2024 Genesis Scottish Open Preview: Everything To Know About The Renaissance Club

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Written By John Haslbauer | Last Updated
scottish open odds

The Genesis Scottish Open brings us to Scotland for another 2024 PGA TOUR contest at The Renaissance Club. Find longer golf odds at the best sports betting sites to increase potential payouts. Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, and Collin Morikawa top odds boards for this year’s Genesis Scottish Open.

Most of the PGA TOUR’s best begin their journey across the pond for the UK Swing. The swing kicks off this weekend with the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open. A new age – rebirth, if you will – of elite competition is in store at The Renaissance Club, with the best PGA TOUR and DP World Tour players set to clash in Scotland.

2022 marked the genesis of a partnership between the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour. It paid immediate dividends, with a links-style course offering a perfect week of prep before the Open Championship. The partnership seems a logical one, as the Scottish Open falls the week prior to the Open Championship and attracts major contenders for a tune-up. In its first two years, it’s produced tantalizing drama, with Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy notching victories in the lead-up to The Open.

I go by @PGATout on Twitter, in a literal sense that my golf expertise begins and ends with the PGA TOUR. That creates a blind spot with a field that features 75 DP World Tour players and no ShotLink data. However, five years of course history might reveal trends to guide us toward a player pool for both tours.

In true Scottish links style, elements dictate how difficult the course plays. All things equal, we should expect in-form ball-strikers with plus distance, links experience, and crafty short games rise to the top.

Let’s run through the key facts and info about The Renaissance Club ahead of the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open.

2024 Genesis Scottish Open Favorites

To compare odds across golf betting sites, scroll to the bottom of this post. Here are the favorites that open at 15-1 or shorter. Click to bet now. Bet365 odds are the “enhanced win” market.

THE FIELD AT A GLANCE

A loaded field sits in store, unlike anything we’ve seen before at the Scottish Open or any other DP World Tour event prior to 2022. Now co-sanctioned by two prominent professional tours, the field is composed of the top 75 players from each.

Scottie Scheffler is notably absent. Patrick Cantlay will also skip, an interesting development to monitor after his withdrawal from the John Deere Classic. In total, 20 of the top 25 eligible players on the PGA TOUR tee it up this week. Finau, Henley, Bradley, and Bhatia won’t play, either.

From the DP World Tour side, Keita Nakajima, Rasmus Hojgaard, Thriston Lawrence, Tom McKibbin, Sebastian Soderberg, Rikuya Hoshino, Jordan Smith, Jesper Svensson, Laurie Canter, and Guido Migliozzi represent the top 10 players in this event in terms of OWGR ranking.

The splintering of the game across tours has never been made more apparent than at this event. In its first two years as a co-sanctioned event, the Scottish Open served as a barometer for how the top players on the DP World Tour measure up against the TOUR’s best. Two years later, several DP World Tour golfers moved to full-time on TOUR after playing in the Scottish Open. As the best DP World Tour players continue to funnel stateside, a field half-full of DP World Tour players begins to feel very watered down.

Rory McIlroy will surface for his first appearance since giving away the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. He played spoiler in 2023, overtaking hometown kid Robert MacIntyre in dramatic fashion to win last year’s Genesis Scottish Open. As defending champion, he’ll have a harder time dodging media as he did at Pinehurst. Xander Schauffele, Aaron Rai, and Min Woo Lee complete the list of past champions at The Renaissance Club back to chase a repeat.

INTRODUCTION TO THE RENAISSANCE CLUB

The Renaissance Club is a modern Scottish links course established in 2008. The Tom Doak design quickly became home of the Scottish Open on the DP World Tour, European Senior Tour, and Ladies European Tour. This year marks the sixth consecutive time which the Scottish Open is played here. In its third year as a PGA co-sanctioned event, it boasts a stronger field than what has recently been seen.

The Renaissance Club is one of Doak’s most notable achievements in his famed architectural career. On TOUR, we’ve grown familiar with his work on the re-designs of Memorial Park and St. George’s. Subtle intricacies of the greens define his design philosophy. That should reward players with sharper short games. At the Renaissance Club, TOUR players face a unique test that their DP World Tour counterparts are all too familiar with – the randomness of the elements on slower, fescue-based greens.

