'Mr Renaissance Club' Sarvadi to step down as CEO at Scottish Open venue

Jerry Sarvadi, ‘Mr Renaissance Club’, is overseeing his last Genesis Scottish Open as the CEO of the exclusive East Lothian club.

Jerry Sarvadi is handing over The Renaissance Club's CEO role to his younger brother John. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

The American, who has been involved in the ambitious project from the outset, is handing over the reins to one of his brothers.

“This is my final year as CEO,” he told The Scotsman on the eve of the $9 million Rolex Series event, which features eight of the world’s top ten for its fifth successive staging at the Gullane venue.

“My younger brother, John, is going to come in and take over. I’d made a commitment to do this at the right time. We feel this is the right time and we are looking forward to that change taking place.”

Having fallen in love with East Lothian since moving there, Sarvadi has taken great pride in The Renaissance Club becoming the current home of an event that now features on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour schedules.

“I’ve been here from day one - every square inch, every minute,” he said. “After doing the first one in 2019, Covid then hit and so we hosted one without any people then another one with just a small number. Now seeing it set up for big crowds is really different and special.”

Designed by American Tom Doak, significant changes have been made to the course to keep making it better for an event that will be played there through until 2026.

“It’s really good - it’s really special,” said Sarvadi. “The few changes that we made to the golf course a few years ago after having some comments and then bringing Padraig [Harrington) to work with Tom [Doak] have worked really well.

“We have some more changes in mind, but we are delaying them a bit because players need to get use to what you’ve already done and the ones we made, especially on championship 10, are so dramatic. So we decided to be a bit patient and do things the right way.

"The players’ comments last year were fabulous. There have been no tweaks for this year. We’ve done some things to a couple of the holes, but they are not in play.”

What now for Sarvadi? “I’ll still be here - I’m not leaving,” he said, smiling.