Genesis Scottish Open
The Genesis Scottish Open is one of the strongest non-major fields of the year, but unfortunately the purse doesn't match that. The $9 million purse and $1.575 million to the winner are on par with a standard PGA Tour event. That does lead to some choices that need to be made for One and Done leagues with a major coming up next week and three FedExCup playoff events with large purses next month. You might want to take a shot with one of your big dogs because the Scottish Open is such a strong field, but it's going to be hard to gain a whole lot of ground in the standings this week just because of the smaller purse. This might be a good time to pivot to a shot deeper down the odds board and hope for a weird top of the leaderboard, kind of like what we saw last week at the John Deere Classic. Not one person in our RotoWire OAD League chose a player who finished in the top-10 of the tournament, and only 14 users even had a player who made the cut. The Scottish Open is also a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour, so there's a large pool of players who likely will only be available this week for OAD users to pick from. Marco Penge, Jordan Smith and Haotong Li are some of the highest up on the odds board who are primarily DP World Tour players only.
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Course Tidbits
- Course: The Renaissance Club (7,282 yards, par 70)
- Location: North Berwick, Scotland
- Purse: $9 million ($1.575 million to winner)
- Defending Champion: Robert MacIntyre (-18)
- 2024 Scoring Average: 68.75
- Average Winning Score Last 5 Years: -13.8
The Renaissance Club will host the Scottish Open for the seventh straight year. It is a far newer venue than a lot of the other famous Scottish courses that have been around for centuries in some cases, but there are certainly some links characteristics in this Tom Doak design. The fescue fairways are quite firm and because of that we see a lot of ball chase out and end up in the rough. Distance has been more of an advantage at The Renaissance Club than accuracy because it can be hard at times to hold the fairways, and the rough is generally not a huge issue. There's always a bit of an adjustment for the American players when they come over to the U.K. because of the hard fairways and slow greens. Players really need to strike their irons and wedges well out of the fairways to get the proper launch towards the greens. The putting surfaces are also typically quite flat with very subtle movements that can be quite tricky to pick up on. American players also have to be comfortable hitting short putts firmer on these slower greens to get them to stay on line. Since it has been added to the PGA Tour schedule, The Renaissance Club has been one of the hardest courses to make putts on from 4-8 feet. Being strong from 50-125 yards and outside of 200 yards will be a big key, along with scrambling and lag putting, especially if the course bakes out in the sun and the wind kicks up.
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Genesis Scottish Open: One and Done Picks
It's been a mostly forgettable season for Fitzpatrick, but he seems to have found something over the last couple months with two top-10s and four top-25s in his last six starts. The Englishman has seen big strides in his approach play and short game, gaining strokes on approach in 7-of-8 and around the green in 9-of-11. Players will have a lot of different lengths of approach shots into these greens and Fitzpatrick excels outside of 200 yards and with the lofted wedges. He has a T2, T6 and T14 in his career at The Renaissance Club. --Ryan Andrade
As much as I'd like to use a big name in this spot, the purse just doesn't justify it. If you're in the hunt in your league, then you should have the rest of your starts mapped out by now. If that's the case and you're going to have some big names left over, then by all means, go with a big name, but if you're looking for someone who might be a bit under the radar and someone that you won't miss for the remainder of the season, then Fox might be your guy. Fox already has two wins this season and he's got a ton of experience on this course. --Greg Vara
Although this is a strong field, the purse is significantly less than majors and signature events, so I prefer not to use one of the top players in this spot. Smith isn't a familiar name to most casual golf fans, but those that follow the DP World Tour closely know him well. He's posted top-5s in three of his last six starts overseas, including a runner-up last week. Smith has also posted a top-25 at the event twice since 2022. A sneaky way to potentially make up some ground if you need a darkhorse. --Ryan Pohle
The MacIntyre chalk should help hide Fitzpatrick this week, despite the Englishman coming off an eighth-place effort at the Rocket Classic where he gained a career-high 11.9 strokes from tee to green. Fitzpatrick finished T2-T6 here at The Renaissance Club in 2021 and 2022, and over his last 24 rounds, he's 16th or better in each of SG: Approach, Prox: 200-plus, three-putt avoidance and P4: 450-500 Efficiency. --Bryce Danielson
Yes, he will be a popular pick. But it's getting late in the season, many of the top guys are gone and MacIntyre is an option this week or next. I usually avoid the defending champion but he is playing so well now - runner-up at the U.S. Open, top-20s in four of his past five starts. If you like MacIntyre but are hesitant because he will be highly owned, how would you feel going in a different direction and then seeing him play well? Don't double-cross yourself. --Len Hochberg
Genesis Scottish Open: One and Done Fades
Thomas has struggled throughout most of his career to adapt to playing golf on this side of the pond. Whether it be the firm fairways or breezier conditions, it just hasn't been a match. In fact since he scored a T8 finish at the Scottish Open in 2019, Thomas has gone seven straight events in the U.K. without a finish better than T31. Believe it or not most of his struggles during that time have been on approach, where he normally makes up a lot of his strokes. If you still have Thomas available in your league at this point, you should keep him handy for the FedExCup Playoffs where his game will be more suited. --Ryan Andrade
There's just simply too much noise with Morikawa right now. Whether it's feuds with the media or his ever-changing caddy situation, it just seems that there's too much going on with Morikawa for him to play his best. Let's not even get started on his inability to win over the past two seasons, which is probably wearing on him as well. I think he needs to get through this season, find some stability with his caddy situation, find some perspective on all the other stuff and then he can think about winning again. --Greg Vara
Schauffele is a past champion of the event, so I'm sure there will be people that take a chance on him here. Not me. He finished a lowly T61 out of 72 golfers in his last start at TPC River Highlands and lost strokes with his ball striking. When he won here in 2022, he was coming off a win in that event. He's capable of playing well but there's too much risk for my liking. Schauffele has traditionally done well in the playoffs, and I'm going to save him until then. --Ryan Pohle
If you're heading into mid-July anywhere within about the bottom two thirds of your OAD pool standings, MacIntyre mathematically should not be a consideration for you if you're actually serious about trying to make a late-season move up the leaderboard, which most people aren't at this point, as they're just trying to lose by less and not embarrass themselves like your typical old-school NFL coach that punts on 4th-and-short near midfield. Don't play this game scared. The 2024 Scottish Open champion is likely to be one of the chalkier selections of the 2025 campaign as he travels home to defend his title, but with projected sitewide ownership creeping past the 30-percent mark on OfficeFootballPool, you'd need MacIntyre to harness Scheffler-esque win equity to make that click worthwhile if you're playing from well behind, especially given only six events remain in the season after this week. He's a fine option if you're already in contention and just looking to maintain pace, but if you're playing catch-up, simply find other ways to include MacIntyre in your betting/DFS portfolio rather than OAD, where you're probably not gaining enough ground this late if he actually does win. --Bryce Danielson
There are a bunch of top guys not playing great right now but are highly priced in every format - Aberg, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, to name a few. And they could emerge at any time. That's why they are great. But Aberg does not have a top-10 since the Masters, missed the cut at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open and really has only one club working for him right now - his driver. --Len Hochberg
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
