The 210-acre Renaissance Golf Club in Haverhill, Mass. course officially opened in July.
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The designers’ mission for the course, adjacent to the Merrimack River, was to recreate the golf experience of 100 years ago. Developer Paul Quinn gave free rein to golf course architect Brian Silva to create the $30 million course. This resulted in Silva’s first signature 18-hole design.
“I’m not looking to just cookie-cut you another golf course that’s got every slice bunker at 260 and every hook bunker at 280,” Silva says. “There are about 18,000 of those in the country, and we’re trying to do something different here.”
The red tees measure a total distance of 7,128 yards, the green tees reach 6,503 total yards and the white tee distances total 5,4086 yards.
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“I’m a real fan of traditional design,” Silva says. “In my view, traditional design goes even further back than 1960. It goes back to the links of Scotland and to the very early American courses before they got messed up by green committee chairmen and architects. So when Paul Quinn said he wanted an old-fashioned course here, he couldn’t have said anything that would’ve gotten me more excited.”
Besides the course, Renaissance offers facilities including a one-acre short game area, an 8.5-acre practice area and two practice greens. The fairways, greens and practice facility are seeded with L93 bentgrass.
The course also features a drainage system that enabled the golf course to stay open despite the record rainfall to the region in May. Specialty soils and technology—an investment of $7 million—helped to prevent flooding on the course.
Although the new technology helps the course to stay open under many circumstances, Quinn hopes golfers pay more attention to the old-fashioned aspects.
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“Our focus at the Renaissance is on the reestablishment of the time-honored conventions and customs of the game,” Quinn says. “That includes the rebirth of superior levels of member service, renewal of caddy and walking traditions, the restoration of junior golf as a core principal and most importantly the revival of classic golf course architecture, which is really the heart of the Renaissance story.”
The back nine holes opened in July, 2005 with the front nine following in June, 2006. Membership to the course was already more than half sold in November.
For more information, visit www.renaissancegolfclub.com