BlogScottish Open Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

For the first time in a while we will have a week off on the PGA Tour due to the devasting floods in West Virginia which damaged all three courses at the Greenbrier.

For those players that are doing well this will come as a welcome relief, but for those grinding it out to saving their PGA Tour cards it will be tough.

So does this elevate the Scottish Open?  Probably not, I don’t see any players that where going to participate in that event switch and play this event.

One thing that is too bad is that defending champion Rickie Fowler, citing a busy calendar with the Olympics isn’t defending his title.  It’s a shame, we are seeing a lot of that as the schedule is tough.  To think we had a the U.S. Open, a week off and then the WGC-Bridgestone, a week off and then the British Open, a week off and then the PGA Championship.  After that you have 8 weeks in which you will have the Olympics, four FedEx Cup playoffs and then the Ryder Cup.  So you can understand the reasoning of Fowler not playing.

Course information:

• Castle Stuart Golf Links
• Inverness, Scotland
• 7,193 yards     Par 36-36–72

The Scottish Open returns to Castle Stuart, which held the 2011, ’12 and ’13 championship.  The course which sits on a hill overlooking the Moray Firth was designed by Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen, it was finished in 2009.  It opened to great reviews as a great links course that looks like it’s been a course for a hundred years.  The course incorporated a “raised beach” philosophy in the design and the resulting panoramic views of the Moray Firth set Castle Stuart apart visually from other top links courses in Scotland. Castle Stuart has brought new terms into being for describing the Castle Stuart golf experience…”Rumpled” fairways, “Infinity” edges, “Landscape mosaics,” “Sleeper details,” and perhaps most importantly, the “MacKenzie perspective” which opines that the very best courses should be enjoyable for all, with many different ways to approach each holes, and should be admired in time as works of beauty.

The course is set on two levels with seven holes on the lower level bordering the Moray Firth.  The fairways and greens are all fescue grass and the greens are usually set to run fairly slowly at 10 on the stimpmeter.  In the last couple of years the course has undergone some major work, mostly to help the drainage and bunkers were added to holes 5th and 14th along with more yardage added.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Scottish Open:

Key stat for the winner:

A modern links course, the winner will have to be able to play all the shots in any conditions.  In looking at the stats from 2011, ’12 and ’13 the most important stat is hitting lot’s of fairways and to avoid the bunkers, especially off the tee.

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

• This isn’t a course that you can overpower, you have to make sure to keep it in the fairway due to the high, wispy rough and bunkers.  The greens are average length and have undulation in them, but they are very fair and aren’t as fast as many American courses.  The fairways at Oakmont could be almost as fast as the greens at Castle Stuart, but this isn’t to detract the course, with the weather conditions sometimes having fast greens could be unfair.
• As of each week it’s important to look and see who is hot and playing well the weeks leading to the Scottish Open.
• Weather looks like it will be a factor this week as it’s suppose to rain everyday.  With temperatures in the low 60s, it’s going to take a special person to win.  It’s a bit like in 2011 when Luke Donald won in similar conditions, wet, wet and more wetness.  Along with the rain expect winds of between 10 and 20 mph, with Thursday and Sunday being the worst.  So it’s going to be true links weather for the week up in Castle Stuart.