Scottish Open: Spieth Often Excels the Week Before a Major

• The event is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour
• The Renaissance Club in North Berwick plays host
• 14 of the world’s top 15 head to Scotland as they hone their games for The Open

Scottish Open Odds

The odds for this tournament are provided by Caesars Sportsbook. Click on the odds below to head to Caesars Sportsbook and place a bet.

Scottish Open Picks

Jordan Spieth often excels the week before a Major and loves the links. Back the 2017 Open Championship winner to triumph at +3000 with Caesars Sportsbook.

Matt Fitzpatrick might be coming back down to earth after his US Open win so take Jon Rahm to beat the Englishman in a 72-hole match bet at -130 DraftKings Sportsbook.

Alex Noren is a links specialist and owns two top 20s in his last three non-Majors. Back the Swede for another Top 20 at +350 with bet365.

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With an Open Championship coming up at St Andrews next week, there was always a chance that some of the game’s elite would want to hone their links skills and acclimatize by entering the Scottish Open.

But when it was announced last year that this tournament would be co-sanctioned between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the big names were further enticed to cross the Atlantic.

Hence, a look at the betting shows 14 of the world’s top 15 in attendance, Rory McIlroy the odd one out.

To be fair, several of the leading lights will be seeing this week’s course – The Renaissance Club – for a second time.

Jon Rahm finished seventh, Justin Thomas eighth, Xander Schauffele 10th and Scottie Scheffler 12th when it played host last year.

However, center stage was taken by those who had plied plenty of their trade on the DP World Tour as Aussie Min Woo Lee beat Belgium’s Thomas Detry and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick – the newly-crowned US Open champion – in a play-off.

The Renaissance Club will be played as a par 70 this year with the 7th hole now a Par 4. It measures 7,237 yards.

The coastal course lies next to Open venue Muirfield and was designed by Tom Doak.

Although it only opened in 2008 and thus can’t be described as a classic links, it still deserves to be viewed as a coastal links course and form on that type of landscape remains hugely relevant.

In the three editions of the Scottish Open played here the winning scores were -22, -11 and -18. The reason for that middle year: wind, so often the main defense of a links course.

As for the weather forecast, after some rain in the build-up we should see a mix of sunshine and cloud across the four tournament days.

Temperatures are mild – in the 60s all week – while winds are fairly modest although it could blow a little on Friday.

Spieth for the Win

Playing the week before a Major can create a different dynamic.

Many of the top stars seem reluctant to show their hand ahead of the ‘Big One’ and perhaps hold back a little.

Perhaps in that category we put Scottie Scheffler who finished 15th (Byron Nelson) before the PGA Championship and 18th (Canadian Open) prior to the US Open.

But others believe that the very best prep is to win or at least push hard for it.

In that camp comes Jordan Spieth and he’s the headline pick here at an attractive +3000 with Caesars Sportsbook.

Spieth was runner-up at the Houston Open a week before capturing the 2015 Masters and he finished third in both events when they occupied the same slots on the calendar in 2018.

Last year he warmed up for the Masters with victory in the Texas Open to show once more that he’s more than happy to fight for victory with a Major on the horizon.

Spieth won his Open in England but in Scotland he finished fourth at St Andrews in 2015 and ninth at Carnoustie so has enjoyed success north or the border too.

The three-time Major champ arrived on these shores last week and got some links practice at Tralee Golf Club in Ireland.

Spieth loves the creativity of links golf and putts the slower greens well so expect him to relish his week at The Renaissance Club and push for the ‘W’.

Rahm Can Outscore Fitzpatrick

Matt Fitzpatrick outplayed the world’s best to win the US Open at The Country Club, the same venue where he’d captured the US Amateur in 2013.

So, on first glance, he might seem a good bet to excel here again having finished joint-runner up at the Renaissance Club last year.

But the rhythms of golf suggest he’ll still be breathing out when he tees it up in Scotland and that makes him vulnerable.

And perhaps we saw a hint of that in this week’s 36-hole JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland when he limped home in 7-over – a full 17 strokes behind winner Xander Schauffele.

Fitzpatrick has been placed in a 72-hole match bet against Jon Rahm and it’s the Spaniard I’m going to play at -130 with DraftKings Sportsbook.

Even if Fitzpatrick performs well, there’s every chance Rahm would beat him anyway.

The 2021 US Open winner finished 12th when defending at The Country Club and that followed a top 10 at Memorial so he’s in decent form.

Rahm, as mentioned, was seventh in last year’s Scottish Open here and is a double winner of the Irish Open so can be a formidable force on the links.

Take Noren for a Top 20

Alex Noren slammed his trunk early in the last two Majors but also in his last five starts the Swede has posted tied 12th in May’s Byron Nelson Championship and tied 15th in June’s Scandinavian Mixed.

Noren didn’t play this course last year but he’s a proven performer in Scotland.

He finished tied 17th in the last Open Championship to be held on Scottish soil (Carnoustie 2018) while he’s finished tied 15th and tied 12th in the last two editions of the Alfred Dunhill Links contested over the links courses at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.

With five finishes of tied 19th or better in five of his 10 Opens, this links specialist is well worth a bet for a top 20 at +350 with bet365.

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