Scottish Open Each-Way Tips: Back 66/1 local hero MacIntyre

• 66/167.00 Robert MacIntyre can get the home fans going

• 33/134.00 Max Homa has strong results before Majors

• 100/1101.00 Alexander Bjork is in excellent form

After three straight birdie-fests on the PGA Tour - winning scores -23 (Travelers), -24 (Rocket Mortgage) and -21 (John Deere Classic) - it's time for a welcome change of pace.

And a change of continent too as the PGA Tour begins its summer fortnight on UK shores with the co-sanctioned Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in East Berwick - a modern links designed by Tom Doak.

True, Bernd Wiesberger won the inaugural edition there in 2019 with 22-under but since then scores off 11-under and 7-under have been enough to get it done.

Xander Schauffele took home the £1.44m first prize with that 7-under total 12 months ago (it would have been 11-under again but for the 7th being converted to a par 4) and he forms part of another stellar field with the twin aims of a title challenge in Scotland and a productive Open warm-up ahead of next week's Claret Jug shootout at Hoylake.

Obviously, it's the weather that has caused the disparity in winning scores at the Renaissance Club so it's certainly worth paying close attention to the forecast.

The latest prediction for North Berwick suggests nothing too challeging in terms of wind speeds until Sunday's final round when 20mph and more is expected.

Strokes Gained numbers aren't particularly conclusive on first glance. Winner Schauffele was 1st for SG: Tee To Green but only 28th for SG: Putting last year. By contrast, the rest of the top seven all putted well but weren't outstanding in other areas.

Min Woo Lee was 4th TTG when winning in 2021 and 17th in Putting while Matt Fitzpatrick, who finished joint runner-up, was 1st for SGP.

The most reliable stat appears to be Tee To Green with the four winners since 2019 ranking 3rd, 2nd, 4th and 1st.

But don't gloss over the Around The Green element of that. The last three champions ranked 15th, 2nd and 8th for ATG and short game is always a valuable commodity in links/links style conditions.

Robert MacIntyre @ 66/167.00

It could well be that Scottie Scheffler putts well and blows the field away this week.

And, of course, Schauffele's victory last year shows that there's always a big gun on hand to lift the trophy even if many of them fall away and move their focus to next week's Open.

But I'd rather look further down the betting this week and I'm going to give local hero Robert MacIntyre a go at 66/167.00.

It didn't work out for the Scot in last week's Made in HimmerLand in Denmark when he let an obvious winning chance slip and dropped back to fourth.

But it's fair to surmise that MacIntyre watched Dane Rasmus Hojgaard lift the trophy in front of the home fans and was left thinking, 'that's pretty cool; I'll have some of that'.

Here in Scotland he gets an immediate chance to do so and there's enough in his stats, course and current form to think that the left-hander can give it a good go.

MacIntyre has finished 14th and 18th in two of the last three editions and shot seven straight rounds in the 60s across those two events so he clearly gets on well with the course.

In his last 10 starts, he has four top 10s and a further pair of top 20s so the lure of the Ryder Cup is definitely kicking in.

While last week was disappointing - he led at the turn on Sunday - MacIntyre admits his attitude has been strong in recent times and that will help him here.

His stats look good too. The Oban man was 7th for SG: Tee To Green and 12th Around The Green in Denmark having been 9th in that latter category at The Belfry a week earlier.

MacIntyre likes to mix it with the big guns, especially on UK turf, and that's shown by finishes of tied sixth (2019) and tied eighth (2021) in two of the last three Open Championships.

Take him to make a challenge here.

Max Homa @ 33/134.00

Having put up Max Homa at 30/1 for the US PGA and watched him finish tied 55th, I'm very much in that large group of punters who have backer's remorse when it comes to following the American in Majors.

I steered clear at the US Open despite it being on his home Californian turf and that decision proved justified as Homa missed the cut.

Let's just say I won't be backing him at Hoylake this week but here... well, it's hard not to be drawn in by that 33/134.00.

That's a bigger price than he's been in recent Majors and, of course, he won't have all the same questions thrown at him. If we're baffled why he can't cut it in Majors, imagine how Homa himself feels.

Instead, this looks a fine chance for one of the PGA Tour's more engaging and cerebral characters to flood the grey matter with positive experiences.

As well as making an evening trip to play famed North Berwick 12 months ago, Homa enjoyed himself at this week's course, shooting a Saturday 66 to enter the closing round inside the top 10.

He finished 16th but - context klaxon - that's better than he's ever managed in the US Masters, the US Open or the Open Championship.

Take out the Majors and since May Homa has top 10s at Wells Fargo and Colonial while his last five rounds have all been in the 60s: 65, 69, 68, 69, 67.

He ranked 9th for SG: Tee To Green at the Rocket Mortgage Classic last time and I'm further encouraged by how he was 2nd for SG: Around The Green here at Renaissance last year, perhaps his short-game imagination fired by breathing in the Scottish air.

A winner by the coast at Torrey Pines earlier this year, one final thing to note is that Homa has posted a top 10 in his final outing before each of this year's Majors: WGC Match Play, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab Challenge.

That's probably what draws us in to backing Homa in Majors but we now know that dress rehearsals are the best time to catch him!

Alexander Bjork @ 100/1101.00

If it's an in-form player you want, look no further than Alexander Bjork.

The Swede is enjoying the most consistent spell of his career and that's led to these exceptional form figures: 4-4-29-6-9-8-4.

Bjork started that run of six top 10s in his last seven starts in May's Italian Open and he banked his latest top four thanks to weekend scores of 63-67 at the Made in HimmerLand last time.

He's ranked 11th and 1st for SG: Tee To Green in his last two events, picking up a combined 17.252 strokes at those tournaments in Denmark and England (The Belfry).

Then we have his course form too. The bare numbers don't look exceptional but there's plenty of good stuff to be found when drilling down.

Bjork was 62nd on debut at The Renaissance Club, 19th in 2020, 26th in 2021 and 42nd last year. But he's twice shot 63 here and was in the top 10 with 18 to play in both 2021 and 2022 before falling away.

On current form, he gives the impression that he would make a much better fist of contending if getting himself into a similar position this week.

It's ambitious to think he could win but 100/1101.00 offers plenty of each-way value with eight payout places to go for.