The Renaissance Club

Talk about a beautiful club. The clubhouse, restaurant and locker room are absolutely stunning, and the course itself, designed by Tom Doak, shares that same attractiveness. We were joined by a great forecaddie, Callum, and I'd strongly suggest grabbing one so you can feel a little more confident plodding your way around. There were a number of really fun holes here -- in particular, the tiny-but-treacherous sixth hole, at just 115 yards, and the magnificent par-4 10th hole, which is tucked hard against the shoreline. One word of caution: Unlike most links courses, the greens here are huge with a lot of undulation, so positioning your ball is very important. A good choice if you're in the area.

Had played North Berwick, and visited Muirfield and Gullane but never had the chance to play here before.

Renaissance is a beautiful facility overall.

The weather was good and bad at times, which made the round more of a challenge. But thankfully we had our trusty forecaddie Callum. He was great and probably saved 8-10 shots for me.

The par 3s were great, especially the short sixth hole. Callum insisted it was Scotland's only 111-yard par-5. He wasn't too far off.

I did think that the greens were overly difficult on purpose. They were fair, but they were just not easy to judge. And on this windy day, it often was a chore.

The second of a four-course Scottish trip, this was the venue I had never heard of and was supposed to be something to do in the morning before we played North Berwick. It turned out to be a highlight. The clubhouse was immaculate and our forecaddie was tremendous. He was so good that a person in our group gave him a box of ProV1's as a gift.

The rough was unusually high and the greens were overly sloped. But it was a nice layout and, again, our forecaddie helped make the experience even more pleasurable with his ability to find even the most offline shot.

Playing 18 here had me geared up for the second 18 that day. Look forward to returning some day.