The Scottish Open

The Scottish Open returned to our screens again over the weekend with plenty of heated action taking place at The Renaissance Club east of Edinburgh. Scotland’s own Robert Macintyre was lifting the trophy at the event in 2024, but this year’s win belonged to American Chris Gotterup.

Battling the likes of Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy, Chris Gotterup shot to the hot end of the leaderboard having carded an excellent 9-under-par 61 on the Friday. Gotterup began his final round tied for the lead with McIlroy with both players standing on 11-under-par.

While they both made a bogey within their opening 3 holes on the front 9, they also went on to make 3 birdies ahead of the 10^th hole. It was looking like the pair were headed for a duel when Gotterup rose above Rory’s lackluster level-par back-9 by securing more birdies, finishing comfortably ahead of the Northern Irishman, and winning the competition by 2 strokes.

Having secured his second PGA Tour victory, the American jumped from being 158^th to 49^th in the official world golf rankings and has also been awarded a spot in The Open at Royal Portrush this week.

In his post-round interview, Gotterup admitted how elated he felt as well as poked fun at the relief in having beaten Rory “I just hung in there tight and tried to keep it together. It’s amazing. It’s all hitting me. It’s just so cool. I played really well this week and I knew today was going to be tough. It was a pleasure to be out there with Rory and obviously all the support he gets is amazing, but it was nice to kind of ruin that a little bit.”

Rory finished tied second alongside Englishman Marco Penge, while Matt Fitzpatrick and Nicolai Højgaard finished tied 4^th. While he missed finished in first place at this event, Rory seems at peace with his performance “I’m really happy with where everything is. Looking forward to getting to Portrush tonight and getting out on to the golf course early tomorrow and just tuning my attention to that.”

With all the tour players taking to Royal Portrush this week, who do you think will be lifting the Claret Jug on Sunday? We’re available to offer you a hand in the shop this week whether you’re looking to top up on any gear or you’re seeking our professional advice.