2022 Genesis Scottish Open: Top 10 Power Rankings at The Renaissance Club
The Genesis Scottish Open is one of the DP World Tour’s staple events dating back to 1972.
For the first time in 2022, it’s now a co-sanctioned event with the PGA Tour thanks to the two tours’ newly formed strategic alliance.
The Scottish Open has long extended numerous invitations to PGA Tour members looking to get acclimated to golf in the U.K., but now 75 spots are reserved for these members to help fill the 156-player field.
Invitations were also granted to DP World Tour players to come play the PGA Tour’s opposite event this week, the Barracuda Championship.
LIV Golf members are excluded from playing either event.
The Scottish Open always attracts high-quality fields. This one takes the cake. Fourteen of the top 15 in the Official World Golf Ranking are present. Rory McIlroy is the lone exception as he’s choosing to rest.
The venue is The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland. It’s hosted the 2017 Scottish Senior Open, 2019 Ladies Scottish Open, and 2019-2021 Scottish Open.
Not all Scottish Opens are at links courses, but this one fits the bill.
Players are seeking that out in advance of next week’s Open Championship at St. Andrew’s.
There is some thick rough in spots with club-snarling fescue a threat for wayward tee shots and approaches. Plenty of Mounds and fairway bunkers make for a good Open pre-test.
The greens are big, slow, and undulating. DP World Tour players may have an advantage, at least early in the tournament, as PGA Tour players adjust to much lower stimpmeter numbers.
The weather forecast features temperatures in the 50s-60s Fahrenheit with chances for rain Wednesday and Sunday. It’s going to be windy with gusts in the teens and twenties each day.
There hasn’t been hype around a pre-major championship tournament since Tiger was dominating at the old WGC-Bridgestone that used to lead into the PGA Championship.
It’s hard to whittle it down to a top 10, but here are my picks to master the links this week:
Jordan Spieth has never played the Genesis Scottish Open, but this year’s event was too good to refuse.
FedEx Cup points are on the line, an elite field is present, and a links golf layout are reasons for Spieth and others to get in on the action.
A lack of reps at The Renaissance Club isn’t a deterrent for Spieth this week.
We all know his links golf chops from his win at the 2017 Open Championship. He’s 8-for-8 at that major championship, including solo second last year.
That type of success is expected to carry over this week in North Berwick.
He and a gaggle of friends have also been traipsing around Ireland to get some links golf reps in at famed courses Lahinch and Tralee.
Going across the pond should revitalize a golf purist like Spieth.
He’s been just a tick off with his game lately with a missed cut his last time out at the Travelers Championship and T-37th at the U.S. Open.
The former Texas Longhorn doesn’t have to go too far back to remember success. He won the RBC Heritage and was solo second at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
The 28-year-old is having one of his best ball-striking seasons. Spieth is 20th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained per round tee to green (1.175).
He’s got the shot making to flourish this week in the wind. It just comes down to the putter cooperating. It’s been his best club in the bag throughout his career, but this season he’s outside the top 100.
Perhaps slower and more undulating greens on property this week will allow Spieth to refind his footing with the flat stick.