The 2023 Genesis Scottish Open, the final tune-up before the Open Championship, gets underway this week at the Renaissance Club, and we’re picking a Tour winner who has had a tough recent stretch to pull off a long-shot victory. Here’s our pick, the Genesis Scottish open odds, betting favorites and everything else you need to know for the week.
Scottish Open odds: Long-shot bet
For this week’s pick, we’re going for a true long shot, at least in terms of odds-to-win. That player is Kurt Kitayama, who comes into the week with extremely long odds of +8000.
Kitayama’s ugly odds aren’t surprising considering his recent performance: three-straight missed cuts at the Memorial, the U.S. Open and the Travelers Championship.
But we think Kitayama has a great chance to outplay those odds. First of all, he earned a runner-up at last year’s Scottish Open, finishing one shot short of Xander Schauffele’s winning score of seven under. Importantly, that stellar performance came after Kitayama had missed two-straight cuts at, you guessed it, the Memorial and U.S. Open.
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Kitayama has also shown flashes of greatness this season, capturing his first win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a runner-up at the CJ Cup, a T5 at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and, most recently, a T4 at the PGA Championship.
He’s also shown an ability to perform well in tournaments with a low winning score (the Memorial and U.S. Open aside). His winning total at Bay Hill was nine under, which was the same winning score at the PGA. With another low-scoring affair in order this week, we think Kitayama is well worth a small bet.
Should you bet $10 on Kitayama to win and he comes through in Scotland, you’ll win a whopping $800. For additional insurance bets, put small wagers on Kitayama to finish top 10 and top 20.
Looking for more long-shots to bet on? This week’s long-shot honorable mentions are Aaron Rai (+6600) and Alex Smalley (+6600).
Scottish Open odds: The favorites
With the Open Championship one week away, many of the biggest stars in the game are in the field this week in Scotland, and they’re crowding to the top of the odds-to-win ranking.
In first is World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (+700), and Rory McIlroy is nipping at his heels with +750 odds-to-win.
Defending champion Xander Schauffele is tied for third with Patrick Cantlay at +1400.
You can see the top 15 and ties in Genesis Scottish Open betting odds as of Monday afternoon below, or head over to BetMGM to see the full list of odds and bets for this week.
2023 Scottish Open betting odds (Top 15 and ties)
Scottie Scheffler (+700)
Rory McIlroy (+750)
Patrick Cantlay (+1400)
Xander Schauffele (+1400)
Rickie Fowler (+1600)
Viktor Hovland (+1800)
Matt Fitzpatrick (+2000)
Jordan Spieth (+2200)
Tommy Fleetwood (+2200)
Tyrrell Hatton (+2500)
Min Woo Lee (+3500)
Justin Rose (+4000)
Justin Thomas (+4000)
Max Homa (+4000)
Shane Lowry (+4000)
Wyndham Clark (+4000)
How last week’s long-shot fared
We experienced another big miss at last week’s John Deere Classic. Our primary pick, Dylan Wu (+6600 odds-to-win), put together a solid second round, but it wasn’t quite enough to make up for his disappointing Thursday, and he missed the cut by one shot.
