We have a four-way tie for the lead after the opening round at the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open. Nico Echavarria, Sepp Straka, Jake Knapp and Victor Perez all shot a six-under par round of 64 on Thursday. As you would expect, it’s a tight leaderboard after only one round, with 32 players within three shots of the lead.
One of those players is Scottie Scheffler, who is three strokes back at -3. He remains the favorite on DraftKings Sportsbook after Thursday at +400 odds. He is trailed by two of the co-leaders, Sepp Straka at +1000 and Jake Knapp at +1200.
Now it’s time to regroup after the first round and take a look at what DraftKings Sportsbook has to offer with three rounds in this tournament remaining.
Scottie Scheffler Top 5 Including Ties (-125)
Scottie Scheffler had a typical round for his standards, losing strokes to the field in putting while still shooting a 67 to stay in contention. Even on his bad days, he finds a way to post a solid score.
It’s no surprise that it was his approach play that kept the round going, gaining 2.24 strokes on the field. He gained strokes in every category except for putting, where he lost -1.01 strokes on the field.
There aren’t many weaknesses in his game, but you could argue that the inconsistency of his putter is one. It has been a better year in general on the greens, as he ranks 15th on the PGA TOUR this season. His performance with the putter on Thursday was far worse than his typical round, and I expect him to spend extra time on the practice greens before Friday’s round to get that straightened out for the rest of the week.
If he gets that club figured out and continues to hit his irons the way he has, expect at least a top 5 finish. In his last start at the Scottish Open in 2023, he finished T3. Only three strokes back and in a tie for 14th place, he is in a great position to climb the leaderboard the rest of the weekend. Scheffler is the most consistent player in the game, and I am very confident that he will improve on the greens and hang around the top of the leaderboard for the rest of the week.
It would be nothing out of the ordinary for the world #1, who has six top five finishes in his last nine starts, and all nine starts resulted in top 10 finishes. Scheffler hangs around the top of leaderboards every week, so I have no reason to believe that the rest of this tournament will be any different.
