{"id":789310,"date":"2026-07-08T23:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789310\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T23:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:51:11","slug":"golf-best-bets-round-1-picks-for-the-2026-genesis-scottish-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789310\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf Best Bets: Round 1 Picks for the 2026 Genesis Scottish Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Genesis Scottish Open is set to get underway in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, so be sure to get your betting card set up early or target one of the groups teeing off later in the round. The first two groups get underway at 2:00 a.m. ET, with the second wave starting shortly after 7:00 a.m. ET. This unique event is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and the PGA TOUR, featuring a full field of 156 players from both tours coming together to warm up for The Open Championship next week. For Round 1, there are many great options across a variety of markets available on DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a>. Let\u2019s pinpoint a few of my best bets for Round 1 of the Genesis Scottish Open to start the tournament strong. <\/p>\n

The difficulty of the course will largely be determined by the weather, which is often the case with links-style layouts. The wind is forecast to be especially calm on Friday and Sunday, while gusts could reach 20 miles per hour on Thursday. It looks like it will be fairly consistent throughout the day, but possibly a little stronger in the morning. Since the course changes so much if the wind shifts, it\u2019s best to attack matchups between players in similar or the exact same tee times if possible. Especially on links-style layouts like this one, always be ready to read and react to how scores are trending if you are live-betting the event.<\/p>\n

In this post, we\u2019ll focus on my three best bets for Round 1 of the Genesis Scottish Open on Thursday, July 9.<\/p>\n

Chris Gotterup Over 4.5 Birdies or Better (+105)<\/a><\/p>\n

Gotterup won the Genesis Scottish Open last year and is back to defend his title. Since he won last year, he has added three more PGA TOUR victories to his resume, winning the Sony Open in Hawaii, the WM Phoenix Open, and last week\u2019s John Deere Classic. <\/p>\n

Last year, Gotterup had four birdies in the first round and then caught fire with nine birdies in Round 2. He only had two birdies in Round 3 but then finished with six birdies on Sunday. The next week at The Open Championship, he finished third, so he seems to be a good fit for links-style setups in the U.K.<\/p>\n

Last week, he got all the way to -20 after making nine birdies or better in Round 4 and making five birdies in Round 1 to also go over this prop. Even during the previous week at the Travelers, he made at least five birdies in each of his last three rounds.<\/p>\n

Gotterup is locked in right now, and his recent form combinged with his course history make the over on his birdies a strong play in this spot.<\/p>\n

Jake Knapp (+106) over Dan Bradbury and Nacho Elvira<\/a> \u2013 3 Ball \u2013 Round 1<\/p>\n

At 7:37 towards the beginning of the second wave, Knapp, Bradbury and Elvira tee off. If Knapp is healthy, he should be a clear favorite from this trio since it looked like he may have turned the corner in his last event at the Travelers Championship.<\/p>\n

Knapp opened that event with a 74 in Round 1 after missing the cut at the U.S. Open in his return following a two-month layoff with a thumb injury. He looked much better after that first round, though, going 67-64-69 to finish T55. While that finish alone isn\u2019t too impressive by itself, it could be a return to form for Knapp, who started 2026 with seven top-12 finishes in his first eight tournaments before dealing with multiple injuries. He finished T22 at this event last year and will look to use that experience to help continue his comeback.<\/p>\n

Dan Bradbury is a 26-year-old English golfer who has spent most of the season on the DP World Tour. He won the Joburg Open in March and had a T6 at the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship, but he missed the cut or finished worse than T40 in three straight events and five of his last six. He also missed the cut in his last two appearances at this event after a 75th-place finish in his debut in 2023.<\/p>\n

The third member of the group is officially Ignacio\u00a0Elvira Mijares, but Nacho is too good a nickname to pass up. The 39-year-old Spaniard won the Dubai Invitational in January on the DP World Tour and has posted four top-25 finishes and two missed cuts in his last six events. Based on that form, I\u2019d probably take him over Bradbury, but Elvira\u2019s history at this event is shaky. He has missed the cut four times in six appearances and his two made cuts were a T48 in 2019 and a T61 in 2022.<\/p>\n

Either European could end up the winner if Knapp isn\u2019t back in form, but based on his closing three rounds in Connecticut and his success on this track last year, Knapp is a good value at plus-money in this 3-Ball.<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick (+122) over Jon Rahm matchup (3 Way) \u2013 Round 1 <\/a><\/p>\n

At 8:43 a.m. ET, Fitzpatrick tees off alongside Scottieh Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood in a featured group. Jon Rahm tees off about 20 minutes later alongside Matt\u2019s brother Alex Fitzpatrick and Rasmus Hojgaard. <\/p>\n

I detailed how well Fitz has been playing and his excellent course history in my cash game plays for the Scottish Open<\/a>. He has won three times on the PGA TOUR this year and has\u00a012 top-25 finishes in his 16 PGA TOUR events. He also has made the cut in six of his seven appearances at The Renaissance Club with a T2 in 2021, a T6 in 2022 and a T4 last year.<\/p>\n

Rahm missed the cut at the U.S. Open in his most recent tournament, where Fitzpatrick finished 22nd. Before that, he did win two events this year in LIV Golf along with five runner-up finishes. He has played this event twice in his career, finishing seventh in 2021 and T55 in 2022. While he obviously can go off and win this prop, he hasn\u2019t had great weeks in his crossover opportunities this year.<\/p>\n

Getting Fitzpatrick to finish ahead of him at plus-money feels very generous in this three-way matchup, especially given how excellent Fitzpatrick\u2019s short game has been in his last several tournaments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Genesis Scottish Open is set to get underway in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,15225,82],"class_list":["post-789310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-rail","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}