Genesis Scottish Open
Course: The Renaissance Club (7,282 yards, par 70)
Purse: $9,000,000
Winner: $1,575,000 and 500 FedExCup Points
Tournament Preview
2026 marks the fifth year of the Genesis Scottish Open being a co-sanctioned event between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. Prior to that it was just a DP World Tour event held the week before the Open Championship. It did see a handful of quality players tee it up back then, but the fields were nothing like what we see today with the top half of the PGA Tour and the top half of the DP World Tour making up the 156-man field. PGA Tour members will also earn FedExCup points to go along with DP World Tour members earning Race to Dubai points in this Rolex Series event.
These national opens have a long history and deserved to be recognized on weeks like this. A couple weeks ago when the PGA Tour was announcing their new competitive model to begin in 2028, one feature of that is an international series of events that will take place in the fall for top players to compete in. They are expected to be co-sanctioned like the Scottish Open and highlight some of the top national opens in golf like the Irish Open, Spanish Open and Australian Open. Time will tell on how exactly that will all look, but it appears to be a priority of the PGA Tour to get their top players to play in a handful of international markets during the fall. That would only strengthen the DP World Tour events as part of the strategic alliance between the game's top two tours. The Scottish Open deserves credit for laying the foundation of what these co-sanctioned events can look like.
This week there are plenty of storylines to examine with so many top ranked players in the field. This is probably the best field at the top of a non-Signature Event and non-major that we will see all year. 19 of the Top 25 in the OWGR are teeing it up at The Renaissance Club. That also includes two LIV Golf players in Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, both of whom will be playing their first PGA Tour event since joining LIV. Rahm and Hatton are both DP World Tour members after settling their fines for joining the breakaway league and are fee to compete in DPWT events such as this.
The race for PGA Tour Player of the Year continues to heat up and a win at this event could go a long way to deciding things. Defending Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup is coming off his third win of 2026 last week at the John Deere Classic. He is now tied with Matt Fitzpatrick for the most wins on the season. Based on numbers, Scottie Scheffler still appears to be the favorite as the clear runaway leader in SG: Total and scoring average, but he still has just one win on the year that came way back in January. Scheffler will be looking to shake off a tough playoff loss at the Travelers Championship to Viktor Hovland. Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark each have major victories this season and would greatly strengthen their POY case with a national open such as this.
The main defense of these links courses is the weather. If there aren't many elements to contend with, the best players in the world with this equipment will tear it apart. The forecast this week looks quite promising with very little threat of rain and winds on the mild end for Scotland. After an extremely windy 2022 Scottish Open that saw the winning score land at just seven-under-par, the last three years have seen the winning number be -15, -18 and -15. I could see 20-under being in the realm of possibilities if the forecast holds.
Recent Champions
2025 - Chris Gotterup (-15)
2024 - Robert MacIntyre (-18)
2023 - Rory McIlroy (-15)
2022 - Xander Schauffele (-7)
2021 - Min Woo Lee (-18)
2020 - Aaron Rai (-11)
2019 - Bernd Wiesberger (-22)
2018 - Brandon Stone (-20)
2017 - Rafa Cabrera-Bello (-13)
2016 - Alex Noren (-14)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Putting/Putting Inside 10 feet
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
- Total Driving/Proximity 175-225 Yards
Champion's Profile
The biggest adjustment for some of the top American players on the PGA Tour to make going overseas is the grasses. The fescue fairways are cut very tight and roll just about as fast as the fescue greens. That makes striking the ball cleanly much more difficult, as the ball doesn't sit up the way it typically does on the fairways in America. It also leads to a lot of chase in the fairways, even in wet conditions. The greens in this part of the world are also quite a bit slower than PGA Tour players are used to on a week-to-week basis. They have to be this slow to avoid the balls moving on the greens, as most of the courses are all very exposed to the elements.
The penalty for missing the fairway on this course is entirely dependent on where you miss it. If you miss small, it will be just as good as being in the fairway, but if you miss big you can find all types of nasty things in the deep fescue, including gorse bush in some places. The fairway bunkers can also be near a shot penalty at times. There's something to be said for being an accurate driver around this course, but also four of the top 5 on the leaderboard last year here were all bombers. Total driving will be the top stat off the tee to look at this week for me.
As it usually does on links-style courses, iron play and short game will be the biggest separator. These courses are all very exposed to the wind, so judging distances correctly can be quite difficult. The average approach distance at The Renaissance Club is also 179 yards, which is about 12 yards further than PGA Tour average. The top mid-to-long iron players should be licking their chops. Proximity in the 175-225 yard range should be key. Because most of the area around these greens are short grass, that will present players with a number of options if they miss a target. Options typically lead to even more separation in the short game department. The top scramblers for the week are always close to the top of the leaderboard at this course.
