Genesis Scottish Open
Sepp Straka was +3 after 16 holes during Thursday’s first round. On Sunday, he finished -21 and won his second career PGA Tour event at the John Deere Classic. Straka, a pre-tournament price of 55-1, at one point was -23 and had a five-shot lead before carding a double bogey on 18. Brendon Todd and Alex Smalley (70-1 this week), one of our tips in last week’s column, were not able to walk through the door that Straka left open and settled for T-2 at -19. Adam Schenk, another our tips last week, got going too late in the final round and settled for T-4 along with Ludvig Aberg (55-1 this week), who posted his career-best finish in just his fourth PGA Tour start.
This week, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour have two co-sanctioned events — the Genesis Scottish Open and the Barbasol Championship. The Scottish Open is where many of the players already qualified for next week’s British Open at Royal Liverpool will elect to compete.
Scottie Scheffler (+750) is the current OWGR No. 1 and although he missed the cut here last year, he has finished top 5 or better in each of his last six events. Rory McIlroy (+850) is next week’s favorite in the British Open at Royal Liverpool, where he won the Claret Jug in 2014. He also comes in on good form with five top-9-or-better finishes in his last five events.
At 14-1, Xander Schauffele returns to Scotland as the defending champion of this event and his Ryder and Presidents Cups partner Patrick Cantlay finished fourth here last year.
Rickie Fowler (18-1), fresh off ending his winless drought in Detroit two weeks ago and a trip to Wimbledon with his close friends Jordan Spieth (22-1) and Justin Thomas (45-1) and their spouses, won this event at a different venue (Castle Stuart) in 2015 and was a co-runner up to McIlroy at Royal Liverpool in 2014. Viktor Hovland is also priced at 18-1 along with Fowler.
Matt Fitzpatrick (22-1) lost here in a playoff two years ago to Min Woo Lee (35-1) and followed that with a sixth last year. Tommy Fleetwood (22-1), also off his own trip to Wimbledon with Justin Rose (45-1), lost in a 2020 playoff here to Aaron Rai (80-1). Fleetwood also finished fourth here last year.
Tyrrell Hatton (25-1) has three top-5 finishes in his last six events and his Ryder Cup teammate Shane Lowry (40-1) makes his debut this week at Renaissance.
In all, nine of the top 11 in the OWGR are in Scotland with the exceptions of Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith, who won the LIV Golf event in London last weekend.
The Event
The Genesis Scottish Open has been a signature event on the European Tour (now DP World Tour) since 1986. It is part of the five-event Rolex Series on the DP World Tour. However, this year, it becomes a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. Genesis Motor, LLC, which is the luxury car division of South Korean vehicle manufacturer Hyundai, takes over as the event’s title sponsor. With the new sponsor and the partnership with the PGA Tour, the purse increases to $9 million.
The Scottish Open began in 1972 as part of the inaugural European Tour season but ceased to exist as an event from 1974 to 1985. In 1986 the tournament returned and has been a mainstay on the schedule ever since, rotating around many of the great courses in Scotland. Previous winners include Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Ian Woosnam, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Rickie Fowler, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Retief Goosen and Tom Lehman.
Aside from the prestige of winning this event and the competitive preparation of playing in a competitive event on a links-style course the week preceding the British Open, like last week, the top three finishers (who are not already qualified) earn spots into the British Open.
The Course
The Renaissance Golf Club will play host for a fourth consecutive year and is scheduled to host through 2026. The course is in Dirleton, North Berwick, Scotland, which is about 20 miles east of the capital city Edinburgh. Renaissance was designed in 2008 by American Tom Doak, and the course is located next to Muirfield, which is a regular track in the British Open rotation. It is a modern links course that is going to play at 7,237 yards for the par-70.
Despite sitting on Scotland’s “Golf Coast” in the stretch of land between Muirfield and Archerfield Links, the Renaissance Club isn’t a historic links track, instead it was manufactured from an old pine forest and is considered by purists as a more links-like track than a pure, classic links. It is more of a hybrid of a parklands, heathlands and links course. Only four holes are by the North Sea coastline at Renaissance, which has undulating terrain, thick rough off the fairway and numerous wooded areas. Its links-style qualities include firm turf (Collin Morikawa mentioned how firm it was two years ago and how he had difficulty getting irons through his shots), deep pot bunkers, and greens that encourage the use of the ground game.
The track plays relatively easily in calmer wind conditions. The 2020 Scottish Open was played in the fall due to COVID-19 postponement and it featured rainy and windy conditions that led to the tournament playing a little over two strokes more difficult than the 2019 and 2021 versions. In 2019 and 2021, the average round score was -1.87 strokes under par in calmer conditions. In 2020 and 2022, the average round score was +0.96 over par in windy/rainy conditions. These two extremes provided a nearly three-stroke difference.
The fairways are firm and fast and exclusively red fescue. The rough, also fescue, can measure anywhere from three to five inches. The large greens (7,000 square feet — eighth largest on the PGA Tour) are fescue-based, like those used at Castle Stuart in this event in the recent past, as well as at Royal Birkdale for the 2017 British Open. The greens will roll at only 10 on the stimpmeter, so they will be very slow and slower than most of the players in this field have seen all season. The greens here are cut at a minimum of 5 millimeters high. Most PGA Tour greens are typically cut to around 2.5 mm.
There are 10 par-4s with six of them at over 465 yards. The 18th is particularly difficult as it was the only hole on the PGA Tour last season to yield more bogeys/worse (251) than pars (205).
The par-3s are a mix, with the two shorter ones, the sixth and 14th holes yielding lots of birdies, while the three at 200+ yards (9,12 and 17) are all challenging.
All three par-5s are 575 yards or more.
Comparable courses overseas to Renaissance include British Open rotation courses like Royal Birkdale, Royal Portrush, Royal St. George’s, Royal Troon and St. Andrews.
Comparable courses stateside include Memorial Park, Chambers Bay, Kiawah Island (Ocean Course), Shinnecock Hills, L.A. Country Club and Trinity Forest.
Recent History
2022: Xander Schauffele (-7/273), Renaissance, 18-1
2021: Min Woo Lee (-18/266), Renaissance, 100-1*
2020: Aaron Rai (-11/273), Renaissance, 50-1**
2019: Bernd Wiesberger (-22/262), Renaissance, 40-1***
2018: Brandon Stone (-20/260), Gullane, 400-1
2017: Rafa Cabrera-Bello (-13/275), Dundonald 50-1****
2016: Alex Noren (-14/274), Castle Stuart, 50-1
2015: Rickie Fowler (-12/268), Gullane, 22-1
2014: Justin Rose (-16/268), Royal Aberdeen, 14-1
2013: Phil Mickelson (-17/261), Castle Stuart, 22-1*****
2012: Jeev Milkha Singh (-17/261), Castle Stuart, 100-1******
2011: Luke Donald (-19/197), Castle Stuart, 10-1*******
2010: Edoardo Molinari (-12/272), Loch Lomond, 70-1
Playoff win over Matt Fitzpatrick and Thomas Detry – *
Playoff win over Tommy Fleetwood; Event Held in October – **
Playoff win over Benjamin Hebert – ***
Playoff win over Callum Shinkwin – ****
Playoff win over Branden Grace – *****
Playoff win over Francesco Molinari – ******
Weather-shortened event to 54 holes – *******
Note: The 2020 and 2022 events were affected by high winds of 20-35 mph.
