The Scottish Open is one of the more unusual events in golf because it is sponsored by both the PGA Tour and DP World Tours with a heavy mixture of players from both a week ahead of the British Open. Per usual, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is the clear favourite on the golf odds.
Scottish Open
It’s the fifth straight year this event is co-sponsored by both Tours and points are awarded toward the Race to Dubai Rankings and the FedExCup playoffs. It’s a regular-sized field with a typical a 36-hole cut. The Renaissance Club in North Berwick hosts for the eighth year in a row and plays to a par 70 at 7,282 yards. Among the world’s Top 10, only No. 10 Justin Rose of England is not playing.
One unusual twist this week is that No. 11 Jon Rahm is teeing it up even though he’s a LIV Tour guy. Earlier this year when it was pretty clear that LIV might implode and that a road back to the PGA Tour would be quite punishing financially, etc., Rahm came to a deal with the DP World Tour to pay all outstanding fines and become a conditional member. Thus, he can play those events (at times) plus majors on the PGA Tour.
Another former major winner in the USA’s Brooks Koepka (+8000) got a sponsor exemption into the field but then it was reported he decided to withdraw … and now he’s back in. Koepka has been dealing with an injury that forced him to withdraw before the final round of last month’s RBC Canadian Open in Toronto.
What’s also pretty interesting this week is that the defending champion is the USA’s Chris Gotterup … and he just won Sunday at the John Deere Classic in Illinois. He made up a five-shot deficit Sunday by closing with a 9-under 62 for his fourth PGA Tour title in the last 12 months. Last year in this event, he finished at 15-under 265 and two up on Rory McIlroy and Marco Penge. That was Gotterup’s second career Tour win and set him up for a big 2026 where he has now won three times. He is +3000 to repeat here, which no player has ever done in this event.
All three major winners from this year are playing in Northern Ireland’s McIlroy, England’s Aaron Rai and the USA’s Wyndham Clark. Rai won here in a playoff over Tommy Fleetwood in 2020, the second year it was contested at The Renaissance Club. The winner of the Scottish Open receives an exemption into the British Open if not already so.
There is also an opposite-field PGA Tour event in Louisville called the ISCO Championship.
Scottish Open Golf Odds
Scottie Scheffler (+500) is having about the best season a player can with just one victory. He comes off a fourth runner-up of the year, losing to Viktor Hovland at the Travelers Championship a couple of weeks ago. Scheffler has nine Top-10 finishes in 14 starts this season. His best finish in the Scottish Open was third in 2023, and he was eighth last year.
Rory McIlroy (+1000) was the winner of the 2023 event, beating out Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre by a shot. McIlroy has followed that by a fourth and last year’s runner-up. He hasn’t been playing all that frequently on the PGA Tour this year other than majors.
Jon Rahm (+1200), Matt Fitzpatrick (+2000), Xander Schauffele (+2200) and Tommy Fleetwood (+2200) round out the favourites. Rahm is having a strong LIV season but comes off a missed cut at the U.S. Open in his last PGA Tour start. He hasn’t played this event since 2022.
Schauffele looks for his first win of the year but has five Top 10s. He won the 2022 Scottish Open by a shot. Fleetwood was a runner-up in 2020 but has been 34th the past two years. He has been no worse than 14th in his past four PGA Tour events this year.
No Canadians have won this event and not too many have played it. Taylor Pendrith was the top finisher last year at T13, while Nick Taylor was T22 and Corey Conners T47. Mackenzie Hughes missed the cut. Conners is +10,000 this week with Taylor +12,500 and Sudarshan Yellamaraju +15,000.
Scottish Open Golf Predictions
I think Jon Rahm (+1200) will be so focused this week getting an extra chance against all the PGA Tour guys that he’s the play.
