The regular annual golf event sponsored by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour is the Scottish Open, and the 2026 edition will begin at 2 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday from North Berwick. It’s the fifth year in a row that both Tours have sponsored this, and it was a smart move to make back then, with many of the USA’s top players often heading to Europe anyway two weeks before the British Open, which is next week.
The most unusual thing in this year’s event is that there are seven players from LIV in the field, led by Jon Rahm from Spain, who entered the third place favorite to win it for the first time. And I think he will be very motivated to get a rare opportunity to face the stars from the PGA Tour for the first time outside of a major tournament since the 2023 Tour Championship. The majors are each run by independent organizations and have not placed any restrictions on LIV players like the PGA Tour.
There are seven LIV guys in this year’s field – also Tyrrell Hatton (who can see him competing), David Puig, Tom McKibbin, Laurie Canter, Victor Perez, Adrian Meronk – and they’re competing as members of the DP World Tour. Earlier this year, they paid outstanding fines for leaving LIV and were reinstated with a conditional DP World Tour membership.
It was very important for Rahm to get that in order to qualify for the 2027 Ryder Cup (he must be a member of the DP World Tour to play for Europe). Rahm actually talked about investing his money to keep LIV going. This is a great British Open tune-up for the LIV guys, especially because it’s a standard stroke-play event—72 holes and a 36-hole cutoff, things LIV doesn’t have.
Rahm dominated the LIV in 2026 with two wins and four runner-up finishes in nine but missed the US Open in his final international start. In two Scottish Open tournaments, he was seventh (2021) and T-55 (2022). I think the Top 10 at +155 works this week, but winning would not surprise me. Rahm’s eight PGA Tour wins in the decade are still the third most on Tour during that time. He is one of the last to exit Round 1 at 9:05 am ET on Thursday.
The top three in the event advance to next week’s British Open if they don’t qualify, and usually the winner will earn a PGA Tour card again for at least the 2027 season. But LIV guys don’t deserve that.
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Seven of the world’s top 10 combine it this week (Rahm is 11th). Is No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (+550) to finally win for the first time since January? He has come close many times, including four runner-up finishes since then – two out of the playoffs.
That finish is the second most played by a PGA Tour player since the 2021-22 season. Scheffler has yet to win this tournament but has been eighth and third in his past two outings. I wonder if he is more focused on defending his British Open title next week.
BetMGM is moderately exposed in Scotland to Scheffler as it is second in winnings (12.2%) and third in tickets (6.2%). It is heavily featured on Ludwig Aberg at +2200 as he leads in catches (20.1%) and tickets (7.5%).
Americans have won the event only six times, but the defending champion is American star Chris Gotterup … who also won Sunday’s John Deere Classic (35 players from there played here). The 26-year-old is +2700 again, which no one has ever done at the Scottish Open. Gotterup’s three wins this year are tied for the PGA Tour lead with England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (+2000).
The Couse’s biggest Horse is undoubtedly No. 2 Rory McIlroy (+1000), but coming from Northern Ireland you’d expect him to thrive in Scotland-like conditions. McIlroy has won (2023) the runner-up and is T-4 in his past three starts here and is the only golfer to finish in the top five in his past three. McIlroy is trying to become the first golfer in history to win the Masters and the Scottish Open in the same year.
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The Renaissance Club is hosting for the eighth year in a row and is ranked 70th at 7,282 yards. The course record is 61, which Gotterup tied in Round 2 last year. CBS has weekend coverage from 3 p.m. ET with the time difference.
