While the PGA Tour was under the microscope on Capitol Hill for a hearing concerning its framework deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the action on the course shifted overseas to the birthplace of golf.
Most of the top players in the world are readying for the Genesis Scottish Open — beginning Thursday at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland — to tune up for next week’s Open Championship while keeping tabs on what’s transpiring back home.
“I did watch in all honesty, maybe 10, 15 minutes of (the hearing),” defending champion Xander Schauffele said. “I had to go see the physio and the trainer and get dialed in for (Wednesday) and the rest of the week. We were sent a document, a 276-page document and a link to the hearing. So I will do my homework.”
For the second straight year, the Scottish Open is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) and the PGA Tour, with 75 players from each tour qualifying. World No. 2 Jon Rahm of Spain is taking the week off, but nine of the top 11 in the world rankings are playing, including No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland.
When Schauffele won last year at 7-under 273, it was his second straight title following the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. He hasn’t won on tour since, and he’s hoping to capture his first major title next week.
“I really want to win one, as much as anyone else, maybe more,” Schauffele said. “I just need to keep walking my path. … We’ve been close many times and I just need to get myself in those situations more and more and I guarantee that I’ll win one.”
McIlroy’s name came up in the hearings back in Washington, with the revelation that he took a meeting with Saudi PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan last November while searching for ways to re-unify men’s golf. The PIF also apparently proposed to the PGA Tour that McIlroy — an outspoken LIV Golf critic — and Tiger Woods could own LIV franchises.
McIlroy was not asked about the hearings in Scotland, and he’s made clear throughout the season that when a major is approaching, that’s the only thing he cares to focus on.
The four-time major champion wants to end a nine-year major drought next week at Royal Liverpool, where he won his one and only Open Championship in 2014. He said he took two weeks off before the Scottish Open, including one where he didn’t touch a golf club.
“I think just to get some competitive golf under my belt, get a scorecard in my hand and play,” McIlroy said of his mindset this week. “It’s not pure links at this place, but it’s linksy enough conditions that at least you’re playing in a bit of breeze and you’re maybe getting some visuals that you would get at a links course. So I think just all of that will obviously be good with one eye towards next week and The Open.”
Other names to watch at the par-70, 7,237-yard Renaissance Club include Min Woo Lee of Australia and Tom Kim of South Korea.
Lee won the Scottish Open in 2021 and has played well enough in the United States this season to earn special temporary PGA Tour membership for the rest of 2023. Kim was just 20 years old last July when he finished third at the Scottish Open, propelling him toward earning special temporary membership, winning the Wyndham Championship the next month and making the International Presidents Cup team.
“To kind of be able to achieve that, it’s just amazing to see the way I’ve done it,” Kim said. “It’s really, really cool. I wasn’t expecting it but that really gave me the confidence of seeing all of last year and the fall, this is really where it sparked for me.”
–Field Level Media
