Scotland + Kentucky

Best Bets for both continents

Author

Andy Molitor
July 08, 2026

Great week: two tourneys (one you can watch), and honestly, they did a great job of upgrading courses for the alt event in Kentucky (moved last year from Keene Trace).

Plus, with this Links-ish stop, maybe the only real good “warm-up” event ahead of a major, which is why we get such a damn good field for a place with a smaller purse than the Rocket Mortgage.

We’ll focus mostly on the Scottish, but we do have some free content on the site for the ISCO as well if you’re going to double dip this week.

Renaissance Club

Designed with extreme versatility to accommodate Scotland’s unpredictable winds, The Renaissance Club can stretch to 7,237 yards for the Genesis Scottish Open but also play much shorter thanks to a wide range of tee box options. It’s a par 70 layout with with a unique mixture of ten par-4s, five par-3s, and three par-5s. Overall, it is a hybrid of parkland, heathland, and links-style courses. The layout was carved through a forest of evergreens and has an undulating sand-based terrain that includes ancient rock walls, ocean cliffs, and forested woodlands.

From an agronomic standpoint, the Renaissance Club was seeded with red fescue—the most common and traditional grass choice in Scotland, known for its firm texture, drought tolerance, and suitability for fast, links-style playing conditions. Fairways, rough, and greens are all 100% fescue. The rough is much thicker here compared to the wispiness of other links-style courses in Great Britain. As is typical for most coastal courses, the greens run very slow at around 10 on the stimpmeter. They are cut at a minimum of 5 mm. Most PGA Tour greens are typically mown to around 2.5 mm, producing much faster putting surfaces than those often found at The Renaissance Club.

With the greens playing noticeably slower this week, many PGA Tour players accustomed to faster speeds will need to make significant adjustments to both pace and stroke. Said Rory McIlroy on putting this week, “It’s quite an adjustment going from the greens that we usually putt on in America to the greens here. They are much slower, and when they are much slower, you don’t have to read as much break into putts and everything like that.”

Overall, the course has a great blend of long and short par-4s and 5s. Three of the four par-5s play over 575 yards and, dependent on the wind and firmness of the fairways, can each be reached in two shots. Four of the five par-4s are over 475 yards while three of the par-3s play over 200 yards. Distance off the tee and accuracy with longer irons will be an advantage.

Even with strategically placed bunkers, thick rough and undulating greens, the weather remains the Renaissance Club’s greatest defense. Situated along Scotland’s North Sea coastline, the course is almost entirely exposed to the elements, allowing wind to dramatically alter how it plays from one day to the next. Course architect Tom Doak has long maintained that the ideal test comes when the conditions become firm and breezy, saying, “The windier and firmer it is, the more ball striking plays a premium. If it’s soft, it becomes more of a putting contest, and that’s not what the players want to see….

More Reading:

Betting

Close again last week with Suber and Blades, but funny enough, one of the favorites blasted through all of the mid-pack golfers who led going into Sunday.

Talked about some reasoning on the podcast this week, but obviously a different strategy going into the Scottish, which should be a little lower volatility than last week.

Scottish Outrights

Rory +1000
Ludvig +2200
Hatton +3600
Kitayama +6000

Marty Dou, bucket hat guy

ISCO Outrights

Rico Hoey +3600
Preston Stout +4679
Zecheng Dou +4500

See my full rankings for the week in my Rabbit Hole model

How to Watch

Television

  • Thursday, July 9: 11 am - 2 pm (Golf Channel)

  • Friday, July 10: 11 am - 2 pm (Golf Channel)

  • Saturday, July 11: 10 am - 12 pm (Golf Channel), 12 pm - 3 pm (CBS)

  • Sunday, July 12: 10 am - 12 pm (Golf Channel), 12 pm - 3 pm (CBS)

Streaming

  • Thursday, July 9: 3:15 am - 2 pm (ESPN+)

  • Friday, July 10: 3:15 am - 2 pm (ESPN+)

  • Saturday, July 11: 3:45 am - 3 pm (ESPN+), 12 pm - 3 pm (Paramount+)

  • Sunday, July 12: 6:30 am - 3 pm (ESPN+), 12 pm - 3 pm (Paramount+)

Featured-group, marquee-group, and featured-hole coverage streams all four rounds on PGA Tour Live (ESPN+), which carries exclusive early coverage each morning before the TV windows open. Paramount+ simulcasts the CBS weekend windows.

Bonus: how to watch (some) of the ISCO

Television

  • Thursday, July 9: 4 pm - 7 pm (Golf Channel)

  • Friday, July 10: 4 pm - 7 pm (Golf Channel)

  • Saturday, July 11: 4 pm - 7 pm (Golf Channel)

  • Sunday, July 12: 4 pm - 7 pm (Golf Channel)

Streaming

The ISCO Championship is an opposite-field event, so there is no PGA Tour Live (ESPN+) coverage this week. There should be some coverage on the NBC Sports App.

Weather

Cool at times, with some winds that aren’t really too wild for this part of the world. Maybe some adverse conditions on Friday afternoon affecting later tee times in round 2, but similar winds for most of the first couple of days.

Also: check out our look at the weather in Kentucky

News and Notes

Not a big Bryan Bros guy, but I do love the addition of a Monday Q

Speaking of things I like: bunkers that actually penalize you

Finally, something worth reading. Falls under a “today I learned”:

As always, bet responsibly, have fun, and enjoy the double dip