The Genesis Scottish Open
Personally, I love watching these next two weeks of golf overseas in Europe because it takes a different kind of skill set to win across the pond. As we’ve seen in the past between the wind, rain, and course setup the player who plays fearlessly and with the most imagination has the best shot of winning. This instantly brings me back to Rory McIlroy’s final shot at last year's Genesis Open. On the final hole, Rory hit a bullet 2 iron from 200 yards away to 15 feet away from the cup. It’s that kind of shot shaping and creativity that leads to victories in that style of golf. The other great aspect of back to back weeks in Europe is the strength of the fields. Since the Scottish Open is right before The Open, the field is not only major like, but the vibes feel like a major as well. Golf fans essentially get back to back major feels, but before we get deeper into the next two weeks of golf, as of yesterday Keegan Bradley is the 2025 Team USA Ryder Cup Captain.
I love this decision, for a couple of reasons. Off that bat, he was snubbed last year and Team USA got demolished. Now with that being said he’s just one guy, but I truly believe he was playing much better than JT was last year and deserved it just on merit alone, but that was then and this is now. Hopefully, that sparks a little bit more fire in him and the rest of the team. Secondly, I think he will pick players based on merit and move away from the boys’ club that the Ryder Cup team has turned into. With that being said there is still tons of time to grab points before the selection process begins next summer. While the Keegan selection was well-liked, many were confused as to why Tiger wasn’t selected. Personally, I believe he was asked first, but he had to decline due to a conflict of interests but that is purely speculation at this point. I’m sure as time goes on Tiger will release a statement regarding the situation. There will be a time that Tiger will be selected, but that will only happen when the time is right for him. It would have been really cool to see Tiger as the Team Captain at Bethpage Black, would have brought back some really cool memories for Tiger. Nevertheless, the team will be built with the guys that are playing the best and we might actually give the Europeans a challenge this time around.
Before we get too deep into the Ryder Cup stuff, we have two great weeks ahead of us starting in Scotland with the Scottish Open. This is a tough week to pick in my opinion because certain guys just don’t play well in the true links style setting and it's much more challenging because it's a totally different style of golf than what they are conditioned to seeing week in and week out. However, this week is all Viktor Hovland. I keep saying he’s due and that thought stays. Down years by PGA tour standards happen so often for top ranked players because it's hard to keep up that level of play. However the next two weeks will be familiar golf for Viktor, he's used to playing links style and last year he finished T-25 in the Scottish Open and t-13 in The Open so he's very comfortable with European style golf. (Mike)
As Mike alluded to, these are perhaps the best two weeks of golf in the PGA Tour season. Scotland is the best place to play and watch golf and you can sense that in the broadcasts. We get to see players face shots that they typically do not. We get to see so many different ways to play the same course compared to the bomb and gouge we see week in and week out in America. The fans are more respectful over there, of course, there are exceptions but the asshats who yell after every swing are few and far between over there. To me, these two weeks perfectly embody the respect and dignity golf should be played with.
That being said, The Scottish Open is Xander’s to lose. He has recently lost the fraud title and I would not be surprised to see him clip off a lot of wins now that he has his first major behind him. This is a tournament and a course that he plays well at and I expect this year to be the same story. Another name I like this week is Colin Morikawa. Elite iron players and short game studs really seem to have the upper hand over in Scotland. There are very few better players with their irons than Morikawa. He has not had as big of a season as maybe some were expecting, but he can use this week to propel him to a strong season finish. (Tyler)