Fantasy Golf: The Scottish Open Preview

We need to talk about what Brian Campbell just accomplished because the man appears to be some kind of misfit unicorn. He has been bouncing around different versions of the Korn Ferry Tour since 2015 playing 159 minor league tournaments without a win as he battled a series of injuries. Last year, he played well enough to earn his second career promotion to the PGA Tour by finishing 7th on the points list but his last run in the show was less than auspicious as he played twenty times and missed thirteen cuts including his last four in a row. That was eight years ago.  

He was clearly excited to be back because he flew all the way to Hawaii for the Sony Open and immediately announced his presence with authority by withdrawing due to a shoulder injury. Undaunted, he "bounced back" with a T51 at The American Express but alas, the brief momentum died the following week at the Farmers where he missed the cut before shutting it down for three weeks. Then of course he won the Mexico Open. 

Not only did he win it, he did it in a playoff over Aldrich Potgieter which made it a matchup between the longest and shortest hitters on tour. (If you can't figure out which is which from the tone of the first paragraph and their names, then I can't help you). Did he capitalize on that momentum? You're goddamn right he did with a T48 the next week followed by three straight missed cuts. 

After playing five weeks in a row, he finally took some time off and it paid dividends as he came back to finish T32 in back to back tournaments (including the Masters), took a week off and then played five weeks in a row finishing MC-T34-T55-MC-WD. Then another week off followed by a missed cut at the U.S Open.

So to recap the 2025 season of Brian Campbell prior to last weekend, he had played seventeen tournaments with one finish higher than T32 which was a win and his next best showing was at The Masters. He had missed seven cuts and withdrawn twice meaning that he had only made it to Sunday eight times. If you include his T56 at last year's U.S. Open, he's only played on Sunday nine times since 2017. 

Of course he won again last Sunday and in another playoff to boot. He now has two wins with no other top 25 finishes. None. To put that into some kind of perspective, Scottie Scheffler won his first PGA tournament in February of 2022 and before that he had 36 top 25 finishes. You simply don't do what Brian Campbell has done. 

In a related story and to cultivate some future writing material, I just signed-up for my club championship stroke play qualifier this weekend. After a spring and summer dominated by injuries and general golfing frustration, the quality of my game is at about a twenty year low. However, the Brian Campbell story along with Lee Westwood qualifying for the British Open at 52 years old has inspired me. 

I figure the only difference between those guys and me is that they're professionals who know what they're doing and play competitive golf every week while I'm a guy who now walks six holes on a Tuesday evening, makes one birdie and thinks he's found "it". What could go wrong?           

GOLF ANALYSIS

We're going heavy on the Brits this week with a little German, South African, Danish and Kiwi flavor thrown-in for good measure. Even our one American recommendation is the son of immigrants from Kyiv as we celebrate the beauty of diversity even if it's golf style diversity. As a result, we're going Rory over Scotty on the theory that the Masters hangover may have finally subsided enough for McIlroy to bring it on a course where he's won before.

Some disclosure is warranted on the overall pick because Matt Fitzpatrick was probably no better than our fourth pick behind Rory, Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre but we've already used all of those guys. Fitzy is still a solid pick coming-off a T17 at the Travelers Championship and a T8 at the Rocket Classic. Back when he was a top ten player in the world, he went T-2-T6 here and it's starting to feel like he's made friends with that version of himself again or at least they've agreed to show-up at the same happy hour together.     

Place	Player	Odds
Winner	Rory McIlroy	+800
Top 5	Tommy Fleetwood	+400
Top 10	Matt Fitzpatrick	+330
Top 10	Ryan Fox	+450
Top 20	Thriston Lawrence	+330

One and Done Pick: Matt Fitzpatrick

You know what they say. Beware
the Brit in the hideous color scheme.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Tommy Fleetwood

Sleeper Pick: Thriston Lawrence

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Rory McIlroy	$11,400
Tommy Fleetwood	$9,900
Robert MacIntyre	$9,100
Matt Fitzpatrick	$8,800
Ryan Fox	$8,500
Max Greyerman	$7,800
Thomas Detry	$7,800
Nicolai Hojgaard	$7,500
Thriston Lawrence	$7,200
Matthew Jordan	$7,000

Email the Fantasy Golf Report here.

The New York Times recently offered a promotional rate to play their stupid games like Wordle and Strands so I bit and, as is my nature, I've become completely addicted to crossword puzzles. Now I spend my evenings half-watching TV while immersed in these fucking things as I wonder what the weirdos who make them did before "Etsy" was invented. It got so bad the other night that I watched twenty minutes of a movie before I realized they were speaking German and I had no idea what in the hell they were talking about. 

