2019 Scottish Open: Henrik Stenson has his say on Renaissance course

He was delighted with a bogey-free six-under-par 65 at The Renaissance Club in his first outing since last month’s US Open at Pebble Beach.

But the 2016 Open champion reckons the rain-softened modern links on the East Lothian coast is not providing the best preparation for next week’s Claret Jug event at Portrush.

“It is a nice piece of land,” said Stenson of this year’s new venue for the Rolex Series event. “The design is not what we are used to seeing when we are talking links. Dundonald was similar.

“As of now, the biggest difference, or the one thing we are not super happy about, is that we have had so much rain and it is getting soft.

“You want to be in the mindset of landing a pitching wedge five or six paces short of the pin and skipping forward, but all of a sudden they are now spinning back.

“It’s almost like you have to force yourself in the other direction. Normally you want time to re-adjust coming from target golf.

“Even if the conditions aren’t exactly what we will see next week, we can still get a lot of practice out of it.”