The PGA Tour will travel across the pond this week for the Genesis Scottish Open. This tournament will give the golfers to practice their game on a links style course before they tee it up in the Open Championship next week. Be sure to have your lineups set before bedtime Wednesday because the tournament begins Thursday at 1 a.m. ET. (For some reason, DraftKings says lineup lock is at 5 a.m ET Thursday. They will likely change that time)
The Genesis Scottish Open has a stacked field. 30 of the top-50 golfers in the World Golf Rankings will tee it up Thursday. That includes 8 of the top-10 golfers in the ranks. It should be a fun tournament to play a DFS contest in.
Course Breakdowns
The Genesis Scottish Open will be played at the Renaissance Club in East Lothian, Scotland. This is a new course (it opened in 2008) and it has been the home of the Scottish Open since 2019. The Renaissance Club is a par-71 which plays 7,297 yards in length. It is a links style course which will require the correct ball placement in the fairways and creativity on the greens.
The Renaissance Club sits right on the coast of the North Sea, so the weather will affect play. Right now it weather looks horrible with rain and wind every day (welcome to the United Kingdome). Golfers who can scramble well usually play well here.
Click here to see the course: Renaissance Club
KEY STATS FOR SCOTTISH OPEN
– Stroke Gained Off the Tee
– Strokes Gained Approach
– Scrambling
– Strokes Gained Putting
TOP 30 GOLFERS
STRATEGY FOR THE SCOTTISH OPEN
There are a lot of good golfers in the higher price range this week. The key to building a winning DFS lineup will be to find the higher priced golfers who can score well on a links style course and pair them with some of the DP World Tour (European Tour) golfers who may be lower owned. Typically the golfers, who play well in the Irish Open, also play well in the Scottish Open. I will be looking at the results from the Irish Open for my picks this week.
A contrarian way to build lineups this week will be to build balanced lineups. We have seen in the past at the Scottish Open that a lot of the DP World Tour players dominate the top of the leaderboard. I will be building some lineups where I fade the $10K+ range and sticking to the lower-$9K through upper $7K ranges.
CORE GOLFERS FOR SCOTTISH OPEN
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
RICKIE FOWLER ($9,500): Fowler may be the best golfer on the PGA Tour not named Scottie Scheffler. Fowler won his last tournament (Rocket Mortgage Classic) and he finished four of his last five tournaments in the top-10. So, can Fowler win again this week? I think so. He won the Scottish Open in 2015 and he is returning to the form he was in at that time. Fowler should be a safe play, with some upside for a top-five finish Sunday.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD ($9,400): There are two things Fleetwood does well…. He plays well in Europe and he makes cuts. That makes Fleetwood the perfect player for your Cash Contest lineup. Fleetwood finished second in the Scottish Open in 2020 and fourth last year. He ranks eighth in the key stats this week, so Fleetwood should have a good chance to finish in the top-10 in Scotland.
ADAM SCOTT ($8,100): Ludvig Aberg and Corey Conners may have more upside this week, but Scott is the safer play. All he does is make cuts (except when I used him in all of my Cash Contest lineups for the U.S. Open) and he has history of playing well on links style courses. Scott ranks 18th in the key stats this week. That should be good enough for a made cut and a top-20 finish.
ALEX SMALLEY ($7,900): I played Smalley last week and he rewarded me with a second-place finish. I will go back to him this week. Smalley is in terrific form. He finished 2nd (John Deere), 9th (Travelers) and 25th (RBC Canadian) over the last month. He also finished 10th in the Scottish Open last year. Smalley is playing too well right now to fade, so I will use him in my Cash Contest lineup.
AARON RAI ($7,800): Rai won this tournament in 2020 and he enters the Scottish Open with a lot of momentum. Rai has made every cut over the last two months. That includes a third-place finish in the RBC Canadian Open and a ninth-place finish two weeks ago in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Rai ranks 12th in the key stats, so he gets a spot in my Cash Contest lineup.
ALEXANDER BJORK ($7,300): Bjork is the DP World Tour’s version of Scottie Scheffler. He has been awesome on that tour this year with 14 consecutive made cuts and four consecutive top-10 finishes. He has also never missed a cut in the Scottish Open. Bjork is a lock for all Cash Contest lineups this week.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER ($11,600): Scheffler missed the cut in the Scottish Open last year. That could lower his ownership a bit and I will take any kind of ownership advantage I can get with the No. 1 golfer in the world. Scheffler ranks No. 1 in every stat category except putting (He ranks No. 135 in putting). If Scheffler can putt on these easy greens, he will likely win Sunday.
