Scottish Open Picks and Predictions: Look for Jon Rahm, Luke List To Contend

Scottish Open Picks and Predictions: Look for Jon Rahm, Luke List To Contend

The PGA Tour heads across the pond to North Berwick for the Genesis Scottish Open. This event is one of five tournaments that are part of the Rolex Series on the DP World Tour, and for the first time this year, it will also provide FedEx Cup points as well.

The Scottish Open has been played at a number of courses over its long history, but for the fourth year in a row, we will be returning to the Renaissance Club, a links-style course just 20 miles east of Edinburgh. The decision to co-sanction with the PGA Tour and offer FedEx Cup points was a sound one, as we will be treated to by far the best field in tournament history. 17 of the World's Top 20 will be in attendance this week, and we can expect a worthy primer for next week's Open Championship at St. Andrew's. Let's dig into the Scottish Open course preview and Scottish Open odds.

Scottish Open Course Preview

The Renaissance Club

The Renaissance Club was designed by Tom Doak in 2008, and while not steeped in Scottish tradition like some of the other nearby links courses (Muirfield, North Berwick), it sits on a beautiful piece of land overlooking the bay. Playing as a par 71 and tipping out to 7,293 yards on the scorecard, the Doak design is by no means a short course, but it is still extremely score-able in the absence of wind. Last year, Min Woo Lee won at 18-under par in a playoff over Matt Fitzpatrick and Thomas Detry. 2020 saw more blustery conditions, and a score of only 11-under par was needed for Aaron Rai to claim victory. In 2019 however, Bernd Wiesberger won in a playoff over Lucas Herbert at 22-under par. If the weather remains calm as we saw in 2021 and 2019, expect many of the world's best to tear this course up.

The Renaissance Club is unique in the sense that it features five par threes and four par fives. Depending on the wind, all of the par fives are reachable on two shots by most players and these will be extremely important holes to capitalize on. Like most courses in the area, the Renaissance Club has extremely wide fairways and large greens. It should not come as a surprise that longer hitters such as Thomas Detry, Min Woo Lee, Lucas Herbert, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Johannes Veerman, Xander Schauffele, and Scottie Scheffler populated last year's leaderboard. I would expect that trend to continue, and I will primarily be targeting players with above-average distance who have shown an affinity for slower greens and easier scoring conditions.

Bet $5, Get $100 Guaranteed on any PGA Market, with DraftKings!

Scottish Open Picks

Scottish Open Key Stats

• Driving Distance
• Three-Putt Avoidance
• Birdies or Better Gained

Without further ado, let's dig into my outright picks for the Scottish Open.

Bet $5, Get $200 Guaranteed when betting on the PGA with FanDuel

Scottish Open Picks and Predictions - Outright Winner

Jon Rahm (12/1) (Bet $100 to Win $1200)

*Odds available at BetMGM at time of publishing.

Jon Rahm checks pretty much every single box that I am looking for this week. He's currently the best driver of the ball in the world, and I expect him to completely over-power this course off the tee this week. Ball-striking has never been the problem for Rahm, so I've been encouraged to see that his short game and putter are coming around as well. In his last start at the U.S. Open, the World. No. 2 gained strokes in all four major categories for the first time since the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Speaking of the Sentry, Kapalua is another course with massive fairways, and slow, undulating greens. The Spaniard finished seventh at this course last year and followed it up with a third at Royal St. George's in the Open. I've always fancied Rahm's game for a links style of golf, and I expect him to be firmly in the mix come Sunday afternoon.

Luke List (140/1) (Bet $100 to Win $14,000)

*Odds available at FanDuel at time of publishing.

While certainly not in the same class of player, Luke List fits the same profile as Rahm in the sense that he also bombs it off the tee and is capable of heating up with his irons. Speaking of heating up, List is coming off a 19th at the Travelers where he gained 3.6 strokes off the tee and 10.3 strokes on approach. This was Luke List's best tee-to-green performance of his career. By the way, his previous best came last year at the Houston Open, held at Memorial Park, another Tom Doak course. Unfortunately, the World's No. 60 paired those gaudy tee-to-green numbers with the absolute worst putting performance of his entire career. Quite the dichotomy. My reasoning for List is simple, he is the only player at this price point that is capable of being the best ball-striker in this field, and he's shown us earlier this year that he can take down strong fields when his putter chooses to cooperate. I'll gladly take my chances with the recent Farmer's Insurance Open champion at an extremely appetizing price.

Looking for the best sportsbook offers? Check out the free bets page