Lastly putting has been very difficult at The Renaissance Club, especially from close to the hole. A lot of that has to do with how the wind is able to affect some of the putts. The greens also feature a lot of very subtle undulation around the holes that can be tricky to read. 3-putt avoidance and putting from inside of 10 feet will be crucial to keeping bogeys off the card.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Matt Fitzpatrick ($11,900)
Fitzpatrick has played the Scottish Open every year since 2014 and has three finishes of T6 or better since it moved to the Renaissance Club. His putting stats over the years at this course has been spectacular and his ball striking this season has been the best of his career. Fitzpatrick has gained more strokes on approach than any player in this field over the last six months. He is also the best scrambler on short grass over the last 12 months. He checks all the boxes and comes in at a healthy discount to many of the top three options on the board.
Xander Schauffele ($11,800)
Schauffele has a great history at this event. He has four top-15 finishes in five starts, including a win back in 2022. His iron play has carried him to a lot of success at this course, and the putting has always been solid here as well. The driver has seen huge improvements this season and he ranks top 15 in SG: Off-the-Tee and total driving. The short game has gained strokes in his last four starts as well. Schauffele has seven top-12 finishes this season, but The Renaissance Club may be his best chance at a victory.
Wyndham Clark ($11,100)
Clark has to be the hottest player in the world over the last month and a half. He has finished T11 or better in each of his last five starts, including two victories highlighted by his second U.S. Open title. The putting and short game have been simply unbelievable during that stretch, which will certainly play to his advantage at The Renaissance Club. Clark might not be known as a links golfer, but he has gone T16-T25-T10-T11 the last four years in this event. His distance and improved iron play should also help this week.
The Middle Tier
Kurt Kitayama ($10,100)
Kitayama has been playing some really strong golf for some time now. He has racked up six top-25s in his last seven starts, including three top-10s in that span. The combination of driving and iron play is as good as you will find on Tour. He ranks third in total driving, fourth in SG: Approach and first in GIR percentage. Kitayama excels with the mid-to-long irons and the short game has seen improvements over the last couple months. He finished solo second at The Renaissance Club back in 2022.
Alex Fitzpatrick ($9,700)
Fitzpatrick continues to be placed in DFS below where he continues to stack results. He has finished inside the top 10 in seven of his last 10 starts mostly due to some excellent ball striking. Alex is second to only his brother in SG: Approach over the last six months and he is also third in this field in total driving. He has missed the cut in each of his two starts at this event, but he is clearly a different golfer now with a much more complete game.
Tom Kim ($9,500)
Kim is another player who has been elite on approach over the last few months. Now he is also starting to add in a hot putter and some spike weeks around the greens. Kim is now eighth on the PGA Tour in scrambling, and performs his best on short grass around the greens. His history at The Renaissance Club is strong going 3rd-T6-T15-T17 the last four years. Things are certainly looking up for the 24-year-old after a tough last 1.5 years.
The Long Shots
Oliver Lindell ($8,300)
At 56th in the DataGolf rankings, Lindell is one of the highest ranked DP World Tour regulars in this field. He has yet to miss a cut this season and has racked up nine top-15 finishes, including each of his last three starts. Lindell is really solid across the board ranking top 25 on the DP World Tour in SG: Approach, SG: Around-the-Green and putts per GIR. He is certainly comfortable playing this type of golf and is one of the more underpriced players in the field.
John Parry ($7,700)
Parry might not be a DP World Tour regular anymore, but the 39-year-old certainly has plenty of experience in this part of the world. Parry is a terrific iron player who ranks top 30 on the PGA Tour this season in SG: Approach, GIR percentage and proximity. He is also 16th in bogey avoidance and fifth in par-3 scoring, two pretty highly correlated stats at this course as well. Parry last played at the U.S. Open where he finished T11.
Bernd Wiesberger ($7,600)
Wiesberger enters this tournament with confidence as a past winner at The Renaissance Club (2019), and also because he sits eighth in the Race to Dubai standings on the strength of eight top-15 finishes. That includes a win at the Volvo China Open and a solo third last week at the BMW International Open where he thrived on approach and with the putter. Wiesberger ranks top-15 on the DPWT in SG Approach, SG: Around-the-Green, SG Tee-to-Green and GIR percentage.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
This event is always a bit of a tricky one to handicap because half the field is PGA Tour players and half the field is DP World Tour players. If you play DFS golf on FanDuel regularly, many of these names you likely won't be too familiar with. The Open Championship is really the only other FanDuel DFS event in which we would see many of these names. That said, many of them will do quite well in this event, as it will be played on grasses and in conditions that many Europeans are used to. I mentioned a couple above in Lindell and Wiesberger, but a few other DPWT regulars I'll be considering who appear to be underpriced are Eugenio Chacarra ($8,800), Angel Ayora ($8,700), Calum Hill ($7,700) and Ewen Ferguson ($7,600).
This is one of the strongest $11K ranges I can remember, and because of that I tend to lean away from over spending on the likes of Scheffler ($14,200) or McIlroy ($12,800). I mentioned Fitzpatrick, Schauffele and Clark above, but you can make a great case for Fleetwood, Aberg or Gotterup also. It will be very interesting to see where ownership falls in that range. You can get three $11K players and still have an average of $8,400/player left for you final three selections, which is very doable given some of the quality players down that far I have mentioned above.
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