Of all the lead-ins to the majors, this one makes the most sense: playing some links golf before the week that everyone has to play a major on a links course. Plus, it helps get you ready for watching golf at some “unique” times, with tee times starting at 2:00 am ET tomorrow morning.

The only downer this week is that the weather appears to be pretty tame. Links golf in and of itself isn’t usually the toughest test, it’s that every single one of these courses seems to be built right next to the sea and can get nasty winds and rains at the drop of a hat, cranking up the difficulty.

Either way, I don’t think I’ll be up at 1 am (my time) to catch the very first groups off, but there is something great about being able to turn the golf on the moment you wake up.

A look at this week’s course, from Ron’s preview article:

The 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 as short as 5,400 yards, 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 menacing and strategically placed bunkers, thick rough and undulated greens, calm winds have led to low scores in the last two years here at The Renaissance Club. With the club exposed to the North Sea coastline, potential bad weather is the course’s best defense. As Doak himself said about the conditions, “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.”

In 2020, before the Genesis Scottish Open became a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, challenging wind and rain conditions held Aaron Rai’s winning score to just 11-under par. Similarly, in 2022, gusty coastal winds returned and limited Xander Schauffele to a winning total of only 7-under, evidence of how quickly this course can toughen up when the weather turns.

Said Schauffele on the conditions after his win, “I don’t know if it was love at first sight, but I did enjoy playing with winds blowing 30 (mph) and playing the ball down closer to the ground and you know, it being okay to sort of aim 100 yards away from a bunker you can’t go in and just play from there. It’s just fun golf for me.”

While the overall architecture of The Renaissance Club may be considered somewhat understated, the routing is exceptional, flowing seamlessly from inland heathland through wooded terrain, out to coastal dunes, and back again. This varied landscape not only adds visual interest but also strategic complexity. Additionally, the alternating orientation of holes ensures that players face shifting wind directions throughout the round, demanding constant adjustments and shot-making versatility.

The Renaissance Club isn’t a pure links course, with several tree-lined holes, pronounced undulations, and thick rough—especially on the back nine—adding a parkland-like dimension. Still, the course features a strong links-style identity. Set along the coastline and regularly exposed to wind, it’s built on firm fescue turf that produces fast-running fairways and tightly mown aprons leading into the greens. With no bunkers guarding the front of most greens, the ground game is not only viable but often the preferred strategy, encouraging bump-and-run shots. The course’s 83 bunkers, many of which are classic pot bunkers with deep, riveted faces, further reinforce its links heritage.

Key Stats

With the weather calm, this week’s “blueprint” should be focused around length off the tee, hitting the long irons well, and putting on these slow greens.

• SG: Off-the-Tee / Driving Distance:

  • Wide fairways favor long hitters, with recent leaderboards often featuring big hitters.

  • The average driving distance here is above the tour average.

• SG: Approach / Greens-in-Regulation / Proximity 175+ yards:

  • Large, undulating greens demand precise iron play, especially from long distances (69% of approaches from 150+ yards).

• SG: Putting / 3-Putt Avoidance / Putting on Slow Greens:

  • Slow, large greens (toughest inside 8 feet, with a 61% make rate compared to a 69% Tour average) require strong lag putting and precise short game.

• Bogey Avoidance / Par-4 Scoring (450–500 yards):

  • Six par-4s over 450 yards and three long par-5s emphasize minimizing mistakes.

• Links Experience / Course History:

  • Players with strong Open Championship or DP World Tour links form (e.g., Dunhill Links, Irish Open) often excel.

I built a model using more putting than I normally care to, but I just don’t think I can go to battle with some of the bad putters over here as we’ve seen that bite even some elite golfers. Members can see the entire model here.

Betting

A slightly smaller card (because I’m also playing Kentucky and will have a handful of outrights there), but mostly guys that either modeled well or just have the skillset. Abergs’ price is just a bit too long, even with the bummer form for most of the year. Fitzpatrick obviously fits the course well and is rounding into form at the right time. Burns and Clark should be kept in contention with their short games, and I like the ball striking prowess of the eldest Hojgaard, especially considering he placed quite highly here back in 2023.

Ludvig Aberg +2500
Matt Fitzpatrick +4000
Sam Burns +4298
Nicolai Hojgaard +9000
Wyndham Clark +11509

Weather

My main takeaway is that the official forecast is in Celsius, but for some reason, the wind speed is still mph. Do they not use kilometers, or knots, or fathoms??? Not much in the way of rain chances outside of the possibility for Saturday afternoon/evening. I’ll just assume that 23 degrees is temperate

Either way, on Windfinder Thursday is looking like the only day with any sort of winds whipping around, and only for part of the day. Tee times range from 7 am to around 2:30 pm local time, so there may be a bit of an advantage to playing later in the day as thing calm down a touch.

ISCO Championship

Apologies that we don’t have a full course preview on the site for this one; that’s something we will certainly remedy next year. For now, a quick look at the alt event in Kentucky (formerly the Barbasol, formerly played at Keene Trace).

Location: Hurstbourne Country Club, Louisville, Kentucky.
Purse: $4 million ($720,000 to the winner).

• Designer: Chic Adams (1967), renovated by Keith Foster (2005, 2023–2024).

• Layout: Par 70, 7,056 yards.

  • 2 par-5s, 12 par-4s, 4 par-3s.

  • Fairways: Meyer Zoysiagrass, 25–30 yards wide (narrower than recent PGA Tour courses like TPC Deere Run or Detroit Golf Club).

  • Rough: Kentucky Bluegrass with Fine Fescue, 4–6 inches deep.

  • Greens: A1/A4 Bentgrass, ~4,750 sq.ft. average, 11ft on stimpmeter.

  • Bunkers: 68, reshaped by Foster for strategic emphasis.

  • Water Hazards: In play on 6 holes.

• Course Characteristics:

  • Classical, tree-lined parkland design

  • Foster’s renovations widened fairways, removed excess trees for better sightlines, and enhanced green complexes with tiers, ridges, false fronts, and run-off areas.

  • Strategic test rewarding shot-shaping and course management over raw power (but still easy).

  • Small, contoured greens make lag putting and scrambling critical, with short-sided misses punished by deep bunkers and run-offs.

  • Zoysiagrass fairways may produce “flyers,” a challenge noted at similar venues (e.g., TPC Southwind, East Lake).

So, the test is not too different than the past two weeks, with maybe less of an emphasis on distance? I made a model for this one as well, much simpler and dumbed down, mostly sticking to high-level stats without getting too in the weeds since it’s a course we haven’t seen.

Cam Champ +2942
Carson Young +4749
Chan Kim +6000
Adam Svensson +7500
Harry Higgs +8352
Davis Bryant +10000

News and Notes

• I love a stadium hole, always will

• Maybe not super PGA related, but I’ve watched this golf fight at least 20 times. Most filmed fights on the course suck and don’t end up with many clean punches thrown. It turns out this is because most golf course fights don’t involve a former NHL enforcer.

• A nice read for those of you staying up late to catch the start of golf tonight.

As always, bet responsibly, have fun, and enjoy golf in the home of golf.

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