A super fun stretch of golf is getting underway this week, as the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour host the co-sanctioned Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, which many players are using as their final prep before The Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
It's always fun because you get a lot more exposure to the DP World Tour guys against the PGA Tour fields. Remember Haotong Li, the guy who shot 63 at the 2017 Open? Yeah, he's in the field this week. We love that.
Moving this event to a permanent home at The Renaissance Club, a links-style course built in 2008, has given us some good history to look back on over the last few years. The great thing about links-style play is that it can really negate a lot of pure skill and require artistry and luck much more so than a stateside PGA Tour event.
It is the antithesis of American-style golf, and man, is it worth getting up early for. The one skill that will always help is driving distance, but for everything else, you can just basically hit and hope for the best.
Last week's performance in the rankings for the John Deere Classic was not good at all, with only Denny McCarthy from the true rankings playing well and honorable mention Kevin Roy threatening.
These next couple of weeks are a bit of a guessing game, but we can find a winner again. I would have never guessed that Brian Campbell would be a multiple-time winner on Tour this year, but more power to the guys like him who aren't long off the tee and still find ways to win.
Honorable Mentions: Ryan Fox, Harry Hall, Robert MacIntyre, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Marco Penge
9. Tom Kim
Tom Kim making his way onto the rankings is not something I had on my bingo card, but he just plays well in Scotland. The global superstar has played the Scottish Open three times and has never finished worse than T15 at The Renaissance Club.
He's still finding his way out of the wilderness, but maybe getting to a track that he enjoys playing at is the kind of thing that can jumpstart a turnaround for Kim.
8. Aldrich Potgieter
I am only nervous because of his WD at the John Deere, but if Big Boy Potgieter is 100%, then I love him this week.
The poster child for the ball rollback was playing well before his withdrawal at TPC Deere Run, which surprised me because it did not feel like a course that set up well for him. His last few starts, with a T6 at the Charles Schwab and his win at the Rocket Classic, show that his form is there, and Potgieter's distance is a major advantage for him anywhere he goes.
If he can keep up his ball-striking that he's shown the last few weeks, then the 20-year-old could be peaking at exactly the right time. Plus, he won the British Amateur at 17 years old, so he's very comfortable on links courses.
7. Collin Morikawa
We've completely lost the plot on Collin Morikawa's season. He's busy fighting with reporters about his caddie changes, he's going with Billy Foster on the bag only for these next couple weeks, and he still can't putt.
What do we do with Collin?
His time overseas hasn't been great overall since his Open win in 2021, but he did finish T4 at the Scottish and T16 at The Open last year, so his form across the pond may have turned a corner. If he wants to save his season, Collin Morikawa needs to play well these next two weeks.
6. Xander Schauffele
A past winner of both the Scottish and British Opens, Xander's last time out at the Travelers did not go to plan, ending in an abysmal T61. Maybe I need to accept the fact that this season is a complete loss for the two-time major champion and stop putting him in these rankings, but I just can't seem to quit Schauffele.
He's just felt close enough at different points throughout the season that he can put it all together one of these weeks, and I don't want to miss it. A possible modern-day links master, let's have some faith in X-man this week.
5. Viktor Hovland
After his third-place finish at the U.S. Open, Viktor Hovland turning around and having a good week at Travelers would not have been surprising. However, he withdrew in the final round with a neck issue, which appears to be behind him based on his recent social media updates.
The 2023 FedEx Cup champion is one of the best iron players in the world, and he has shown the ability to play the ball on the ground and succeed on links courses. The golf world is better when Vik succeeds, and I'm hoping to see more success from the Norwegian this week.
4. Matt Fitzpatrick
This could be a bit of recency bias, but Matt Fitzpatrick's last few starts are getting him closer to the form of the 2022 U.S. Open champion.
One of the interesting things about Fitzpatrick is that, despite his struggles putting in America from time to time, he has always putts well in Europe.
The fescue greens at Renaissance will make for an interesting challenge for some of the players in the field, but for Matt, he should be extremely comfortable. We could be on the brink of a Matt Fitzpatrick run, and the Scottish Open could be the opening act.
3. Tommy Fleetwood
Wouldn't it be apropos for Tommy Fleetwood's breakthrough PGA Tour win, the long-awaited maiden victory, to come outside of the United States?
Fleetwood's form outside of a missed cut at the U.S. Open has been predictably consistent, and the newest entrant to the golf content machine seems closer than ever to his first PGA Tour win. I don't like putting a serial choke artist like Fleetwood up this high in the rankings, but it just feels like he'll be able to handle whatever this week throws at him.
2. Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy's performance at the Travelers was the most "back" we've seen him since The Masters, and it seems like he has found his motivation again.
The biggest driving factor for Rory is going to be The Open being played in Northern Ireland this year, and so expect Rory to really dig in this week and find his form again going into Royal Portrush.
The ideal week for Rory probably looks like a top-five finish, which lines up with his past results at the Scottish Open the last couple of years. I'm still a tiny bit skeptical of Rory right now, but a solid week in Scotland will get me to buy into him fully again.
1. Scottie Scheffler
Yes, yes, yes, I know it's boring. When a guy is performing at similar levels to peak Tiger Woods, he's an automatic number one in the rankings. We haven't seen him since Travelers, but what ends up holding Scheffler back in these events in the U.K. has been his putter (negative strokes gained: putting in five straight Scottish or British Opens).
Travelers showed off one of Scottie's best putting performances of the year in terms of strokes gained, and made it three starts in a row where he putted above average. If he's figured something out with the putter as that last little loose end, then Scottie will continue his dominance.