The Genesis Scottish Open
Preview for the Genesis Scottish Open: This event has traditionally been a signature event on the European Tour but as of last year in 2022, the PGA Tour has co-sanctioned this tournament along with bringing on Genesis as the title sponsor. This event dates back to 1972 when Neil Coles beat Brian Huggett in a playoff, and the tournament record is held by Bernd Wiesberger who shot a -22 in 2019. Winners of the Scottish Open over the last five years includes Xander Schauffele in 2022, Min Woo Lee in 2021, Aaron Rai in 2020, Bernd Wiesberger in 2019, and Brandon Stone in 2018.
Tournament purse: The prize money for this week’s event is $9M, the winner collects $1.62M and also earns 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, 7,293 yards in length, is a par 70, and the greens are bentgrass. The winning score at this event over the last five editions ranges from -7 to -22, all on the same course, so it’s the winds and weather that usually dictate how good or bad the score ends up being. Some key stats to focus on this week, in order, are driving distance, strokes gained: around the green, strokes gained: tee to green, strokes gained: off the tee, and strokes gained: approach.
The 2023 Genesis Scottish Open field: We again have a 156-player field this week, and the top 65 players plus ties after round 2 on Friday will move on to play round 3 on Saturday and round 4 on Sunday. We have tons of talent on tap this week including Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, last year’s winner, Xander Schauffele, and many other stars – Jon Rahm is the biggest golfer missing. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be an A.
DFS PGA Tour Golf Picks
Make the most of this article’s data, predictions, and insights to help with your fantasy golf picks for the Genesis Scottish Open. And check out our PGA Projections and Optimizer tools to make more informed player selections for your DFS DraftKings lineups. Best of luck this week!
Three questions that are relevant to the Genesis Scottish Open this week:
- Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total over their last 24 rounds? Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Wyndham Clark, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, and Adam Scott.
- Which 10 players does my custom model like the most? Patrick Cantlay, Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Wyndham Clark, Gary Woodland, Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, and Rory McIlroy.
- Which 10 players gained the most strokes total (minimum 8 rounds) at this event since 2018? Unfortunately, we only have strokes gained data from last year since it was the first year that the PGA Tour was part of the event in collaboration with the DP World Tour. Xander Schauffele, Kurt Kitayama, Tom Kim, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Brandon Wu, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jamie Donaldson, Rasmus Hojgaard, and Jordan Spieth.
All the best in your journey to win or at least be in the money in some contests this week – here are (in no particular order) 15 DFS golf picks on DraftKings (DK), plus I also include player salaries for DK. I consistently provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performances at the event over the last five years, and add in some valuable data.
15 Players Who Are Either High-Potential or Solid-Value Plays This Week – Get Them Into Your DFS Lineups
Scottie Scheffler (Salary: DraftKings – $11.6K) – Scheffler is on a ridiculous tear right now with eighteen straight top 12’s including two wins, a 2nd, three T3’s, and a 3rd. He hasn’t been a star here just yet, but another top 10 should be in the cards this week assuming his outlandish ball-striking continues. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut and 2021 – T12.
Rory McIlroy (Salary: DraftKings – $10.9K) – Rory is playing some mighty fine golf right now also with five straight top 9’s including a 2nd at the U.S. Open where he gained 13.59 strokes ball-striking. Much the same as Scottie above, he hasn’t had a lot of success here to date, but that could all change come Sunday evening. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – cut and 2019 – T34.
Xander Schauffele (Salary: DraftKings – $10.4K) – Last year’s winner gained strokes across the board – his worst gain in the major stat categories was 2.38 strokes gained off the tee. Schauffele has six top 10’s over his last nine starts if you include the Zurich Classic, and his best finish was a runner-up finish at the Wells Fargo Championship. With two top 10’s here since 2021, it’s possible that he keeps that streak alive this week. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – Won and 2021 – T10.
Patrick Cantlay (Salary: DraftKings – $10.2K) – Cantlay has been ball-striking with the best of them since mid-February, and it has led to seven top 9’s over his last twelve starts including a T4 in his most recent start at the Travelers Championship. He was solid through his bag last year and earned a top 4 finish as a result. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T4.
