The Renaissance Club will host its first ever professional event this year as the European Senior Tour returns to East Lothian for the Scottish Senior Open. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the 25th edition of the longest-running tournament on the Senior Tour schedule…
Rewind
Last year, Paul Eales emerged from the field on the final day with a third round of 68 to claim the Scottish Senior Open by one stroke from Peter Fowler and Santiago Luna.
It was the Englishman’s first Senior Tour victory, and he became the seventh person to have won on the European Challenge Tour, European Tour and European Senior Tour.
Eales started the final round seven shots behind 36-hole leader Ronan Rafferty, but his four under par round was enough for him to claim his first victory in 22 years.
The field
Ian Woosnam, the 1991 Masters Tournament champion, headlines the stellar field assembling in North Berwick and the Welshman is joined by home favourite Sam Torrance and Mark James as former Ryder Cup Captains.
In all, 12 former Ryder Cup players will tee it up in North Berwick, including 2016 Senior Open Championship winner Paul Broadhurst, one of four former Senior Major Champions in the field; Roger Chapman, winner of both the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and U.S. Senior Open in 2012, James, winner of the 2004 Constellation Senior Players Championship, and Ireland’s Mark McNulty winner of the 2007 Regions Tradition join him.
Joining Torrance on home soil are Ross Drummond, Stephen McAllister, Andrew Oldcorn and Gary Orr.
After making his over-50s debut at the Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex, Spain’s Carl Suneson will make his regular tournament debut this week.
The course
The Renaissance Club, in the heartland of the Scotland’s celebrated ‘Golf Coast’, opened in 2008 and was designed by world-renowned golf course architect Tom Doak.
It will be the first time The Renaissance Club has hosted the Scottish Seniors Open but played host to the British Boys Amateur Championship in 2016 and will also become a Final Qualifying venue for The Open Championship from 2018-2021.
The par 71 course can play as long as 7,300 yards and offers a number of challenges along the way including ravines, stone walls and gorse.
The signature hole is the tenth, which runs along the coastline offering views out to the Firth of Forth and Fidra Lighthouse just off the coast.
