While many of us fans are running double-barrel with our research and preparedness for the final major, so are the golf elites. The Genesis Scottish Open is up this week, serving as an undercard to the main event, the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews. Fourteen of the top 15 ranked golfers are in attendance looking to fine-tune their game for next week at The Renaissance Club.
In its fourth installment, the Renaissance Club has proven to provide some winners at big numbers. Over the past three years, the average winning odds are just under +9700, with Min Woo Lee as the longest at +20000 and Bernd Wiesberger as the shortest in 2019 at +4000.
Current form doesn’t seem to be as necessary as course history. Looking back at the previous 11 champions, 10 recorded around a top-30 finish in the event at some point before winning, and before 2017, six Scottish Open champions recorded at least one top-10 finish.
For a full course preview, key statistics breakdown and additional players to consider on DraftKings Sportsbook, refer to the DraftKings Preview on DraftKings Playbook. Here are the bets we should be considering this week.
All betting odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
Tommy Fleetwood to Win (+4500) | Top 5 (+900)
As tempting as it is to take a few golfers above him, I’ll side with Fleetwood, who turns on his game when playing in Europe. Fleetwood has a runner-up finish here in 2020 and has the prerequisite links experience to play well, including a runner-up at The Open Championship a few years back. Fleetwood has been amazing tee to green since THE PLAYERS and ranks 34th in scoring opportunities over the previous 24 rounds. A top-five finish at the PGA Championship and gaining in six straight events tee to green before last week makes him worth a look in this price range.
Aaron Rai to Win (+6500) | Top 5 (+1200) | Top 10 (+550)
Next man up is the golfer who beat Fleetwood, and he’s in better form now than in 2020, when he won. Rai did record a top-10 finish here before winning, which is the trend we should be going with this week; golfer’s who have experience playing on links or in Europe. His last four starts here read T9-MC-1-T35, and he ranks 10th in tee to green on the PGA TOUR over his previous eight rounds.
Jordan Smith to Win (+13000) | Top 5 (+2200) | Top 10 (+1000)| Top 20 (+400)
As mentioned in the preview article, Smith has been on fire lately, finishing no worse than T24 in his five previous starts. He’s missed one cut in his last 15 starts and has two runner-up finishes over the same timeframe. He doesn’t have a great deal of experience playing on the PGA TOUR; he’s played in five events, four of which were majors (WGC-HSBC was the fifth). Even though he’s MC’d three of those events, he finished ninth at the PGA Championship (2017). His ball-striking is fantastic, but his putter needs to improve if he’s going to have a chance to win come Sunday, which is why the derivative plays may be the way to go with Smith. Haotong Li (+13000) should be on the shortlist for longshots this week, ranking 28th in tee to green and sixth in birdies per round on the DP World Tour. I’d also play the derivative markets (T5/T10/T20) with Li.
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups.
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