Unlike many national open championships, the Scottish Open has found a permanent home over the last few years, and it has an agreement in place to stay put. The 2026 Genesis Scottish Open will take place this week at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, which is 20 miles east of Edinburgh. The tournament will tee off on Thursday, July 9 and will conclude on Sunday, July 12, weather permitting.

Let’s start the week with a look at the format, history, and course for the Genesis Scottish Open.

The Format of the Genesis Scottish Open

The PGA TOUR is in the United Kingdom for the first week of back-to-back tournaments on links-style courses. This week’s Scottish Open helps players get in the right time zone and the right frame of mind for next week’s The Open Championship. This week’s event is co-sanctioned by the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour, resulting in a uniwue full-field event with 75 players from the PGA TOUR and 75 players from the DP World Tour, along with some players included from the KPGA (Korean PGA), based on Genesis’ roots in that country.

While the field is a unique comingation, the four-round, stroke-play event is fairly typical in its setup, with a cut to the top-65 players and ties after the first two rounds.

The purse for the Genesis Scottish Open is $9 million, and the winner will claim $1,620,000 along with 500 FedEx Cup points.

The history of the tournament

The Scottish Open initially joined the European Tour in 1972 and 1973. Without a TV partner to carry the event, though, it was not held from 1974 until 1985. It came back in 1986 when the Glasgow Open was rebranded as the Scottish Open and found a home as the tournament right before The Open Championship.

In 1996, there were actually two events that were officially the Scottish Open, since the event at Loch Lomond became the Scottish Open from that year until 2010. The course at Loch Lomond was a parkland course, though, so players and organizers opted to move the event to links-style courses starting 2011, with the idea that it would better help the players prepare for The Open Championship.

Since 2019, The Renaissance Club has been the home for the event every year, and earlier this year, it announced it would continue to host the event at least through 2030. The event is part of the Rolex Series, which identifies it as one of the top events on the DP World Tour and gives it an elevated purse.

The field is a very unique blend of American and international players, with a chance for DP World Tour members to establish themselves as potential PGA TOUR members going forward. PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai won this event in 2020 before Min Woo Lee claimed the win in 2021. Both of those players have joined the PGA TOUR full-time since their win and won other events as well.

Since it became a co-sanctioned event in 2022, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, and Robert MacIntyre claimed victories. Chris Gotterup claimed the win last year and has piled up three more PGA TOUR wins since then, including last week’s John Deere Classic.

The co-sanctioned nature of the event also creates a rare opportunity for some of the LIV Golf stars to play this week, with Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton leading a group of seven players from that group in this week’s field.

Check out the full field and odds on DraftKings Sportsbook to see all the players teeing it up this year.

A Closer Look at the Course

The Renaissance Club is a beautiful venue that has become a favorite of many of the top PGA TOUR pros as they gear up for The Open. Famous American architect Tom Doak finished the course in 2008 after transforming the venue from a swath of an ancient pine forest. 

The course isn’t exactly a typical links layout since it doesn’t have as much exposure to the ocean. However, Doak set up the rough, bunkers, and course layout to echo traditional links-style layouts. The course encourages players to use the creativity and shot-shaping that will be needed at Royal Birkdale next week, especially the use of the ground game around the green.

As with typical links setups, the weather has a huge impact on how hard the course is. Typically, The Renaissance Club has been fairly low-scoring with calm winds, but scoring was over par in 2022 when the wind was stronger.

In general, the par-70 course rewards long hitters with very little penalty for missing the fairway. Strokes Gained: Approach is always a great metric to lean into, especially for players who can set up plenty of birdies with long irons.

Players with a good course history here, favorable European experience, and good results in the wind are ones to target this week. If the forecast is windy, it could be a week with very high scoring, but even if the course plays easier, we should get plenty of drama down the stretch with some of the biggest names in golf in the field and likely in contention on Sunday. While it isn’t a major championship like next week’s event, it is a great field on a fun course and should be a great week of golf in the country where the sport began.

As you get ready for this week’s escape to Scotland, be sure to get your DFS fantasy golf lineups and betting cards filled out with help from DK Network! We’ll have ongoing coverage throughout the week to help you enjoy this weekend’s tournament.