Value Report: The Open Championship

The Scottish Open has always been one of my favorite tournaments, as the co-sanctioned title now draws one of the more unique fields each year, but I was left even more impressed than usual. Chris Gotterup was truly phenomenal and has been one of the easiest golfers to root for since turning professional. To look Rory McIlroy in the eye all Sunday long and never let his foot off the gas really gave us an idea of what his ceiling looks like against the world’s best. The other thing that I left with a fresh opinion on was The Renaissance Club. I was open on my dislike of the course heading into the week, as I’d still very much prefer a links test when the tours are playing in this part of the world, but what came about was a very clear blueprint on how we can project this course moving forward. The leaderboard was chock-full of the longest hitters on the planet, and if you ran into a good putting week on the right side of the wave, there was all the opportunity in the world to compete. Now is it the best tune-up for an Open Championship? It wouldn’t be my first choice. But I still was a big fan of the action we got on the weekend and was incredibly pleased to see Gotterup get it done.

The star of the Value Report at the Scottish Open was the player I’m highest on of the DP World Tour class, Marco Penge. Truthfully, he left a couple out there on Sunday that really could have pushed Gotterup on the back nine, but it’s hard not to walk around insanely impressed by his game. Penge showed these similar flashes at the PGA Championship despite zero help from his short game, so it was a warm welcome to have the hottest putting week of 2025 when on the biggest stage. The next-best finish was another DP World Tour player in Kristoffer Reitan, who you could argue had a floor outcome with his T13. Carrying one of the best short games on the planet, Reitan was neutral on the greens while having an elite ball-striking performance. It’s just so good to see two of the most trending players overseas step up when they needed to. Jordan Smith was quite steady and likely a bit disappointed with a T22 result with how well he performed T2G, and you can put Laurie Canter’s T34 in the same bucket, too. Both Brian Harman and Byeong Hun An were rather weak despite making the cut, and although Francesco Laporta wound up T50, he showed a ton of great signs. Through three rounds, he was sitting in T15 after a Friday 64 vaulted him up the leaderboard, but his Sunday 75 sent him stumbling. The lone missed weekend was from Matteo Manassero, which was a bit shocking given his stretch of made cuts. Overall, not a single golfer was owned more than 10%, and with seven of the eight making the cut, it was a strong effort for the Value Report.