Just outside of Edinburgh, the Renaissance Club sits exposed on the North Sea coastline. That makes it susceptible to significant swings in conditions from day to day, similar to what we’ve seen at the Open Championship. During calm weather, in-form players can easily score low here, as evidenced by a winning mark of -22 in 2019. When wind and rain become a factor, however, we’ve seen that mark slashed in half, as Rai showed the next year. In 2022, this event was a grind with heavy winds, as Xander Schauffele won at just -7. 2023 produced a mixed bag of fair and difficult weather conditions, leading to a winning mark of -15 from McIlroy.

Predicting the weather’s influence this early in the week is a challenge. But, it’s crucial to monitor the severity of the conditions, particularly if they create a wave advantage over the first two days.

Be An Artist

After jumping out to a solo first-round lead at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open with a 61, Cameron Tringale delivered what may be my favorite golf line of all time: “It’s fun to be an artist out here”.

Cameron “The Artist” Tringale proceeded to not be an artist for the rest of the tournament, failing to shoot under par the next three days and finishing T6 for the tournament. He was never heard from again.

If you’ve ever played golf with me since July 2022, you’ve probably heard me drop a, “it’s fun to be an artist out here” whenever I hit a chip shot in the general vicinity of the hole (which isn’t that often, but still). Tringale won’t be in the field this week, but his words should be a reminder that creative artistry can go rewarded on the open links of The Renaissance Club. You can find his Thursday flash interview from here.

How It Breaks Down

As a modern links course set in golf’s birthplace, The Renaissance Club differs from the usual PGA TOUR setup, but brings a refreshing change of pace. The course measures 7,237 yards (6,669 meters for you European purists) and plays to a par 70 with a unique mix of three par 5s, five par 3s, and ten par 4s.

Links-style courses are designed to play firmer in the fairways, tempting players to use the ground more often for increased rollout, especially when winds are up. That should give an advantage to players familiar with high winds and extreme weather who are generally comfortable flighting the ball to different trajectories depending on the conditions.

The rollouts have kept shorter hitters like Tom Kim, Aaron Rai, and David Lingmerth in contention over the last four years. But the presence of three reachable par 5s, a drivable par 4, and six additional par 4s over 450 yards should give an advantage to the longer hitters. At the 2021 Scottish Open, all three players in the playoff (Min Woo Lee, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Thomas Detry) ranked top-30 in Driving Distance entering the week. In both 2022 and 2023, 11 of the top 15 finishers were above average in Driving Distance for the week.

The top 10 players in Driving Distance entering this week are: Rory McIlroy, Adri Arnaus, Byeong Hun An, Min Woo Lee, Wyndham Clark, Vincent Norrman, Keith Mitchell, Gary Woodland, Richard Mansell, and Ryan Fox.

For Renaissance Club course specs, hole-by-hole breakdown with yardages, and past Scottish Open winners with their pre-tournament odds, visit our Genesis Scottish Open odds page.

Editor’s Note

COURSE HISTORY AND COURSE COMPS

We can best understand how this course will play by looking backward. While the Scottish Open has drawn a smattering of the TOUR’s best to play at The Renaissance Club in 2019 and 2021 to prep for the Open Championship, DP World Tour players have comprised most of the fields. That makes for a great reference point for which “unknowns” from across the pond have found success. While leaderboards have been littered with the top DP World Tour names, OWGR would suggest that a field evenly split with TOUR players will produce more contenders from there.

Over its first two years as a co-sanctioned event, only seven DP World Tour players (Jamie Donaldson, Thomas Detry, Dean Burmester, Rasmus Hojgaard, Grant, Forrest, Ewen Ferguson, Jordan Smith) finished inside the top 20. Still, the DP World Tour players do have the course history and familiarity with these conditions on their side, and will present intriguing value upside for both placement betting and DFS.

Nine players had delivered multiple top-40 finishes at this event over its first four years at The Renaissance Club: Min Woo Lee, Erik Van Rooyen, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Victor Perez, Thomas Detry, Matt Wallace, and Tom Kim. Byeong Hun An, Robert MacIntyre, Nicolai Hojgaard, Rory McIlroy, and Xander Schauffele have each finished inside the top-10 over the first two years as a co-sanctioned event.

Course Comps

Due to ignorance about DP World Tour course rotations and lack of data for modeling, I’ll draw course comps strictly from the PGA TOUR. It’s not ideal, but a cross-tour event on a links course without ShotLink data brings uncharted territory. Given the nuance, I’m placing significantly less weighting on Comp Course History in my model than I would in a standard week on the PGA TOUR.

