Tiger, Phil and the possible winless end of a Ryder Cup era

The Genesis Scottish Open is the first of the tangible connections forged when the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour announced their Strategic Alliance in November of 2020. The tournament is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. While it wasn’t billed as an all-star game with a home-field advantage, that’s what it is in its debut as a co-sanctioned competition between the circuits. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look | Inside the Field The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, hosts for the fourth consecutive year, but, and obviously, for the first time among most (read: not all) PGA TOUR members in the field. For an analysis of the Tom Doak design, how this field is constructed and more, continue reading beneath the ranking of projected contenders. POWER RANKINGS: GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN Viktor Hovland, Joaquin Niemann, Hideki Matsuyama and defending champion Min Woo Lee will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades. Adjacent to Muirfield and 20 miles due south as the seabird soars from St. Andrews, The Renaissance Club sits on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. It’s a par 70 with five par 3s and three par 5s. Since last year’s edition of the tournament, the seventh hole has been reduced to a 505-yard par 4. It’s the most impactful of numerous changes on the course that include new fairway bunkers at the par-4 first, par-4 fourth and par-5 10th holes. At 7,237 yards, The Renaissance Club is not terribly long by the standards of touring professionals, but coastal breezes add to the challenge. Well, at least they’re supposed to. To the dismay of anyone who was hungry for quintessential Scottish weather, (disappointingly) calm conditions instead are expected for most of the tournament. Gusts likely will have an impact only on Friday. The slight threat of rain that opens the tournament reduces to virtually zero for the remainder. Daytime highs will range from the mid-60s on Thursday to the low 70s on the weekend. Lovely. Because of its exposure, The Renaissance Club requires wind to defend par, so, without it, scores will be low this week. In its first spin as host of this tournament in 2019, Bernd Wiesberger prevailed at 22-under 262. Aaron Rai scored 11-under 273 in 2020, and then Min Woo Lee took last year’s title at 18-under 266. Oddly, all three required a playoff to pay off the work done in regulation. Despite overall par dropping, the winner will land double digits under par. Keeping the ball in no deeper than two-inch intermediate rough is a sound plan, but without much wind, guys will be able to control drives and attack flags. Fescue greens will run no faster than 11½ feet on the Stimpmeter. The majority of the field reserved for 156 is split in half between members of the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour. The PGA TOUR’s contribution is sliced into those commits who finished inside the top 30 of the 2020-21 FedExCup, as well as the order of the 2021-22 FedExCup at the conclusion of the U.S. Open three weeks ago. DP World Tour members qualified via its eligibility ranking. Exemptions for three golfers from the Korean PGA also were approved. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings (Genesis Scottish Open) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Barbasol Championship), Sleepers (Genesis Scottish Open), Expert Picks, Draws & Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ’Em Preview SUNDAY: Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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The rules violation in the Bahamas was the start of a bad two weeks for Patrick Reed. Instead of defusing last year’s Ryder Cup drama, he added more fuel for those who question him.

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Four years ago in April, China’s Haotong Li walked off the 18th green at the Mission Hills Golf Club’s Sandbelt Trails Course. He had just completed the first round of his first PGA TOUR Series-China tournament, the Mission Hills Haikou Open. He was 18 years old. That day comes to mind as players gather this week at the Sandbelt Trails Course for the first International Qualifying Tournament as PGA TOUR Series-China makes its return to the golf calendar, with players looking to become the next big thing to come out of China. For right now, however, that honor belongs to the 22-year-old from Hunan. At the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, Li rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the tournament to seal his second European Tour triumph, beating Rory McIlroy by a stroke. The Dubai win was the latest in a long line of successes by Li, who burst on the scene winning three times during his 2014 PGA TOUR Series-China season and capturing Player of the Year honors. He subsequently qualified for the 2015 and 2016 Web.com Tour seasons, and in early 2016, Li traveled home to play in his national open and ended up winning the Volvo China Open. He accepted European Tour membership after the triumph in Beijing. Li’s upward trajectory continued at The Open Championship in 2017 when he fired a final-round 63 to tie for third, the best finish by a player from China in a major championship. His performance earned him invites to all four of golf’s 2018 major championships. That showing at Royal Birkdale, among several other top-10s, led to Li’s 17th-place finish on the European Tour’s 2017 Race to Dubai rankings. Finishing inside the top 20 on that list also garnered him the opportunity to play in his first World Golf Championships event outside of China—the 2018 Mexico Championship, coming in March. Happy and incredible were the only two words Li could come up with when asked to describe how he felt winning in Dubai and putting his name next to, among others, Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia and McIlroy, who have also won that tournament. Li also noted that the oversized, traditional Arabic coffee pot that serves as the tournament’s trophy left him “happy to lift that heavy thing.� “I think my game is in good position now, and especially after this week. It gives me a lot of confidence, especially (after) last week (when I) missed the cut (at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship),� he explained. When Li’s week began in Dubai, he was 60th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is projected to move to somewhere in the low 30s when the next Ranking is released Monday. Regardless of his number, it will be his career-high position—and place in the OWGR potentially will open even more PGA TOUR playing opportunities for Li. Besides the PGA TOUR events he already has on his busy 2018 playing calendar, more tournament invites very well could materialize. The top-64 players in the OWGR as of March 12 receive invitations to play in the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas (March 21-25). And any player inside the top-50 in the OWGR through the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (April 29) is invited to play at TPC Sawgrass and THE PLAYERS (May 10-13). When Li was still living in Florida during his Web.com Tour days, he spent many hours practicing at TPC Sawgrass’ renowned practice facility. He just hasn’t spent any time there during THE PLAYERS. From all appearances, that is about to change.

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