Genesis Scottish Open One and Done Picks
This year's Genesis Scottish Open will be the fifth since it became a co-sanctioned event between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. The partnership between the two most prominent tours in the world has led to stacked fields year in and year out, with the 156-man group making the trip to North Berwick, Scotland comprised of the top members on both sides of the pond. Points are now awarded for players on both tours.
A total of 19 of the top 25 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking will tee it up in the final tune-up for The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. This is the 44th edition of the Scottish Open, which has taken place at a number of different venues over the years. It appears to have found a home at The Renaissance Club, with this being the eighth straight edition hosted at the track that opened in 2008 and was designed by Tom Doak.
Because of the co-sanctioned nature of the event, some LIV players who are also DP World Tour members will be allowed to compete. That means the likes of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton will be available despite this not being a major championship. There are also plenty of prominent DP World Tour regulars who are unlikely to be used the rest of the way. All in all, one-and-done players will have all kinds of ways to turn.
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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: Chris Gotterup (-15)
- 2025 Scoring Average: 70.022 (+0.022)
- 2025 36-Hole Cut: -1
- Average Winning Score Last 4 Years: -13.75
The Renaissance Club is closer to an American links course than anything. While there are a few holes on the ocean exposed to the elements, there are also parkland course features players will have to battle. The real adjustment for players from the U.S. is the playing surface. The fescue fairways in this part of the world can be quite sandy and lend itself to having lots of runout, even in damp conditions. The ball also doesn't perch up the same way it does on American style grasses from the fairway. Striking the ball cleanly becomes just a little bit more difficult. The greens over here are also much slower, and they have to be to avoid balls moving on the greens in the winds. It's not uncommon to see American players struggle on the greens because of that big adjustment.
It certainly did not slow Chris Gotterup down last year, as he made a bunch of key putts in that final round to outlast the likes of Rory McIlroy. It was a real coming out party for Gotterup who has continued that momentum into 2026 and just grabbed his third win of the year last week at the John Deere Classic. Interestingly enough from last year's Scottish Open, a number of players who finished high up on the leaderboard were among the top scramblers for the week. Four of the top 5 would also be considered bombers (Gotterup, McIlroy, Penge, Hojgaard).
Distance isn't a prerequisite, but The Renaissance Club does have one of the lower missed fairway penalties on Tour. You can spray it and get away with it to some degree, as long as you avoid some of the deep fairway bunkers or gorse bushes. The real separator on links style courses is iron play and short game. Distance control is always a challenge because of the elements and The Renaissance Club's average approach distance is about 12 yards higher than PGA Tour average. Your top mid-to-long iron players should thrive, especially considering that there are five par-3s on this course. Proximity from 175-225 yards would be a key stat to look at.
While these greens are on the larger end, they do feed off in some areas to short grass collection areas. Short grass around greens provides players with lots of options on how to play the shot. That in general is going to lead towards a bigger gap from the top short games and the worst ones. Finally, holing out has been quite difficult on this course. There are a high percentage of three-putts and a low percentage of putts made inside of 10 feet. A lot of that has to do with the wind affecting some of the putts and the very subtle breaks on these greens. It won't be so much about holing the long putts, but you will need to be solid in the 4-8 foot area to have a chance to win on Sunday.