The easiest place to start for comps with SG: TOT data at our disposal is the Open Championship. It’s played in this region each year in similar conditions and agronomy. It promotes flighting the ball through high winds, creativity from rolling undulations and fescue. It requires using the ground in firm conditions, putting on large and slow greens, and strategically thinking through each shot.

While weather has produced dramatically different results from a scoring standpoint, The Renaissance Club is not set up to impose the same test as a major. It should fall in line with some of the more docile Open Championship venues over recent years. Thus, Royal St. George’s, St. Andrews, and Royal Liverpool host of the last three Open Championships, would seem the best place to start. Royal Birkdale, Royal Portrush, and Carnoustie are also worth a look as a reference point for players who thrive in these elements.

North American Comps

Outside of the Open Championship, it’s difficult to land on an exact match to these conditions on the PGA TOUR, but The Los Angeles Country Club comes the closest. Removing wind, both courses feature generous fairways with firm and fast landing areas, and nuanced fairway and greenside hazards that favor the longest hitters while still opening the door for plodders to contend. Xander Schauffele, Tom Kim, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Cam Smith, Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Jon Rahm, and Scottie Scheffler all finished top-20 at both the 2023 U.S. Open and the Genesis Scottish Open. That is a lot of correlation.

Pinehurts No. 2, albeit more stern of a test, may come the next closest we’ve seen to a pure coastal links set up in the U.S. On the regular PGA TOUR schedule, Memorial Park GC shares influence of Doak’s design and offers a similar test of windy, firm, and fast conditions. It’s not a links-style course, however.

From a leaderboard overlap standpoint, it’s hard to look past Hamilton Golf & Country Club, host of the RBC Canadian Open last month. Robert MacIntyre emerged victorious to follow his runner up finish at The Renaissance Club in 2023. Victor Perez, known links course assassin an former Scotland resident, finished 3rd in Hamilton. Rory McIlroy and Tom Kim, mainstay contenders at the Genesis Scottish Open, rounded out the top-5 at the RBC Canadian Open this year.

Combine performance across this list and the top 10 players in Comp Course History here are: Rory McIlroy, Ben Griffin, Tommy Fleetwood, Lee Hodges, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Min Woo Lee, Robert MacIntyre, Jordan Smith, and Aaron Rai.

KEY STATS TO CONSIDER WITH GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN ODDS

  • SG: APP / SG: Ball Striking
  • SG: OTT
  • Driving Distance
  • SG: ARG / SG: Short Game
  • Birdies or Better Gained / Bogey Avoidance
  • Par-4: 450-500
  • Par-5 Scoring
  • SG: Putting (Total) / SG: Putting (Slow Greens) / Approach Putting
  • Course & Comp Course History

Kicking things off with SG: APP, this stat will continue to dictate the contenders this week. Extreme conditions will accentuate the importance of pure ball striking and creative flighting through the wind. Given the firm conditions and larger greens, lesser approach players can still make do, but they’ll play at a disadvantage. The top 10 players in SG: APP are: Xander Schauffele, Corey Conners, Keith Mitchell, Sepp Straka, Rory McIlroy, Antoine Rozner, Aaron Rai, Ludvig Aberg, Kevin Yu, and Adri Arnaus.

Whenever we enter a new course (at least by PGA TOUR standard), it’s always safest to look more broadly at the all-encompassing stats as a baseline for trending form. The top 10 players in SG: T2G over the last 24 rounds are: Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Aaron Rai, Davis Thompson, Corey Conners, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Kevin Yu, Hideki Matsuyama, and Keith Mitchell.

OTT And Hole Length Stats

The fairways at The Renaissance Club sit wide and generous. But in firm, fast links conditions with penal fescue and pot bunkers looming, players must position well off the tee. The top 10 players in SG: OTT are: Keith Mitchell, Min Woo Lee, Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy, Kevin Yu, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, and Sungjae Im. Other notable strong drivers from the DP World Tour include: Jordan Smith, Laurie Canter, Tom McKibbin, Antoine Rozner, and Romain Langasque.

