North Berwick, Scotland: Welcome to the driving range at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. This week is a first with a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour.
It is the Genesis Scottish Open with so much history and tradition.
It is A Rolex Series event and boasts a prize fund of $8 million. This week, another co-sanctioned PGA Tour and DP World Tour event is being held at the Barbasol Championship in the US with a $3.7 million purse. Modern golf for the Tours is all about playing opportunities, let’s see how it all works out this week?
I drove up from Rotherham on Monday morning and it took me four-and-half hours.
The range has been unusually quiet for the first couple of days with many of the star players in Ireland playing in the JP McManus Charity Pro-Am at Adare Manor.
By all accounts, it is one of the finest Pro-Ams all year for all the top players.
Tiger and Rory and so many more are top of the bill with a ‘Who’s Who of Professional Golf’ in attendance.
I have been to Adare Manor, when Richard Finch won and got wet on the 18th in 2008. I am told I would not recognise the place these days with the huge investment involved as it prepares to host the 2027 Ryder Cup.
I will be staying up here in Scotland with The 150th Open next week at St Andrews.
This week I am staying on my own in an Air B&B in North Berwick and next week I am in student accommodation.
Who says my job is glamorous? How the other half lives?
Most of my players will arrive in the morning from Ireland.
For today, I have a few of my players here on the range: Jazz Janewattananond (Thailand), recent DP World Tour winner Victor Perez (France) and with my buddy Mike Walker looking after Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Thailand).
I have also connected with a couple of the American players on the range: Nick Watney and Jhonattan Vegas, who both asked me to look at their short games. That kept me busy.
The golf course here in Scotland has been well received by the players with the improvements and enhancements. The fairways are firm, although it is not a links course and the rough is up.
The weather forecast for the week is set fair, perhaps rain for tomorrow’s Pro-Am, but for the four competition days there will be a stiff breeze and means it is a decent preparation for St Andrews the following week.
Thomas Pieters, from Belgium, is taking this week off. He has played a lot of golf recently and as his schedule turned out, if he played this week, it would have meant he would play five weeks in a row, with the last event of the five being The Open and no one likes that, except perhaps Ryan Fox, who never seems to have a week off.
Finally, it was great to catch-up with our US Open champion, Matt Fitzpatrick, who popped into our Rotherham Range to hit some balls on Thursday and brought with him some nice silverware. I love the photo of us two with the trophy.
One for the scrapbook.
Speak to you all soon and here’s to another good week for all my players.
It is a big couple of weeks for golf in Scotland coming up.
Enjoy the watch!
- Peter Cowen is 71 and one of the leading golf coaches in the world. He has Peter Cowen Golf Academies in Rotherham, England, as well as at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, Emirates Golf Club and Jumeirah Golf Estates.
