The Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club
After a much needed week off, we tee it up again with a DP World Tour/PGA Tour co-sanctioned event - The Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club. This tournament will be a good tune up for the field with The Open Championship at the Old Course, St. Andrews staged next week.
Here is the course thumbnail:
The Renaissance Club - North Berwick, Scotland just 20 minutes from Edinburgh (pictured above)
Par 71, 7293 yards
5 par 3s, 4 par 5s, 9 par 4s
Parkland/Heathland/links hybrid
Firm/fast, ground game encouraged
Grass 100% red fescue
Huge, sloping, slow greens
This tournament has a stacked field with 14 of the Top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
We are looking at players with solid course history. Less about analytics this week and more about course fit. Here are the two players who made the card.
Thomas Detry Top 30 +280 (FanDuel)
The talented Belgian was a runner up in the 2021 Scottish Open losing in a 3-man playoff to Min Woo Lee (Matt Fitzpatrick was the other playoff contender). Detry has been the player on the DP World Tour with loads of potential who has really under achieved historically and has yet to win on that Tour. His last 3 results are T58, T15 and T29 so his form is solid and good enough to finish inside the Top 30 this week.
Johannes Veerman Top 30 +360 (FanDuel)
Veerman was T8 in the 2021 Scottish Open and enters this event with three straight Top 25 finishes on the DP World Tour. The American plays the DP World Tour full time so this track and these links style playing conditions are very familiar. All of his key stats are very solid from Driving Accuracy (48th) to Greens in Regulation (51st).
The Open Championship Look Ahead
Taking a peek ahead to the Old Course at St. Andrews, one of the key elements will be the draw and how weather may impact players who get either early/late or late/early draws on Thursday and Friday. Of the 4 majors, the draw relative to the weather is most significant at the Open.
Looking back at the last time the Open visited St. Andrews in 2015, the tournament was decided in a three man playoff with Zach Johnson defeating Mark Leishman and the ultimate major bridesmaid in Louie Oosthuizen. One name that finished in the Top 10 and served as a harbinger for things to come in subsequent majors - Brooks Koepka.
If conditions are calm, these players will decimate the Old Course and someone will card a 63. One player to keep an eye on - Ryan Fox. He is in tremendous form and the long hitting New Zealander can over power this track. His outright prices range from 65/1 to 80/1. Not sure he can actually win it, but Fox might be on our card in the Top 10 or Top 20 markets next week. Stay tuned.
Good luck this week with all your bets!