’t take my medicine either yes well done really well done a victory just to get out of these pot bunkers is something to be very proud of you get in there you can very easily take two three four shots and drum up a really high score at very short hole little tug great cut there John all right let’s see a birdie little left to right so you think on the left edge you can see that this green it sort of sits like a tabletop and I’ve just clung on to the left hand side but there are these swailes and particularly if the wind whips up then you really have got no chance of holding the screen unless you’ve struck the ball perfectly on time could feel the wind just moving that didn’t move an inch a good par yep can’t sniff at a par on the sixth hole you got to be happy with the par we’re standing on the 16th T which is a par five good news for John and I because it could be birdie time but it has seen some drama through the years it sure has last year um you’ll remember Bob McIntyre hitting it up on the right side uh when he went up to the ball I looked and you couldn’t see his shoes in the rough it was really juicy rough where he was and he hit the lucky sprinkler head with his tea with his shoes so he had the metal studs in the shoes and he said cuz he’s a lefty as well if he’d been a righty if he’s a righty he’s over here he’s not yeah he wouldn’t have felt that but because he’s a lefty as he went to put his feet into position he felt his metal stud on something plastic and he knew there was something under his foot and because of that he was within the rules of golf allowed to take his drop and that gave him a little bit of an advantage with his next shot but to be fair he made good use of it yeah he hit a sixiron uh from probably you know 200 210 to 6 feet made the putt he did and you know you do need the odd bit of luck when you’re going to win a golf tournament especially a tournament of this magnitude let’s see then John what luck are we going to have down here well we need to to be lucky on the drive or a good drive a good drive is just a bit right of that bunker um you want to stay out of the the Bobby McIntyre rough on the right yeah you want to be just right of the bunker and hit you a good one wow the Bobby McIntyre sprinkler that’s right of him it’s off to show us where it is yeah okay okay you want to be well left of that that should be good it’ll kick a little left but you should be okay you’re good yep beauty good drive thank you and let’s see it’s right around here ah here we are right here it is so he kind of stepped in like this didn’t he right yeah his ball was about right there where where those divots are where people have tried to take a shot of his it’s not where you want to be i mean you’re you’re in a tricky spot it is and he just felt his metal studs on this and he got the drop got the drop go on Bobby Mack got to get a right kick yeah I’ve got my hybrid playing from a slightly elevated position so plays a little downhill there’s a probably five or six yards of help lewis what’s the number again 224 224 with more hybrid come on around come on round baby you’ll be okay yeah john how much have you enjoyed Tom Duke’s involvement and then more recently Podrick Harrington yeah that’s been a that’s been a treat having them on the property together and walking the golf course and seeing you know what they could come up with in terms of improvements um and every year yeah we get some feedback from the tour players and certainly get input from our members and try to factor that in but they’ve been great to work together it’s fun to watch them together yeah uh there’s a lot of mutual respect between the two and uh yeah uh Tom has been open to minor improvements that come from the tour’s recommendation sure what sort of things has Podrick Harrington brought to the table it’s interesting so he brought uh some ideas around u toughening up the course but without you know brutalizing the members yeah yeah that’s a tough challenge it is so some of the areas like the rough area that we had here in terms of adding some mounding as opposed to adding bunkers everywhere because if they uh the players end up and having a little bit of unlevel lie in the rough it’s going to impact them a bit they did that on the third hole uh Padrick actually put in a couple of bunkers though as well or advised on some bunkers on the first which catches a lot of drives on the first and uh also the one on the um on the fifth he put in one on the fifth as well so um yeah it’s uh he it’s been fun to watch them work together and see how they come up with great ideas to make improvements okay right to left easy it’s going to run out just a little more than I hope but really Yeah that’s not too bad okay apparently it was creeping up to the front of the green and it’s trundled all the way back down and that’s what you do have here on this par five is a bit of a false front if you come over onto this right hand side there is a bit of a slipstream down the left if you can enter the green from the left you got more of a chance of running one on unfortunately I didn’t find that slot so I’m going to play a little bump and run here cuz it’s so tight underneath you can see the course right now is very firm and they’ve not had much rain so it’s it’s running incredibly fast it’s quite baked out not a lot of room for for error here so something down the breeze I reckon a little pitching wedge little bump and run i like the weight hustle keep going that was close oh didn’t quite release just a little bit more ah okay Iona let’s make one of these let’s do that turn turn come back ah great pace did not come back hold your head one time one time yes come on well done Lewis good birdie a birdie there that’s nice John well done and a birdie yeah good job that’s not bad let’s go so John where have you brought us next okay i know you remember this one the 17th um it’s a great little par three we’ve got a cavernous bunker in the front you want to avoid at all cost uh two tiers um right side and then it d uh rolls down to the left a bit so on this one I think what we’d like to do is hit it just a bit right of the pin okay and it’s playing