Fantasy Golf: PGA DFS Scottish Open Picks and Preview (FREE)

Don’t forget to check out all of our free Fantasy Golf: PGA DFS Picks and content on Awesemo.com this week for the 3M, including Jason Rouslin’s First Cut and Ben Rasa’s Above the Cut. As always, we have Awesemo’s rankings and projections for premium members. Not a member, sign up for Awesemo+ HERE.

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Don’t forget to check out The Strategy Show for the John Deere Classic with Timothy Frank and Ben Rasa!

PGA Euro Tour Intro

Whether this is your first time, or you are an established vet, playing Euro tour I thought I’d cover just a few things before we get into this weeks tournament since we will be playing for a million dollars over in Northern Ireland next week.

Most weeks on the European tour set up very similar to this week’s John Deere Classic in term’s of field strength. Maybe ten or fifteen top 100 players in the world compete on a week-to-week basis. However, they have the “Rolex Series Events” throughout the year: seven of them, which typically draw much better fields. TV Coverage is quite a joy. Pretty much everything from the announcers, to showing more golf shots seems to be just a bit better across the pond. Also, it’s nice to wake up Sunday morning to a golf sweat, it really gets the day moving, and is typically done by 11:30 EST.

Lastly, a quick note on strategy, because there are a ton of players that likely no-one has ever heard off, ownership is typically very concentrated, thus creates a ton of golfers under 5% owned this week and probably a few more than usual that is owned over 15%.

The Scottish Open 

It’s been two years now since one of the most fun trips of my life, the FanDuel golf experience to Scotland. A week-long jaunt across the pond that featured golf, whiskey, and castles…What more could you ask for? Joining me on the journey was our friends here at @Awesemo, which is where it all began. The trip concluded by getting to play the Scottish Open course the day after the tournament, where the starter wouldn’t let me play the back tees. I was PISSED. Proceeded to birdie the first hole, and then play the back tees from then on out and shot 84… You try and find your ball in that gorse! If you do, good luck getting it out.

Anyways, onto this year’s tournament.

For the first time, Scottish Open is heading to the Renaissance Club, located on the coast of North Berwick (near Gullane Golf course the host of last years Scottish Open). Let’s take a look at some course facts before we move onto a little bit more commentary. Just a quick note on the weather too before we move on because the course sits right on the coast, the weather can change in an instant. It’s normal for the afternoons to get very windy as the day goes on.

Course Facts & Hole Dispersion:

• Par 72
• 7130 Yards
• Tom Doak Design

Par 4s

2. 475 Yards

4. 418 Yards

6. 444 yards

8. 448 yards

10. 433 yards

11. 444 yards

14 422 yards

14 338 yards

18 483 yards

Par 5s

1. 594 Yards

7. 543 Yards

12. 600 Yards

16. 561 Yards

Par 3s

3.204 Yards

5. 161 Yards

9. 218 Yards

15 147 Yards

17. 203 Yards

Course Commentary:

This is something we don’t see, maybe at all on the PGA Tour Rotonda. We’ve got four par 5s, and five par 3s equaling the par 71. If we get a par-71 on the PGA Tour it’s always three par 5s and the standard four par 3s and 11 par 4s, so we already have something unique. The par 3s  also blend nice yardages so players won’t be hitting the same club on them.

From my research, it looks like we should get about 3-5 holes on the coastline with dense Scottish Forrests on the interior of the course. If you are into aesthetically pleasing links golf, this week viewing will undoubtedly be for you.

Format

A full field of 156 players with a cut after 36 holes, the top-65*****, and ties make the weekend.

Player Picks & Preview 

DraftKings gives us an $8 contest with a top prize of $10K and a GTD prize pool of 50K! Not bad for a Euro Tour event.

Player Focus

*DK price

Favorites ($10,000+)

Four PGA Tour stars head across the pond a week early, as has been accustom for Matt Kuchar and Rickie Fowler over the last few years, and they are joined by Euro Tour vet Henrik Stenson. It’s likely that deciding between these four golfers this week is going to be a matter of salary, and can you fit Rory/Rickie/Kuchar in. I wouldn’t be surprised if JT is very highly owned, given his history of ownership at these price levels. Plus this is a Euro Tour event, so I can’t imagine people won’t flock to him at that price.

My Pick(s):

Obviously, I like all of the top four guys; it would be silly, not too. I will try to get Rory in as much as I can, not so much Rickie though. I do like Kuchar a bit more than Fowler, and It’s likely I play Stenson the least.

Secondary ($8000-$9000)

A couple more PGA Tour regulars including Kevin Kisner and Scottish native Russel Knox are the highlights in this loaded price range. Other familiar names like Rafa Cabera Bello, Matt Wallace, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Ty Hatton are all teeing it up this week. Erik Van Rooyen who became very popular over the last month or so playing well in the majors and RBC Canadian Open is priced reasonably this week coming off of a missed cut.

Euro Tour vets Bernd Weisberger and Andy Sullivan are both coming off of an impressive performance at last week’s Irish Open, both finishing runner-up, and are priced appropriately after the excellent finish. Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Jorge Campillo also nabbed top-10’s earning them a spot in next week’s Open Championship and have been priced up accordingly.

My Pick(s):

I am probably not alone in liking Erik Van Rooyen this week: the price is too good to pass up with his upside. Links golf certainly presents an added variability to results, and it shows with Erik as he has plenty of missed cuts, but also a fourth at last years Irish Open. Because of that I may stay away from him in cash situations and go to Russell Knox. 

Value Section ($7000-$7900) 

Still a few PGA Tour normals in this section, all who have qualified for next week’s Open Championship including, Andrew Putnam, Jimmy Walker, C.T. Pan and Branden Grace. Another favorite of mine, at least from earlier in the season, Lucas Bjerregaard is playing this week but has fallen on hard times missing four straight cuts and five out of his last six.

Third-round leader of last week’s Irish Open Robert Rock along with Paul Waring, Gavin Green, Edoardo Molinari, and Zander Lombard are all priced up due to their top 10’s last week. Grant Forrest also gets a $900 price increase after his 14th place finishes a previous week after being $6200 for the Irish Open last week.

My Pick(s):

Oliver Wilson certainly won’t be a sexy pick this week, the 38-year-old from England, however, has endured himself an excellent season. He also qualified for next week’s Open Championship by finishing fourth back at the Joburg Open over the winter. He’s also put together a nice stretch of golf recently making five straight cuts in the last seven weeks including a 19th place finish at last weeks Irish Open. I also like Andrew Putnam quite a bit and might be one of my top plays on the slate.

PGA DFS: Deep Shots ($6000-$7000) 

Sadly no PGA Tour friends to fall back on in this price category, but if you like to research this is where you should spend most of your time. There might be a few familiar names like David Lipsky, and Sean Crocker or vets like Alexander Levy and Soren Kjeldsen. Plenty of other names enjoying a good season on the European Tour including Kurt Kitayama, Mashiro Kawamura, Guido Migliozzi, and more recently Niklas Lemke. 

My Pick(s):

I will be playing all of the players in the bold and a couple of more including Jack Singh Brar, Benjermain Herbert, and Scott Jamieson. 

Final:

If you genuinely enjoy watching golf, and you’ve got a sweat, then I assure you that your Sunday Morning will be better. The next six days are fast and furious, as we shift six hours ahead for everything. Enjoy the ride!

Until next time,

Cheers,

Jason