Destination Golf - March 2018 * | Page 40

Musselburgh Links Hickory clubs Playing Ducks Inn 'Duck of Fame' game Duck's Inn at Aberlady The Renaissance Club (Pic: Kevin Murray) DAY 5 – THE FINAL ROUND We check out of the Ducks Inn and drive 6 miles along the A198 through Gullane (which boasts a trio of superb links courses, appropriately named No.1, No.2 and No.3) and past Muirfield, for a 9am tee time at the Renaissance Club, the latest addition to Scotland’s Golf Coast. Designed by acclaimed American golf architect Tom Doak (of Pacific Dunes, Cape Kidnappers and Barnbougle Dunes fame), the Renaissance Club, which opened in 2008 delivers an entirely new golf experience. Set on elevated coastal ground overlooking the Firth of Forth and carved out of 300 acres of pine forest, this distinctive and pleasing aesthetic design is routed through an open dunes landscape, 40 Destination Golf .TRAVEL punctuated by windswept trees, drystone walls, linksy rough and fast undulating greens. The course starts beningly enough, but from the 7th onwards, it builds more character and opens up towards the coast. Some of the standout holes are the 9th and 11th - two photogenic par-3’s featuring ancient rock walls and twisted pines, and the dramatic par-4 10th, where a drive across coastal dunes to a thin ribbon of fairway is followed by an approach to a tilted putting surface set tight to the cliffs. After you leave the green make sure to call at the halfway house for haggis pie and soup. Although the Renaissance Club is an exclusive private members club, currently on offer is the ‘One