Before they head to Royal Liverpool for the Open Championship, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour will be hosting the Genesis Scottish Open this week. This will be the second year in a row that this event has been co-sanctioned by the two tours and the fifth straight year that the Renaissance Club (par 70, 7,237 yards, fescue greens) in North Berwick, Scotland, has hosted the Scottish Open. Xander Schauffele (-7) is the defending champion of this tournament, and there will be a normal cut of top 65 and ties after the first 36 holes. Let’s look at Stokastic’s Top Golfers Tool to find the best leverage PGA DFS picks for the Genesis Scottish Open.
Leverage scores compare a golfer’s ownership to their salary-weighted odds to finish in the top-6 of the tournament. It is one of many metrics in Stokastic’s tools that use the fantasy point and ownership projections to find the top PGA DFS plays each week.
PGA DFS Picks & Leverage: 2023 Genesis Scottish Open
Located near the coast of the North Sea, the Renaissance Club is a wind-susceptible links course that is home to tight fairways, thick rough, 83 bunkers and massive fescue greens. To succeed at this par 70, golfers need to be crafty short-game players and in strong form with irons. During his win at the Renaissance Club a year ago, Schauffele finished the tournament seventh in both strokes gained on approach and strokes gained around the green. Of the four Scottish Open champions at this track, two have ranked top 7 in strokes gained on approach and three have been top 15 in strokes gained around the green during their victories at the Renaissance Club. Great par-4 players also need to be a main focus this week, as for three years running, the winner at the Renaissance Club has finished the event top 8 in par-4 efficiency.
Jordan Spieth
Stokastic PGA Optimizer Leverage Ranks: DraftKings: 28th, FanDuel: 17th
With Stokastic projecting him for single-digit ownership on both DraftKings and FanDuel, Spieth is an elite GPP option this week. He finished 10th in his first attempt at the Renaissance Club last season and has always been excellent on links designs for the Open Championship, with five top-10 finishes – including a win in 2017 – in nine appearances at the major.
Spieth’s lack of popularity is due to him coming off a missed cut at the U.S. Open. However, this was over a month ago, and he only missed the weekend by one shot. Furthermore, Spieth finished top 10 in six of his previous 11 starts prior to this. He has five top-10 finishes in his last 11 starts before a major and should get back on track with a high finish this weekend before heading to Royal Liverpool.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Stokastic PGA Optimizer Leverage Ranks: DraftKings: 30th, FanDuel: 18th
As a result of missing two of his last three cuts, Stokastic is forecasting Bezuidenhout for very low ownership on both DraftKings and FanDuel, making this an ideal time to attack him. Bezuidenhout is a crafty player around the greens – he ranks 45th in strokes gained around the green this season – and the Renaissance Club is the perfect place for him to get back on track. Bezuidenhout has advanced to the weekend at three of the four Scottish Opens played at the Renaissance Club, most notably with a 16th last season.
Additionally, he has made two of three cuts at the Open Championship, showing his prowess for links golf. Bezuidenhout brings much better upside that his current price tags suggest and is a must-have for GPPs this week.
Jordan L. Smith
Stokastic PGA Optimizer Leverage Ranks: DraftKings: 52nd, FanDuel: 19th
Smith placed 24th at last year’s Scottish Open – marking his second made cut at the Renaissance Club over the last three years – and returns to the par 70 in promising form this week. He has made four straight cuts worldwide, including a 20th at the U.S. Open last month, in which Smith ranked sixth in strokes gained on approach among the major field at Los Angeles Country Club.
The DP World Tour member leads the circuit in greens in regulation percentage this season, and not only is Smith vastly underpriced for his chances of making the cut, but he is also expected to come with single-digit ownership on both sites, according to Stokastic’s PGA DFS projections.
Austin Eckroat
Stokastic PGA Optimizer Leverage Ranks: DraftKings: 3rd, FanDuel: 25th
Ignore that Eckroat is coming off a missed cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and roll the dice on him in GPPs. Before that missed weekend in Detroit, Eckroat had made seven consecutive cuts. During this streak, five of Eckroat’s finishes were top-30s, including a runner-up finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson and a 10th at the U.S. Open.
This will be his Scottish Open debut, but Eckroat’s game sets up well for the Renaissance Club, as he ranks top 25 in both strokes gained around the green and par-4 efficiency over his last 24 rounds. He also ranks seventh in efficiency on 450- to 500-yard par 4’s during this time, which bodes extremely well for this week, as five of the 10 par 4’s at the Renaissance Club land in this range. A top-20 finish is in the realm of possibilities for Eckroat this weekend, and he is a tremendous sleeper for GPPs; Stokastic is slating him for minimal ownership on both DraftKings and FanDuel.