what Douggee we said 153 153 okay John I’ll follow you show Show me how it’s done okay we’ll give it a go strike oh just a little tug and that’ll be down on the left all right well we’ll get to see that part of the green which is always helpful right at it that should kick a little left oh beautiful is that going to be lovely that’ll be great perfect so this hole uh pretty pretty unique on tour they have the par three um hole-in-one contest where they have a Genesis parked up at the back of the tea and uh they also do a hole in one for the caddy if they make it so they’ve had I think about three holes in one in the past uh uh years that Genesis has been on the on the sponsorship so yeah few happy caddies and few happy players as well that’s awesome what are you giving me today for a hole in one later on yeah that’s right we’ll have to negotiate the Genesis all right as you can see it’s a it’s a big green and we see that quite often in Lynx Golf and certainly here at the Renaissance Club so just because you found the green in regulation it does not mean your work is done and I’m over here a little long i was surprised that you must have got a bad kick off that hill and you’re down there John so we’ve got we got our work cut out here with the putter Douggee just this side of where the ridge starts to go down you want to be up as high as that okay got to go what a pot i’ll take I’ll take that one think I could give you that one John okay we’re playing with gimmies today huh all right this has got a little ridge halfway through this part that’s going to kick it from left to right hopped on you a bit there get it hit it oh good effort that was quite aggressive ran out a bit on you there at the end it really did they So they’re very smooth i’ve got work to do get in look at that routine two putt well done you had me sweating great little par three not that liftful actually especially with a green that’s this big and it provides a real challenge before the players move to the to the final hole the 18th and I think that’s where we’re headed next that’s right going 18 we’ve made it to the 18th hole a hole that’s seen plenty of drama at the Genesis Scottish Open through the years and it’s it’s a cracker really isn’t it it is it’s a wonderful hole uh depending on what’s what the wind is doing it makes it really interesting so back in uh 2023 Rory’s year yeah we had a four club win into us um that year it played the number one uh most difficult hole on tour that year of all the PGA events so really difficult hole but if the winds like today it’s a little bit easier so uh well bunkered hole uh two uh that you want to stay out of on the on the right and two on the left as well so the angle is right between the two sets of bunkers here thread the needle yes and of course the players play well 30 30 40 yards behind where we’re teeing off today and they’ve got this we’ve got this wall and then a second wall and most of them do hit the driver don’t they yes they do um and they’ll carry it typically over the bunkers pretty easily from back there from about right about 500 um some some will hit a 3-wood or uh to stay short of these bunkers as well so depends again on what the winds do yeah i’m delighted that we don’t have a 4:00 wind into the face today we’ve got some very favorable conditions actually the the sunny gods are shining down on us here at the Renaissance Club and we’ve got a bit of help actually from memory if you can carry these two bunkers down the right hand side there’s more room on the right there’s like a little area that kind of opens up and it creates quite a good angle i remember Bob McIntyre going over there he was over just uh right and almost close to the wall what we have done this year though Iona is they’ve added a little bit of rough in the on the right side to give it a little bit of a penalty if they push it that way so that was one of the changes we did this year okay that little get out of jail spot is no longer not so much all righty well let’s see what we’ve got uh-huh good strike pushed it right let’s see if it’s enough oh yeah oh it got over i cleared it plenty well done uhoh go that is bunker bound in did it go in it’s gone in oh oh dear and that looks like a deep one it’s a deep one definitely a penalty to be in there oh criy well you you got to experience a couple of the the pot bunkers and that’s so much about Lynx Golf isn’t it so Iona you were mentioning the walls a bit ago so when Tom Do and the crew came on the property back in 2006 this was all a forest they had planted trees after World War II as a forestry project and so this was covered in trees and as they were pulling some of the trees out and Tom found these stone walls and they were uh you know pretty much look like this maybe a little they’ve been uh refurbished just a bit but he he was so excited when he found these these walls he said we’re going to build a golf course that looks like it’s been here you know hundreds of years yeah and it was a little bit of a tribute as well to North Barrack where he had spent some time as a young man uh when he was learning uh the golf course design and spent some time here in East Lotheian so we were thrilled that he restored these walls and kept them in play so we’ll have a few that we’ll we’ll have to navigate today absolutely and they they look beautiful don’t you there’s something there’s something so charming about these kind of stone crumbly walls and perhaps you know well there certainly the shots they’ve seen and the tales they could tell would probably be pretty good they would they would they would at that [Music] there I am in one of these little spectacle bunkers on the right hand side it actually could be worse because it’s uh it’s not gone right up the face so I might have a chance to advance something through this little gap let me go and have a little look in here can’t be too greedy I suppose maybe an eight iron max a nine would be safe but I if I’m greedy which today apparently I am then I think I could maybe squeeze a little late through the wall out of interest what is it to the flag 240 so I might as well take the nine you know better than that oh even