Matt Fitzpatrick (Salary: DraftKings – $9.8K) – The Englishman has played consistently well here over the years including a co-runner-up finish two years ago, and he should be able to keep his mojo going in Scotland since he plays a complete game and can pop in any given stat category. He won eight starts ago at the RBC Heritage, and has three top 20’s over his last four starts including a T9 at the Memorial Tournament. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T6, 2021 – T2, 2020 – T42, 2019 – T14, and 2018 – T14.
Rickie Fowler (Salary: DraftKings – $9.5K) – Fowler finally broke through for his first victory in a few years at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and he had been playing outstanding golf for quite a while leading up to his win in Detroit with most of his finishes going for top 20’s since late January. It will be interesting to see what he does this week, but he had a T6 here five years ago, so there’s lots of reason for optimism. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T47, 2019 – cut, and 2018 – T6.
Min Woo Lee (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K) – The 2021 winner of this event has back-to-back top 9’s including a T5 at the U.S. Open thanks to gaining strokes across the board. He has been relying a lot on his short game, but does have a solid off the tee game, so he should be able to keep the good times rolling. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut, 2021 – Won, and 2020 – T30.
Alex Smalley (Salary: DraftKings – $7.9K) – Smalley is coming off a T2 at the John Deere Classic last week, he had a T9 at the Travelers Championship three starts ago, and has gained 28+ strokes ball-striking over his last four tournaments played. Another plus for him is that he had a top 10 finish here a year ago and that was despite losing 2.42 strokes putting. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T10.
Aaron Rai (Salary: DraftKings – $7.8K) – The 2020 winner has three top 12’s over his last five starts including a T3 at the Canadian Open three starts ago. If he continues to ball-strike the way he has been since late May and he can gain a stroke or two putting, then he should more than pay off his salary number. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut, 2021 – T35, 2020 – Won, 2019 – cut, and 2018 – T9.
Doug Ghim (Salary: DraftKings – $7.5K) – Ghim continues to play well with six straight top 33’s and three of those were teen finishes. He gained 5.85 strokes putting here last year, so if he really has these greens figured out and his ball-striking holds up, then another top 20 finish is certainly doable for Doug. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T16.
Jamie Donaldson (Salary: DraftKings – $6.4K) – He has two top 9’s here over his last three looks at this track including a T6 last year thanks to good approach play and a sizzling putter where he gained almost 8 strokes with the flat stick. Donaldson hasn’t been lighting up the DP World Tour, but does have consecutive top 39’s and has collectively gained over 7 strokes ball-striking between these two events. Based on his low salary number, he’s worth the risk in one or two stars and scrubs lineups. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T6, 2021 – T65, 2019 – T9, and 2018 – cut.
Wyndham Clark (Salary: DraftKings – $9.0K) – If driving distance is the most important stat this week, then I’m certainly up for taking Clark as he’s a power swinger, he won the U.S. Open two starts ago, and has two wins over his last five starts with four top 29’s during that stretch. He played well here in 2022 and it was mostly thanks to his strong ball-striking gaining 7.51 strokes. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T16.
Shane Lowry (Salary: DraftKings – $9.1K) – Lowry doesn’t have experience on this track, but his game should play well here and he does have four top 20’s over his last five starts including a T12 at the PGA Championship and a T20 at the U.S. Open. He has a well-rounded game and the strongest part of his game is on approach which I like. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: none.
Tommy Fleetwood (Salary: DraftKings – $9.4K) – He was flying high until he missed the cut in his most recent start at the Travelers Championship with a 2nd at the Canadian Open and a T5 at the U.S. Open. He has five top 18’s over his last seven events played and there are no glaring weaknesses in his game. He has played well here over the years with two top 4’s over the last three years including a 2nd three years ago in 2020. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T4, 2021 – T26, and 2020 – 2nd.
Ludvig Aberg (Salary: DraftKings – $8.2K) – The talented young Swede is coming off a T4 last week and has four top 25’s over his last six starts. He has some consistency issues but that’s expected given he’s not a polished PGA Tour player just yet, but really only has four starts as a pro. Genesis Scottish Open finishes over the last five years: none.
