Tournament Preview
Chris Gotterup returns to the Genesis Scottish Open this week as defending champion and one of the highest-ranked players in the field after a breakthrough 12 months.
The American arrived at The Renaissance Club last year as World Number 158 but returns to Scotland this week ranked seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking after winning the John Deere Classic for his third PGA TOUR title of 2026 ahead of this week’s Rolex Series event.
Despite his rapid rise, Gotterup believes his approach has remained unchanged. After claiming his maiden PGA TOUR title at the Myrtle Beach Classic in 2024, Gotterup held off Rory McIlroy and the chasing pack to secure the biggest victory of his career at last year’s Genesis Scottish Open.
The 25-year-old has described playing in marquee groups over the weekend last year as a valuable learning experience, giving him the belief that he belonged among the world’s best. This week, he will again feature in one of the headline groups alongside World Number Two Rory McIlroy and home favourite Robert MacIntyre.
This week’s event marks the fifth consecutive year that the Genesis Scottish Open has been co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR as part of the Strategic Alliance between both Tours.
Joining Gotterup in a world-class field are several of the game’s leading players, including Viktor Hovland, who arrives in Scotland in search of a second Rolex Series title after securing a dramatic play-off victory over World Number One Scottie Scheffler at the PGA TOUR’s Travelers Championship two weeks ago.
Reigning U.S. PGA Champion Aaron Rai, the 2020 Genesis Scottish Open winner, will compete in the UK for the first time since claiming his maiden Major title, while two-time Major Champion Jon Rahm is also set to tee it up at The Renaissance Club.
Player quotes
Chris Gotterup: “I feel like everyone’s asked, what have I done differently and I don’t think I’ve done much differently. If I knew, I would have done it a lot longer ago. I felt like I kept my head down and kept working hard on things that I knew.
“With the help of my coaches and family and girlfriend, we try to keep things simple and it’s worked out. Hopefully, I’ll keep improving, too.
“For me, it was being able to win on a completely different course than I have ever played on. So it’s like, I have a game that travels, at least I think so.
“Last year, coming up against Rory and Scottie and all these guys and coming out on top and I thought maybe I might be better than I thought I was beforehand. But thinking you can do it and doing it are two different things.
“This field is one of the strongest we’ll play all year. So to be able to come out on top of that is a confidence boost in and of its own.”
Viktor Hovland: “It’s been very up-and-down. It feels like kind of the last few years I’ve taken one step forward, one step back, two forward, one back, one back again. So it’s been frustrating mentally to go through that.
“But I really do feel like not just because I’ve won last week but I’ve been seeing the results in practice and things going the right direction and that makes it a lot more fun to show up to the golf course.
“I think I’m just a bit more relaxed, not as stressed out, feel like I have to find something this week. I know that what I’m already doing is good enough.
“Obviously I want to still continue to improve because I still feel like there’s things left to improve but at the same time, I don’t have to go and find it as much as I felt like before.”
Aaron Rai: “It’s been great. It was really nice initially to have a couple of weeks away from tournaments just to try to sit with it a little bit more. I then played four events back-to-back, which again was really good to try to get into some normal habits and routines around the game.
“And then last week was the first time I was back in the UK, so great to see friends, family. Managed to go to Wimbledon over the weekend, which was amazing to experience.
“The Scottish Open was huge in 2020. It opened up a lot of opportunities in 2021 to gain access to the PGA TOUR.
Spending the majority of the last five years over playing on the PGA TOUR, and obviously playing some of the biggest events over here on the DP World Tour has helped build experience, understand different styles of the game a little bit better.
“Being able to try and apply those to myself, and then get access in some of the Major championships, I think it’s just helped to round me as a golfer, just a little bit more experienced now versus a few years ago.”
Jon Rahm: “It’s great to be here. Every time I come to play links golf, and we’re driving in, especially my driver took me through the towns and I got to see Gullane and North Berwick, it was something special.
“It’s always something special. You get lucky enough for it’s not raining like today, it’s very hard to be a walk through a links golf course, honestly. Having a great partner like Genesis makes it even better. It’s always been a fun week.
“It’s just the history of it is what makes them so special. No secret why the Spanish Open special to me. When I was able to win the Irish Open and I lifted the trophy for the first time, I start seeing the names and it’s filled with all the legends of European golf. It’s something special to hopefully be regarded as one of them. Not many people say that and I hope I can get to that point.
“Like the Irish Open, the French Open, the German Open, the Spanish Open, the Scottish Open, all of them have pretty much the same list of champions and probably many more Opens that I’m missing. I think it’s what connects us to the past. Some of these tournaments have been going on for such a long time and I know the French Open at one point was the longest-running event in the amount of editions, I can’t even think of how many. It’s what makes them special, the connection of the past to the present.”
Venue: The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland
2025 Champion: Chris Gotterup
Prize Fund: $9,000,000
Race to Dubai: Tournament 26 of 42
Closing Swing: Tournament 1 of 5
Race to Dubai points: 8,000
FedExCup points: 500