A THREE LETTER WORD FOR "SUITABLE"

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART 

I have no idea what's happened to Tom Kim but if he's going to get his shit together anywhere, it could be here as he went 3rd-T6-T15 from 2022-2024. I'm avoiding him in the same way I avoided Davis Thompson and Kevin Yu last week. They finished T14 and T21 respectively so make of that what you will. 

	DK Price	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
Scottie Scheffler	$13,100	DNP	T3	MC	T12	DNP
Rory McIlroy	$11,400	T4	1st	DNP	MC	DNP
Xander Schauffele	$10,100	T15	T42	1st	T10	DNP
Tommy Fleetwood	$9,900	T34	T6	T4	T26	2nd
Collin Morikawa	$9,600	T4	DNP	MC	T71	DNP
Ludvig Aberg	$9,400	T4	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Viktor Hovland (O)	$9,300	T46	T25	MC	DNP	DNP
Justin Thomas	$9,200	T62	T60	MC	T8	DNP
Robert Macintyre	$9,100	1st	2nd	MC	T18	T14
Sam Burns	$9,000	DNP	T19	66th	T18	DNP
Corey Conners (O)	$8,900	T10	T19	T61	MC	DNP
Matt Fitzpatrick	$8,800	T39	MC	T6	T2	T42
Sepp Straka	$8,700	MC	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Adam Scott	$8,600	2nd	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ryan Fox	$8,500	T57	T12	T47	T44	MC
Harry Hall	$8,400	DNP	T60	DNP	DNP	DNP
Aaron Rai	$8,300	T4	MC	MC	T35	1st
Wyndham Clark	$8,200	T10	T25	T16	DNP	DNP
J.J. Spaun	$8,100	DNP	DNP	T59	DNP	DNP
Harris English	$8,000	T34	DNP	T49	DNP	DNP
Maverick McNealy	$8,000	DNP	DNP	T16	DNP	DNP
Rasmus Hojgaard	$7,900	T21	MC	T10	MC	T48
Taylor Pendrith	$7,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Thomas Detry	$7,800	T26	T42	T10	T2	T30
Max Greyserman	$7,800	T21	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sungjae Im	$7,700	T4	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Si Woo Kim	$7,700	T26	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Nick Taylor	$7,600	T57	T19	T55	DNP	DNP
Rasmus Peterson	$7,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Tom Kim	$7,600	T15	T6	3rd	DNP	DNP
Byeong Hun An	$7,500	MC	T3	DNP	DNP	DNP
Alex Noren	$7,500	T10	MC	T30	DNP	DNP
Nicolai Hojgaard	$7,500	T39	T6	MC	DNP	DNP
Brian Harman	$7,500	T21	T12	MC	DNP	DNP
Keith Mitchell	$7,400	MC	MC	T36	DNP	DNP
Thor Olesen	$7,400	T39	T25	T30	T54	MC
Daniel Berger	$7,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sam Stevens	$7,400	T57	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Wallace	$7,300	MC	T42	MC	T26	T30
Justin Rose	$7,300	MC	MC	T69	DNP	DNP
Jordan Smith	$7,300	MC	T12	T24	MC	T36
Niklas Moller	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matteo Manassero	$7,300	T15	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Denny McCarthy	$7,200	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Victor Perez	$7,200	T10	T35	MC	T59	T14
Thriston Lawrence	$7,200	MC	MC	T24	DNP	DNP
Jake Knapp	$7,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Michael Kim	$7,200	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Lee Hodges	$7,100	T46	T12	DNP	DNP	DNP
Kevin Yu	$7,100	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Chris Gotterup	$7,100	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Luke Clanton	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Andrew Novak	$7,100	T70	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Daniel Brown	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Hao-Tong Li	$7,100	T21	MC	T55	MC	T14
Bud Cauley	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Alex Smalley	$7,000	DNP	MC	T10	DNP	DNP
Ryan Gerard	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Marco Penge	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matthew Jordan	$7,000	T26	77th	T59	T18	DNP
C. Bezuidenhout	$6,900	W/D	MC	T16	T44	MC
Erik Van Rooyen	$6,900	T39	T68	MC	DNP	T6
Mackenzie Hughes	$6,900	T46	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Gary Woodland	$6,900	T67	T25	T30	DNP	DNP
Matti Schmid	$6,900	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Tom Hoge	$6,800	MC	T19	MC	DNP	DNP