the nine was greedy now yeah that that is a tough You got a little greedy there for sure i really thought that the nine was going to be enough but now I’ve got myself in this is what can happen if you’re not prepared to take your medicine and probably a good lesson for many to learn right now let’s have a look at this one to Now I’ve got a proper bunker right Loose could I have my 60 please oh dear you ready for this John i’m taking notes see how you do this one oh god this is really tough okay we’re out she’s out woo well out i’ll take that i I would take it as well welcome to Lynx Golf so I know back in uh 2023 yeah Rory’s big win i want to walk you over here and show you where he where he hit from it was four club win into into him he was I think it was two 203 202 we got a plaque over here oh cool somewhere but he hit a a lovely sawed off two iron and uh we had one of our members kids in the back in the stands and he used his phone and got it and it was an amazing shot i mean you could see it the whole way landed about six feet and he he knocked in the putt and one won it from Bob i know it was heartbreak for Robert McIntyre that year of course we know what happened next and Bob came back for revenge but it was to have Rob to have Bob McIntyre and Mroy going down the stretch like that you couldn’t ask for more really and that that really the tournament’s always been fantastic the Scottish Open is full of history and it’s always been an important one but really felt like that put it on the stage we feel very fortunate the last few winners have been fantastic and to be fair we’ve had great winners the whole time we’ve had it here and uh just the way the two won and for Bob to come back last year and and win it back was just phenomenal and of course Maroy was in the mix again wasn’t he he was yeah and Adam Scott was there in the clubhouse you know with a good shot as well so it was a great great field and a great event last year brilliant so Genesis Scottish Open 16th of July 2023 rory Mroy 22 yards it was a two iron there you go oh great fair play Mr mroy yep not too shabby we We see quite a few divots here from people who will drop a ball down and see if they can pull it off as well have a shot yeah quite right two iron from me i can tell you that he said it was a perfect three iron uhhuh but he didn’t have his three iron in the bag that that week and so he had to saw off a two two there you go what’s the total yardage uh 230 i reckon it’s going to go a long way but I’ll I’ll try a little saw off um hybrid cuz I reckon it’s going to scuttle its way along nicely oh great strike thank you should be on the green huh it’s on the green i just hoping it gets up to that top tier halfway up that’s a great shot oh well done thank you chances of a five oh chunked it get over oh there’s the wall there’s the wall you said it came into play it got you it did that’s what it’s designed to do you can’t get away with a chunk and run now we get to see a we shot through the through the gap yeah now we get to go through the gap such a brilliant finishing hole we often see par fives in tournament golf bringing a lot of drama well this is one of the toughest par fours in tournament golf on the PGA tour in fact it played as the second toughest hole last year on the whole tour and today we’ve got helping wind but the prevailing wind is into the face which makes it very hard pushed it a little bit left okay pin high okay John yeah down the right hand side here we’ve got some of the hospitality going up which is always a nice spot to find yourself in particularly with a we glass of bubbles right if you’re one of the lucky ones and then the grandstands will go up around this green grandstands will be up around the back of the green um the clubhouse to the left we got a a viewing area up on the clubhouse for the members it’s just it’s a great atmosphere isn’t it a wonderful atmosphere i personally I think this is the best closing ceremony in golf yeah yeah you know they uh they play bring the bag pipes out that’s it uh it it gets my goosebumps every time I see it uhhuh yeah it’s uh thankfully I’m very lucky to be part of it i can I can uh stand there and I remember holding back the tears when Bob McIntyre won and announcing him onto the green and seeing his mom Carol and his whole family up there and I was trying to stop stop the tears from flowing i saw grown men crying while they were seeing Flowers of Scotland and it was it was a magic moment it was wonderful yeah it was a moment of history of course Colin McGomery the previous uh Scottish winner of the of the Genesis Scottish Open and we waited a long time for Bob to get the business done and he did it he did it he was very happy that he pulled it off wasn’t he i know he did us all proud but we’d like a It’d be good if he went back to back iona you want me to come up yeah go ahead John this looks good there we go a little better better place yeah nice one John really good i’ve left myself a very tricky pot for a five kind of feels like two pots from here would be a good result like that pace well done thank you i’ll give you that one thank you that’s great John appreciate that there we go yes well done John nicely done well good to be with you Iona thank you so much for your company today it’s been an absolute treat we hope you’ve enjoyed seeing five of the toughest holes particularly the 18th at Renaissance Club illustrated by the fact I finished with a double bogey that probably won’t be enough to lift the title come July but we hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and we’ll see you at the Genesis Scottish Open [Music] at the Renaissance Club you step into a modern masterpiece sculpted from an ancient Scottish landscape the signature 13th hole one of our five toughest has one of the bonniest views in Gulf its character is enriched by the charming Fedra Island and lighthouse that is said to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island the backdrop of this signature hole is fitting for the sense of fun and adventure that defines a round at the Renaissance and the drama we are certain to find during the week of the Genesis Scottish Open