By: @Ryan_Humphries on Twitter & LineStar Chat

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Tournament & Field 🏆

We enter into one of the most unique weeks on the PGA Tour calendar. For the third time since the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour created an alliance in 2020, the two tours will come together to co-sanction an event. The Scottish Open became the first co-sanctioned tournament in 2022 and it is back again at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. Each tour will supply 75 of its top players. With a few other golfers playing on special exemption status, that will bring the overall field up to 156 players. The 152nd Open Championship is one week away and many top golfers have chosen to make their way across the pond a week early in preparation. As a result, this event will boast a strong field that is headlined by 13 of the top 20 ranked golfers in the world and 71 of the top 100. The standard PGA cut rule will be in effect with the top 65 golfers (including ties) after 36 holes earning passageway into weekend play. Golfers will be competing for a slice of the $9 million purse and some valuable FedEx Cup points are also up for grabs. There are a few spots still available for next week’s Open Championship for golfers who are not already qualified. Needless to say, there is plenty to play for this week!

Reminder: This event will start earlier than usual. DFS contests will lock with the first tee time at 2:00 am ET on Thursday “morning” which will be 7:00 am local time at the event.

The Course Preview ⛳

The Renaissance Club

Par 70 | 7,237 Yards

Greens: Fescue

Comp Courses: Royal Portrush, Kiawah Island (Ocean), Shinnecock Hills

The Renaissance Club has been home to the Scottish Open for each of the previous five years so there will be a mix of players with a few years of course experience while others will be making their competitive debut here. Since this wasn’t an official PGA event prior to 2022, many of the DPWT golfers will tend to have an edge over the PGA golfers in the course history department. Some may also remember this course playing as a Par 71 in 2022 but the former Par 5 7th hole was shortened to around 500 yards before last year’s Scottish Open, and will now play as a long Par 4.

The layout of the Renaissance Club falls under the category of a parklands-style links course. It features an unusual hole distribution for a Par 70 with ten Par 4s, three Par 5s, and five Par 3s. Fescue grass is featured from tee to green and the fairways are surrounded by long rough that will measure between three and five inches. While the rough can look menacing, it’s more important to be long off of the tee than accurate — missed fairways will not be extremely detrimental in the long run (for many golfers). Water does not pose a threat here but the 83 bunkers scattered throughout the grounds will provide a notable layer of defense. The green complexes are massive and possess some noticeable undulation. They can be difficult to hold on approach with any consistency but when it comes to the actual green speeds, they are expected to run at moderate speeds, slower than the greens we typically see on the PGA Tour.

Winning scores over the last five years have ranged from 7-under (2022) to 22-under (2019). In general, this is a scorable course that can be overpowered, but it is highly sensitive to winds due to its coastal location. As long as wind speeds stay at moderate to slower speeds, golfers should have no major problems sinking some birdies, especially the golfers who possess an elite driver. I have also read reports that, due to an abundance of rain that has fallen in the area in previous weeks, the course will play softer/easier than what we’ve seen in some previous years. We’ll dive further into this week’s weather forecast below, but at first glance, wind speeds do look to be very tame over the next several days, so golfers will be open to attacking this course.

This will be an excellent warm-up for golfers competing at Royal Troon next week and building DFS lineups with this talent-rich field that includes some less familiar DPWT names should be a fun time! Best of luck!

Weather & Tee Times ⛅

(Click the images above to view the most up-to-date forecast)

Thursday AM: Wind speeds will generally hover around, or slightly above, 10 mph with 15 mph gusts. Rain is expected at times, but nothing that should lead to a stoppage in play. Cool temps in the 50s all day.

Thursday PM: Winds drop down around midday to 5-10 mph sustained with no significant gusts. It’ll be cloudy, but it’s generally expected to be dry.

Friday AM: The sun peeks out and it’ll be dry with winds generally under 10 mph for much of the morning.

Friday PM: Winds pick up slightly, but still basically around 10 mph all afternoon.

Weekend: In typical Scottish fashion, there won’t be much sunshine and rain could come into play at times over the weekend but, overall, things should be mostly dry and winds will rarely exceed far beyond 10 mph, aside from the occasional gust.

⚖️ Weather Verdict: The Thursday PM/Friday AM wave will see the best conditions on both days before the cut line is decided, but the AM/PM wave isn’t dealing with harsh conditions by any means either. I wouldn’t rule out any golfers strictly because they’re in the AM/PM wave but, should the current forecast hold, it may be worth “stacking” the PM/AM wave in some lineups since there could be a marginal advantage.

Scottish Open Tee Times

Key Stats to Consider 📊

1. Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (SG: App + SG: OTT) | 30%

2. Birdie or Better % | 20%

3. Par 4 Average | 20%

4. Par 5 Average | 10%

5. Strokes Gained: Around the Green | 10%

6. Driving Distance| 10%

PGA Tour Stats Page

Note: Due to all of the DP World Tour players competing this week, roughly half of the field does not have any (or enough) PGA rounds played to qualify for strokes gained data. This will certainly cause my player model to have a bias towards the PGA Tour regulars so keep that in mind when looking at any stat-related info/rankings in this newsletter.

Scottish Open DFS Model Standouts 🏅

Below are the top 25 ranked golfers in both my overall model and my key stats model. Below that are the top 25 leaders in average finishing position over the last five and last ten starts. The players ranked on these lists do not necessarily mean they are the top golfers I’m targeting for this week's event, but many of these guys should no doubt be favorable DFS options.

Overall Model Rank: A golfer’s ranking (within the current field) in my personal DFS model, which weighs all of the key stats listed above in this newsletter, as well as factors like course history, recent form, recent average fantasy scoring results, and odds to win.

Key Stat Rank: Provides a golfer’s overall rank (within the current field) in my "key stats only" model, which considers only the key stats listed in the section above with the specified percentage weights allocated towards each statistic.

Scottish Open DFS Cheat Sheet📑

Click the Cheat Sheet above for the higher-quality direct image link

Alternative Cheat Sheet Direct Image Link

Cheat Sheet QR Code:

That will do it for our PGA preview! Best of luck this week and, once again, feel free to hit me up in the LineStar chat or on Twitter @Ryan_Humphries with any questions.