JUSTIN THOMAS ($8,300): I know JT has not been very good this year, but $8,300 seems to be too good to pass up. If JT was in half-way decent form, he would be priced around $9,500. He did finish ninth a couple of weeks ago at the Travelers Championship. I think a trip across the pond and a new type of golf could be what Thomas needs to get back to his good form. I would not trust JT in Cash Contest lineups, but he is worth a chance in Tournament Contests this week.
LUDVIG ABERG ($8,200): It will not be long before we look back and say, “Remember when we were able to play Ludvig Aberg for $8K?” We have seen rookies take the PGA Tour by storm and play well for a while. A good example of that is Tom Kim last year. Aberg is the best young golfer in the world. He should have a good chance to play well in Scotland.
ROBERT MACINTYRE ($7,400): “Bombing Bob McIntyre” should be a good play in his home country of Scottland. Macintyre has been playing well on the DP World Tour, including a fourth-place finish last week. He also plays well on links style course (That is what he grew up playing on). Macintyre has finish in the top-10 in two of the last four Open Championships. He has the upside to finish in the top-10 this week.
ALEXANDER BJORK ($7,300): I typically do not like to play the same golfers in my Cash and Tournament Contest lineups because I want to write up as many golfers as possible. I just cannot pass up the discount we get on Bjork this week. His form, course history and key stats all rank in the top-15. Bjork will be popular, but I will play him anyways.
JORDAN L. SMITH ($7,200): I thought about going with Alex Noren in this spot, but it seems like a lot of people are writing up Noren as one of their picks this week. I will pivot to JL Smith. He has made every cut on the DP World Tour and he finished 24th in the Scottish Open last year. I listened to Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) talk to a DP World Tour expert on his SiriusXM Radio Show Monday. His guest said that the golfer he likes this week from the DP World Tour is Jordan L. Smith. I will take his advice and play Smith in my Tournament Contest lineup.
Here are my lineups for Multi-Entry Tournament Contest: (FantasyRacingTips)
FANDUEL CASH CONTEST LINEUP
FANDUEL TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
PGATOUR.COM FANTASY PICKS
* This is the sixth tournament of Segment 4. This is the toughest Segment to navigate because there are two majors (U.S. Open and the Open Championship), one elevated event (Travelers Championship) and four FedEx Playoff Tournaments). Use your golfers wisely.
** I am saving my top Golfers for the Open Championship and the PGA Tour Playoff
FANTASY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP ONE & DONE PICK: MATTHEW FITZPATRICK (SCOTTISH OPEN)
Players in Fantasy Golf Championship One & Done so far: Russell Henley (35th), Rickie Fowler (Win), Scottie Scheffler (4), Brooks Koepka (17th), Justin Rose (8th), Patrick Cantlay (30TH) (Memorial), Tommy Fleetwood (MC), Jon Rahm (50th), Adam Scott (8th), Viktor Hovland (43rd), Tony Finau (Win), Sungjae Im (7TH), Jordan Spieth (4th), Si Woo Kim (39th), Tyrrell Hatton (60th), Adam Hadwin (MC), Rory McIlroy (MC), Will Zalatoris (53rd), Matt Kuchar (MC), Tony Finau (20), Xander Schauffele (10th), Seamus Power (15th), Max Homa (1st), Brian Harman (MC), and Corey Conners (12th)
SEASON LONG ONE & DONE PICK: MATTHEW FITZPATRICK (SCOTTISH OPEN)
Players Used This Season in One & Done: Emiliano Grillo (MC), Rickie Fowler (Win), Scottie Scheffler (4), Dustin Johnson (10th), Justin Rose (8TH), Patrick Cantlay (30TH), Tommy Fleetwood (MC), Brooks Koepka (Win), K-H Lee (50th), Cameron Young (59th), Tony Finau (Win), Keith Mitchell (6th), Tom Kim (MC), Brooks Koepka (2nd), Matt Kuchar (3rd), Wyndham Clark (6th), Adam Hadwin (MC), Rory McIlroy (MC), Will Zallatoris (53rd), Sungjae Im (42nd), Max Homa (2), Xander Schauffele (10th), Jordan Spieth (63rd), Jon Rahm (7th), Taylor Montgomery (5th), Russell Henley (32nd), Seamus Power (25th), Brian Harman (2nd), Maverick McNealy (27th), Emiliano Grillo (42nd), Nick Hardy (28th), Terrell Hatton (13TH) Christian Bezuidenhout (29th), Cameron Davis (37th), Denny McCarthy (39th), Brendon Steele (MC)
BEST BETS FOR SCOTTISH OPEN
PATRICK CANTLAY (14-1)
TOMMY FLEETWOOD (22-1)
AARON RAI (60-1)
JUSTIN THOMAS (45-1)
ADAM SCOTT (55-1)
ROBERT MACINTYRE (100-1)
ALEXANDER BJORK (110-1)
Good Luck This Week!!!!
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