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Genesis Scottish Open: One and Done Picks
I could've picked Scottie Scheffler and still have Wyndham Clark. But there are a number of big tournaments left and only two opportunities to use Hatton. He didn't play the Scottish Open the past two years, but in 2023 he tied for sixth. He's a great wedge player -- and honestly, great at everything else, too. Against many of the same guys he will face this week, Hatton tied for third at the Masters and for seventh at the U.S. Open. Plus, he won the most recent LIV tournament in Andalucia. --Len Hochberg
Considering where I am in the RotoWire OAD Pool standings, picking a guy like Schauffele might not make a lot of sense, but only 13 percent of our league still has him available. That's low enough to get me to bite on a course where he has great history. Schauffele has finished top-15 in four of his five starts at The Renaissance Club, including a win back in 2022. The iron play has been spectacular in this event over the years, and the putting has been very solid as well on these tricky greens. Schauffele has certainly flirted with it on a number of occasions this season with his seven top-12 finishes, but there might not be a better spot than this for his first win of 2026. --Ryan Andrade
Although the Genesis Scottish Open draws a spectacular field, it's not a very important tournament from a OAD perspective with just shy of $1.6M awarded to first and less than $1M to the runner-up. Therefore, you definitely don't need to burn a stud at the top of the odds board, and a potentially lower-owned pivot like Hojgaard could provide an opportunity for you to make a move if you're playing catch-up from further back in the standings. He recently rebounded from three consecutive missed cuts with a top-15 effort at the Travelers Championship, where he paced the Signature Event in carry distance while also ranking second in both overall proximity from 200-250 yards and par-5 scoring. Additionally, he placed T6 or better in two of his last three trips to The Renaissance Club. --Bryce Danielson
I've wasted too many picks on LIV players this season, and although there's a good option available in Tyrrell Hatton, I'm not going down that road here. Instead, I'm doing something I rarely do -- take the defending champion. There are always more distractions for the guy who won last time, but I've seen what Gotterup can do when he's on a roll, and if last week was any indication he's on one. Gotterup has only played here twice and missed the cut in his first attempt, but he figured out the track last year, and if he plays anywhere close to how he did last week or last year at The Renaissance Club he's going to be in the mix come Sunday. --Greg Vara
Hatton did not participate in this event the past two years, but he posted a T24 when the Scottish Open first became a co-sanctioned event in 2022 and notched a T6 the next year. He finished T14 at The Renaissance Club in 2019 and T18 two years later on the same track, so it's clear he can navigate the place. Hatton finished T7 in the U.S. Open and won the last LIV event he appeared in, making him one of the top risers on DataGolf. Additionally, while the sample size is small, Hatton is tied for fifth in this field in SG: Total over each golfer's last 12 PGA rounds. Add it all up and it's a recipe for success -- and a chance to save a PGA golfer for another spot down the stretch. --Kevin O'Brien
Genesis Scottish Open: One and Done Fades
In an all-LIV edition of pick and fade, Rahm ends up here. He tied for 55th when he last played the Scottish Open in 2022 (and swas seventh in 2021). More importantly, it's hard to trust his game. He's coming off a brutal missed cut at the U.S. Open. And, while he was runner-up at the most recent LIV event at Andalucia, he was 16th in the one before that. Too many highs and lows to feel good about a high. --Len Hochberg
It's weird seeing this many LIV players competiting in a PGA Tour event, but that is part of the nature of this co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour. These LIV players like Rahm finally caved and signed the deal to settle the fines and continue membership on the DPWT. While Rahm is tied for the most Rolex Series victories with five, I don't think he's a great OAD play this week. The Renaissance Club will play like an American links course, similar to what we saw at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock where Rahm missed the cut behind some really poor iron play. People will be drawn to some of these LIV players like Rahm trying to save a use down the line, but a lot of these top PGA Tour stars are in the mix of some really strong golf and have the course history to go with it. --Ryan Andrade
Nearly half the field in my large-field pool (5.6k total entries) has Rahm available, and I'll let others click on the Spaniard this week with a relatively small purse up for grabs. If he plays well, he has to actually win the tournament in order to accrue anything more than a six-figure payout. If he plays poorly, that'd be two rough outings in a row dating back to a missed cut at the U.S. Open, thus deflating his projected ownership next week at The Open Championship, lending a more advantageous opportunity to deploy a less-popular Rahm at the season's final major with a much larger purse than the Scottish Open. --Bryce Danielson
This is a scary one for sure. MacIntyre returning home to play in his country's Open Championship is not normally a target I would take aim at, but he just hasn't had that extra gear this season and I'm not sure it shows up this week. MacIntyre had a nice stretch earlier this season where he finished T4 at The PLAYERS Championship and runner-up at the Valero Texas Open, but since then he has posted just one top-10 in nine starts. Yes, that occurred his last time out, which gives me a slight pause, but I just don't think his game is where it needs to be now to succeed. --Greg Vara
If you still have Rahm available and want to use him before the campaign comes to an end, he profiles as a much better option for The Open Championship than he does here. Rahm finished T55 at The Renaissance Club when the PGA joined the Scottish Open mix in 2022 and has not played here since. --Kevin O'Brien
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.
