Last week’s John Deere Classic proved to be both enjoyable and profitable for followers of this column. The final round was stress-free with the impressive 25-1 shot Davis Thompson setting up an impregnable lead early on and two of our other selections, Ben Griffin (60-1) and Aaron Rai (20-1) battling their way into T5th and T7th places respectively.
You might be interested to know that Thompson stayed in a nearby Airbnb property named ‘Trophy House’, where the winners of the two previous year’s renewals, JT Poston (2022) and Sepp Straka (2023) had also been accommodated and with Thompson even sleeping in the same room! There could be great demand for that lodging place next year.
Looking ahead, the 25-year-old from Atlanta is clearly going to be a force to be reckoned with. Other career debut winners at Deere Run include the likes of Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau and Brian Harman, each of whom went on, as we all know, to win Majors.
Davis has joined a large group of Americans who have travelled across the pond for the Genesis Scottish Open, traditionally a warm-up for next week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon. Warm-up is an accurate description because only three Americans—Fowler, Mickelson, and Schauffler — have lifted this week’s trophy in the past 26 years.The Renaissance Club is a links course located alongside the Firth of Forth in picturesque North Berwick. It’s a Par-70 set-up and, as such, favours golfers with a strong short game. It is not nearly as difficult as many links courses, but the heavily contoured greens will take their toll on those who tend to wobble with the flat stick.
With all this in mind, here are my (American-free) MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (Name and Current Price) selections for the Genesis Scottish Open.
Ideally, bets should be placed by 7.15 am on Thursday.
TOM KIM 28/1: The South Korean youngster is a natural on links courses. An impressive second in last year’s Open Championship at Hoylake, his course form here is impeccable, 3rd on debut in 2022 and sixth last year.
LUDVIG ABERG 16/1: The Swedish sensation is 12th in the key category of strokes-gained tee to green and third in total driving. He has been knocking on the door for a while and this just may be the week when Sesame obliges.
AARON RAI 40/1: The 2020 winner here has been in wonderful form recently (14-19-2 and last week’s 7); the Englishman ticks more stats boxes than any other player this week and looks sure to figure again.
TOM MCKIBBIN 70/1: A real outlier, the 21-year-old Northern Irishman is a star in the making. Having grown up competing on links courses in his native country, he has developed rapidly as a professional and has been top 10 in three of his 4 tournaments on the DP World (formerly European) Tour.
MATT FITZPATRICK 28/1: The 2022 U.S Open winner never really kicked on afterwards and is not in great current form. But there have been glimpses, like his 5th at the Memorial. He loves it here (2nd in 2022 and 6th last year) so must be on our list.
ROBERT MCINTYRE 33/1: Our Canadian Open hero has been a bit in and out since but he was 2nd here last year after two previous top-20s in the tournament. The Oban golfer will be trying extra hard to put the trophy on a Scottish mantlepiece!
THOMAS DETRY 60/1: Another outlier and the third Tom on our list, the Frenchman has always looked comfortable here. He finished second three years ago and has four top-ten finishes on the PGA Tour, including a fourth in the PGA Championship.
Bet 1 point each-way on all and after 3 rounds, beware of XANDER SCHAUFFELE 15/2 and RORY MCILROY 8/1.
Good Luck – Sandy Lane
PROFIT OR LOSS FROM THIS POST 44.6 pts