Bolton: Fantasy roadmap for Scotland swing starts with Wyndham Clark, Rory McIlroy at Genesis Scottish Open

It’s time to buckle up for wall-to-wall PGA TOUR action across this fortnight. With two tournaments in each of the next two weeks, fans can gorge pretty much around the clock, although only the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open Championship contribute to PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. You’ll have to settle for consuming the ISCO Championship and the Corales Puntacana Championship in the betting markets.

That segues into the annual reminder in this space. The tournament at The Renaissance Club this week is scheduled to begin on Thursday at 2:00 a.m. ET in the United States. That’s 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday (today!) on the West Coast and 8:00 p.m. in Hawaii, which is within an hour after sunset. As if prime time in the islands wasn’t already special.

So, if you normally wait until Thursday mornings to lock in your roster, you’ll be way too late both this week and next. While being on time is part of the game, I’ve always advised leagues with commissioners to do your group a solid and send a reminder message via text and/or email. As shocking as it might seem, not everyone will read this gaming service announcement.

Now, while the Genesis Scottish Open presents a unique blend of the elite talent from the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour, it needs to be kept in its place in our universe. This is to say that it’s not a Signature Event. If the winner is among your starters in the final round, you will be rewarded with “only” 50 FedExCup bonus points (or 100 if he’s your captain). That matches what Chris Gotterup received for his title both at The Renaissance Club last year and at TPC Deere Run on Sunday for winning the John Deere Classic.

With The Open Championship and three FedExCup Playoffs events still to come in Segment 3 – each awarding 75 FedExCup bonus points via the boosted distributions for the classifications associated with those competitions – the Genesis Scottish Open sits a modest T5 in potential bonus points among the remaining eight stops of the fantasy season. So, only if you need multiple captains to win to sniff your league lead should you begin to ignore responsible roster management to which current contenders are adhering in their pursuit to be crowned champion.

For the rest of us, because the DP World Tour is represented by at least 75 of its members at The Renaissance Club, pour over the possibilities among them to help cover the starts you want to save the notables in the field for the premier stops on the horizon. A great place to begin is with the recent two-time winner who sits both third in the Race to Dubai and No. 15 in my Power Rankings.

The through line since the season started is to make Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy your captain when you roster either. Both are in the field this week, and as long as both can give it a go next week, you’ll see them again at Royal Birkdale. Toss in the possibility of three appearances each in the playoffs, and you won’t have enough fantasy starts to cover for both. However, if you stick with the plan that either is your captain, you can stretch them pretty far before you can’t play either. So if you haven’t already, map out the final five expected stops with either at the helm. Although it’s always crucial to remain fluid, that’s the outline that will help you determine your path forward.

I’m always happy to dive into your details, so reach out publicly or privately to me on X.

Captain

Rory McIlroy ... In a perfect world, this weekly column would have one version for pacers and another for chasers. I happen to be in third place in my little league, so I can’t sit on McIlroy as a defensive mechanism. Contributing to that calculus is that he sat out the opening leg of the FedExCup Playoffs last year, so I don’t want to be left with a start for which he won’t be my captain. He hasn’t announced any plans to rest again in the Playoffs this year, but with the traditional stroke-play format having returned to the TOUR Championship, we’re compelled to respect the possibility.

Other considerations

• Matt Fitzpatrick ... Atop my Power Rankings and winning at life with his first child on the way. He’s the ideal pivot from Scheffler and McIlroy.
• Wyndham Clark ... Dude is on a heater, so hop aboard. The No. 2 in my Power Rankings has been making it look easy. The confidence is back; he’s gone on extended stretches of form like this before, and he’s 4-for-4 at The Renaissance Club with no worse than a T25.

Rounding out the roster

There’s going to be some crossover as usual with my charges on my targets’ rosters, but I learned long ago not to panic. Utilizing non-members this week and next helps in the long-term, so I trust the process across Segment 3. We also cannot forget that there’s a cut this week, so reliable pieces are necessary.

My starters

• Tyrrell Hatton
• Robert MacIntyre
• Rory McIlroy (C)
• Jon Rahm

My bench

• Wyndham Clark (1)
• Matt Fitzpatrick (2)

Careful

For almost every tournament, a usually impressive subset of the field warrants avoiding, and it might be represented in my Power Rankings which is not written in the context of any fantasy golf format. In this section, I single out who demands pause and why.

• Shane Lowry ... Finished T12 in his only trip to The Renaissance Club in 2023, but he arrives without a top 20 in 11 consecutive starts. Yet, he’s the 11th-most owned at 26.6% at last check.
• Patrick Reed ... Since a T10 at the PGA Championship, he’s just 1-for-3 with a T45 in the Italian Open on the DP World Tour. Now he’s making his debut at The Renaissance Club where the large greens reduce the impact of his touch around them.
• Si Woo Kim ... He’s been as valuable as any non-winner this season, but after swerving around him at the Travelers Championship (T44), where his record already wasn’t impressive, it’s time to repeat the gesture at The Renaissance Club, where he’s 2-for-3 and without a top-25 finish despite a final-round 62 in 2024.

• Patrick Cantlay ... This isn’t so much a warning as it is a reminder that he’ll be coveted in the playoffs, so stash him away. After a T14 at the Travelers, he’s 41st in the FedExCup.

Returning to competition

C.T. Pan ... Take two. Committed to The Blue Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. He had returned to action two weeks ago at the circuit’s Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS but withdrew after opening with a 2-over 73. It was his first meaningful work since having surgery on his left wrist, 14 months ago. Continue to monitor as the PGA TOUR winner has 19 starts on a Major Medical Extension when he gets back to the big leagues.

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