The Scottish Open (now formally the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open) was first contested in 1972, but was then removed from the European Tour's event list from 1974 to 1985. It returned in 1986 and has been played at Loch Lomond Golf Club for the majority of it's current run. Just recently, it began rotating courses year to year. It's one of the larger and more popular events on the European Tour for a few reasons. Firstly, it has one of the largest purses on Tour at £3.25 million. Secondly, being a links course and taking place a week before the British Open, it's a tournament that's used by players to practice for the British Open, i.e. hone in their links golf skills and work on a variety of shots. Players such as Phil Mickelson took full advantage of this, as he won both the Scottish and British Opens in 2013.
This is the first time Gullane Golf Club has hosted the Scottish Open, but the town of Gullane is no stranger to professional golf. Situated on the coast of Scotland, it's also home to Muirfield Golf Club, which hosted the British Open in 2013 and lies just 1.5km from Gullane Golf Club. The town is ideal for golf holidays as it's also home to several other top quality links courses and itself is just a two hour drive from the Old Course at St. Andrews (which will host the British Open next week). For the Scottish Open, Gullane will play as a par 70 at 7,133 yards.
Like I've said many times before, it's always hard to make my picks in a tournament that precedes a major, simply because of the variety of players in the field. One thing's for sure though, the winner this week will definitely need to have great links golf skills, so that's what I've based my picks on this week:
1) Padraig Harrington
2) Justin Rose
3) Rickie Fowler
Padraig showed us earlier this year that he's capable of winning again. He's also won two British Opens back to back so he knows links golf. Justin Rose won this event last year and seems to be playing great golf at the moment. Like I say, he's always a safe pick week in week out. Lastly, Rickie Fowler hasn't had the best of weeks after his Players win, but he's done well in the past on links courses. Maybe this will be the comeback he needs?
Play kicks off very early (or very late) at roughly 2:30AM EST tomorrow. Stay tuned for our weekend update post Friday to see who's in the lead at the halfway point.
-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews
The scenic coast of Scotland is host to Gullane Golf Club
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