Running with Rick: Expect another big week from Rory McIlroy at The Renaissance Club

The PGA TOUR’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour will be on full display at this week’s Genesis Scottish Open. The event will be co-sanctioned by both tours for the fifth consecutive year, bringing together the best that both circuits have to offer. It also serves as the last chance for those who haven’t already qualified to earn a spot in next week’s Open Championship.

All three of the 2026 major champions will be teeing it up this week, along with countless other stars, including the betting favorite, Scottie Scheffler. They will tackle The Renaissance Club, which has hosted the event for seven consecutive years leading into this edition.

By Scottish standards, this course is still in its infancy – constructed in 2008 and designed by Tom Doak. While the course is modern in age, it feels like it’s always been there on the seaside of East Lothian. It was intended to be a tribute to Scottish golf, so a links challenge and rugged terrain will still be the focus.

As with many courses in that region, the difficulty will be determined mostly by Mother Nature. If she stays away, scoring will be abundant. However, coastal winds could wreak havoc on play and significantly change the way the course plays. In the last four years alone, we have seen winning scores range from 7-under to 18-under thanks to the weather conditions.

I believe there to be plenty of suitors at the top of the board capable of claiming the hardware on Sunday afternoon, but I am enamored with Rory McIlroy. The 2023 Scottish Open champion has been delightful at The Renaissance Club in his career. He’s made five trips and is gaining 2.18 strokes per round during his career. That happens to be the best mark of anyone in this field.

However, his last three Genesis Scottish Open starts are even better. He’s garnered a win, a T2 and a T4 while piling up over three strokes per round in the process. As McIlroy prepares for this week, he won’t have to do much work with his driver, which is about as dialed in as one could hope. He’s gained multiple strokes off the tee in eight straight events, which has helped produce a runner-up finish at The Genesis Invitational, a win at the Masters and a T7 at the PGA Championship.

His volume of play is down, as he’s only teed it up 11 times worldwide this year, but his caliber of play is exactly where you’d expect it to be. That’s why Rory McIlroy is my pick to win the Scottish Open at +910 at DraftKings Sportsbook.

Stay hot, Wyndham Clark! The reigning U.S. Open champion found something in April and has refused to give it up. Since April 1, Clark has gained 2.20 strokes per round and has four top-10 finishes in those nine starts. Of course, he also has two wins during that stretch. If that wasn’t remarkable enough, his last five have been even better.

During the more recent stretch, he’s gaining 3.21 strokes per round, with a nearly even split of those strokes coming from his tee-to-green play and his putting prowess. I realize it’s still somewhat of a small sample, but the results are impossible to ignore.

As if that wasn’t enough, The Renaissance Club has been one of the better career venues for Clark, who has never finished worse than T25 in his four trips. His +1.69 SG/round rate is the third-best at any course that Clark has played at least three times in his career. The upside is there, which is why I’m firing on Clark to finish inside the top five this week at +550.

I’m trying to be early on Jake Knapp, whose season was derailed by an injury that cost him two months of action between the RBC Heritage and the U.S. Open. Knapp’s start to 2026 was immaculate. He kicked off the year with five straight top-15 finishes and had seven such finishes in his first eight starts before the injury.

He’s played twice – the U.S. Open and Travelers Championship – since returning to action. All reports are positive regarding the actual injury, but it’s clear that he’s still knocking off the rust. He played much better over the final three days of the Travelers, where he shot rounds of 67-64-69 and improved his position on the leaderboard.

With more practice time under his belt, Knapp will return to The Renaissance Club, where he finished T22 last year thanks to dominating performances with both his driver and putter. Talent is not an issue; we just need to get the timing right. I’m focused on a top-10 wager for Knapp this week, which can currently be found at +495 at DraftKings.

It was a rough patch of three straight missed cuts for Nicolai Højgaard between the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and the U.S. Open, but he found his form at the Travelers. He finished T14 and compiled an exciting stat profile, gaining 4.49 strokes from tee to green and picking up more than 2.5 strokes putting over the final three rounds. He went from T62 after the first round and improved his position after each subsequent round.

He already has four top-five finishes this year and has found success in Scotland during his career. He finished T4 here last year and T6 in 2023. That three-event “mini-slump” has been the outlier for Højgaard this season, and he’s primed for a great week. The value lies in the top-20 market for Højgaard, which can be found at +194.

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