The Scottish Open is a tune-up event for some and for others, they are trying to play their way into next week’s Open Championship or prove that they belong on the big stage.
Hosting the event for a fifth straight edition, the Renaissance Club is a Tom Doak design that plays right near the coast. It may not fit all of the criteria set out by links purist, but it certainly checks a lot of the boxes.
For DFS purposes, we want to focus on golfers that have past success on similar setups.
Cruising by the Coast
The Renaissance Club is not entirely coastal but certainly close enough to the coast to consider it a coastal layout.
In regards to course fit, we can look at past performance on coastal courses to see who pops.
There are a few benefits to lumping in all coastal courses. Most coastal events are susceptible to windy conditions and keep their green speeds slower than the average PGA Tour stop.
Here are the top performers in adjusted strokes gained per round on coastal courses, over the last two years:
Patrick Cantlay
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
Viktor Hovland
Rory McIlroy
Jordan Spieth
Seamus Power
Justin Thomas
Tommy Fleetwood
Matt Fitzpatrick
Tyrrell Hatton
Sungjae Im
Rasmus Hojgaard
Justin Rose
Thomas Detry
We can also look at performance versus baseline to see who shows the largest increase in performance compared to their typical scores:
Matthieu Pavon
Thomas Detry
Rasmus Hojgaard
Robert McIntyre
Kevin Yu
Ben Griffin
Brandon Wu
Eric Cole
Seamus Power
Nicolai Hojgaard
Byeong Hun An
Cam Davis
Jordan Spieth
Brian Harman
Nick Taylor
Overlap List: names that show up on both lists include Jordan Spieth, Rasmus Hojgaard, and Thomas Detry.
Go Boom or Bust with Jordan Spieth
The Texan arrives with top 5s in three of his last seven starts. Over that same stretch, he also has three missed cuts. Spieth twirled a T-10 finish at the Renaissance Club last year. His most recent win came at Harour Town Golf Links, another coastal track. He’s bagged five top-10 finishes in nine career starts at The Open so he’s proven that links golf really fits his game. It makes sense when you consider how much he relies on creativity, not stock shots. Consider plugging in Spieth this week if you need some top-5 equity and are willing to take on the missed-cut risk.
Harman sneaking into form
Don’t look now but Brian Harman arrives with back-to-back top 10s, snapping out of a mid-season slump. He did have three top 10s on his season resume before that, all on coastal courses, but was slumping overall with 11-of-13 stroke-play results landing outside the top 40 before his recent surge. Harman went ice cold with the putter at this event last year to miss the cut but could be a sneaky value option this time around, given his recent resurgence.