Genesis Scottish Open
Purse: €7.85m (€1.4m to the winner)
Where: North Berwick, Scotland
The course: Renaissance Club — 7,303 yards Par 71 — has hosted the Scottish Open since 2019. The club has an American history, as the Sarvadi family from Pinehurst, North Carolina built the course two decades ago with the help of designer Tom Doak. Ireland’s Padraig Harrington has also had an influence though and was brought on as a player consultant shortly before last year’s Genesis Scottish Open. His job is to both pass along his own ideas to Doak while also gathering feedback from the top professionals in the world. The winning score in the three Genesis Scottish Opens at The Renaissance Club has been 22, 11 and 18 under par, so they are looking to strengthen the challenge.
The field: A new era begins for the PGA and DP World Tours in their strategic alliance as the Scottish Open is a co-sanctioned event with a big purse. As a result, the field is stellar. Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry have skipped it to play links course in Ireland this week, but world number one Scottie Scheffler is there, as are Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Matt Fitzpatrick are there and a host of elite PGA Tour players.
Quote-Unquote: “If it so happens that it comes to that point and you have an opportunity to beat one of them to win the tournament, it might be a little better, but I’m sure they would say the same thing.” — US PGA champion Justin Thomas on the motivation to beat the LIV Golf rebels this week.
Irish in the field: Fresh off giving his advice about the course, Harrington continues a golf intensive schedule that has included the US Senior Open, Irish Open and JP McManus Pro Am in the past few weeks with the Scottish Open, teeing off at 12.45pm on Thursday. Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Caldwell is out at 8:35am.
Betting: Rahm and Scheffler are joint favourites for the event at 11/1. Thomas is 12/1, Fitzpatrick is 18/1 as well as JP McManus Pro Am winner Xander Schauffele. Harrington is 150/1, which could be worth an each way bet after shooting at 64 on Tuesday at Adare Manor.
On TV: Live on Sky Sports Main Event from 8am to 5.30pm and on Sky Sports Golf from 8am to 6.30pm
