The PGA Tour heads across the pond for the Genesis Scottish Open, the only co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour on the PGA Tour schedule. It has been a co-sanctioned event for three years, yet also the host of a DP World Tour event for three years prior to that. The Renaissance Club, a modern links golf course designed by Tom Doak in 2008, remains the host venue, and we have seen the golf course play both incredibly easy and incredibly difficult based on the wind conditions. An early look at the forecast suggests that we will see pristine scoring conditions, outside of Thursday, which calls for wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour.
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With this being the final week of preparation for the Open Championship, many of the best players on the PGA Tour, including Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Aberg and Xander Schauffele will be teeing it up this week. It will be fascinating to see how many of the American-born players adjust to links golf, a style that is very distinctive from the typical architecture and playing conditions on the PGA Tour.
Here are my favorite plays and fades for the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open for the DraftKings slate.
$10,000 range
Play: Scottie Scheffler, $13,100:
Icon Sportswire
Any narrative that suggests that Scottie is incapable of winning across the pond is a reach to me. Scheffler’s ball-striking in his seven combined appearances at the Scottish Open and Open Championships has been tremendous, he simply hasn’t been able to buy a putt. Yet this is the best Scheffler has putted in his career, and I’m confident he can flip the flat-stick, even on slower fescue greens.
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$9,000 range
Play: Robert MacIntyre, $9,100:
Robert MacIntyre has been tremendous at this golf course, and he is playing wonderfully this season. MacIntyre is the defending champion, and he nearly won this event in 2023 as well. I do believe the scoring conditions will be very similar to what we saw last year, if anything a touch easier, leaving MacIntyre the opportunity to drive and putt his way to another strong finish.
Fade: Viktor Hovland, $9,300:
Icon Sportswire
Viktor Hovland has had flashes of brilliance this year, but I still have some skepticism surrounding his health and recent form. He withdrew from the Travelers Championship, and his driver has been all over the map this year. While Hovland’s iron play is still a tremendous strength, he has been shaky in the driving and putting categories that I care most about this week.
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$8,000 range
Play: Matt Fitzpatrick, $8,800:
Raj Mehta
After a disappointing start to the season, Matt Fitzpatrick is starting to play some great golf over the past couple of weeks, which culminated in an eighth-place finish at the Rocket Mortgage, where he gained 3.9 strokes off the tee and 5.5 strokes on approach. The former U.S. Open champion now returns to a golf course where he has a runner-up finish and two other top-15s in four appearances.
Fade: Sepp Straka, $8,700:
Though it has been an incredible season for Sepp Straka, he has looked incredibly shaky in his past two starts, and he is now returning to a golf course where he missed the cut in both of his appearances. Despite a runner-up at the Open Championship in 2023 (he was miles behind Brian Harman), I still have some general concerns about his fit on this specific style of links golf course. His chipping and putting across the pond have been a major weakness.
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$7,000 range
Play: Thomas Detry, $7,800:
Mark Smith/ISI Photos
Thomas Detry is the prototypical driver-putter who I am looking for at this event, and his prior success here (which includes a playoff loss) should not come as a surprise. Detry has tremendous upside both off the tee and with the flat-stick, and he has also finished runner-up at the Tom Doak-designed Memorial Park.
Fade: Sungjae Im, $7,700:
I have been fading Sungjae Im for months based on his deficient iron play, and I see no reason to deviate, even at a golf course that is more about driving and putting. Im has now lost strokes on approach in his past nine measured starts, and there is little evidence that he is capable of turning it around.
Flier: Marco Penge, $7,000:
Luke Walker
Marco Penge might be an unfamiliar name to those who are just follow the PGA Tour, but the big-hitting 27-year-old is loaded with talent and playing some excellent golf at the moment. Penge has recorded four top-30 finishes in a row, and prior to that, he picked up his first DP World Tour win at the Hainan Classic. His power off the tee is a legitimate weapon that will pay extreme dividends at the Renaissance Cub.
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$6,000 range
Play: Matti Schmid, $6,900:
Vaughn Ridley
Very similar to Thomas Detry, Max Greyserman and Nicolai Hojgaard, three of my favorite plays on the slate, Matti Schmid is a board member of the driver-putter committee. Schmid is one of the longest drivers of the ball in the field, and he can most certainly heat up the greens. Schmid almost won at Colonial on the strength of his putter alone, and I expect him to most definitely pay off his price this week.
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Andy Lack is a PGA Tour writer and podcaster from New York City who now resides in Los Angeles. Andy is the founder and CEO of Inside Sports Network, a website devoted to the predictive quality of advanced analytics and golf course architecture. He came to Golf Digest’s betting panel after previously writing for Run Pure Sports, RickRunGood.com, the Score and GolfWRX. In his free time, Andy can likely be found on a golf course. Follow him on Twitter: @adplacksports