With 50% of the holes this week funneling to the Par 4: 450-500 and Par 5: 550-600 range, players who score best in those two isolated groups should have a leg up. Nine players rated out top 30 from both scoring ranges: Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Aaron Rai, Davis Thompson, Keith Mitchell, Ben Griffin, Robert MacIntyre, Matt Wallace, Alex Noren, and Mark Hubbard.

Looking at recent form in terms of results over the last five events on the DP World Tour, the top 10 players entering this week are: Sebastian Soderberg, Rasmus Hojgaard, Keita Nakajima, Tom McKibbin, Laurie Canter, Thriston Lawrence, Jordan Smith, Matthew Jordan, Richard Mansell, and Alex Fitzpatrick.

In the absence of historical strokes gained data to pull correlations from, the ideal profile fit to score at The Renaissance Club should excel in SG: TOT (L24 rounds), Driving Distance, SG: OTT, SG: ARG, Course & Comp Course History, and Weighted Putting (L36, Slow Greens, Approach Putting). Eight players rank above average in each category: Xander Schauffele, Min Woo Lee, Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Kim, Adam Scott, Andrew Novak, and Victor Perez.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: THOMAS DETRY

Still chasing his first professional victory, Detry came as close as he ever has before to lifting a trophy on these grounds in 2021, before ultimately falling to Min Woo Lee in a three-man playoff. It’s little surprise to find Detry’s name on a list of just nine players in this field who’ve posted multiple top-10 finishes at the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club. This modern links layout was built to reward players with above-average distance, great all-around putting skill, and a proven ability to score in varying weather conditions.

The Belgian Bomber ranks top-20 in Driving Distance amongst this field, a skillset he has leaned on to attack this course in the past. He’s made the cut in all five prior appearances at the Genesis Scottish Open, so the 31-year-old will bring plenty of experience to this event that his PGA TOUR counterparts will be lacking.

Putting is the strength of Detry’s game, as that consistency on the greens has catapulted him to sic top-15 finishes this season. That includes each of his first two Major championship starts, supporting that his elite distance and short game hold up well amongst the world’s best. I’m especially encouraged by the T14 finish two starts go at Pinehurst, which similar to The Renaissance Club, can reward great approach putters with its tightly-mown areas surrounding the green.

Ranking top-10 in Comp Course History and Total Putting, Detry will at the very least be a fixture on my placement betting card this week.

2024 GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN ODDS: DFS PLAYER POOL

With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. Naturally, I’m looking their way in the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open odds as well. I’ve broken the list down by projected pricing/odds tier for DraftKings.  

UNDERDOG GOLF DRAFT RANKINGS TIERS

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Tier 1

Xander Schauffele
Rory McIlroy

Tier 2

Tommy Fleetwood
Ludvig Aberg
Collin Morikawa
Viktor Hovland

Tier 3

Tom Kim
Min Woo Lee
Aaron Rai
Adam Scott
Thomas Detry

Tier 4

Victor Perez
Keith Mitchell
Byeong Hun An
Ben Griffin
Matt Wallace

Tier 5

Andrew Novak
Sebastian Soderberg
Rasmus Hojgaard
Lee Hodges

GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN ODDS: MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN

2024 Genesis Scottish Open Model Breakdown

In my model, I’m emphasizing SG: T2G, Par-5 Scoring, SG: ARG, SG: OTT, SG: APP and Par 4: 450-500 followed by a more balanced mix of Comp Course History, Driving Distance and SG: P (TOT & Slow Greens).

Model Favorites

In this star-studded field, Xander Schauffele rates out No. 1 in my model this week. That’s hardly surprising consider Schauffele has already emerged victorious from this event back in 2022. Outside of Scottie Scheffler, Xander has had the most consistent 2024 season of any golfer in the world, so look for Xander to try and capitalize on the World No. 1’s absence this week as he chases a second Genesis Scottish Open title.

After Schauffele, the rest of my model’s top 10 features Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Aaron Rai, Ludvig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood, Min Woo Lee, Davis Thompson, and Tom Kim.

It’s going to be a tricky week to project Scottish Open odds, with sportsbooks handicapping the field across multiple tours. I expect a ton of variance on Scottish Open odds across the marketplace. Check back here Monday when odds release so you can line shop for best prices. For now, I’m leaning towards at least one of: Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, or Viktor Hovland to start my card, with Tom Kim, Thomas Detry, and Min Woo Lee in consideration from the next tier of players.

Check back in later this week for more updates, and best of luck navigating the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open odds!

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