21:10 - July 10, 2026 - Past winners dominate at the Renaissance
The second round of the ISCO Championship is still ongoing and the action's live on Sky Sports in the UK but I'm going to leave that one alone for now and concentrate on the week's main event, the Scottish Open, where three players are tied for the lead after 36 holes.
Here's the latest state of play with prices to back at 21:00.
Rory McIlroy -9 3.39/4
Tom Kim -9 9.89/1
Jordan Smith -9 15.529/2
Matt Fitzpatrick -8 7.613/2
Min Woo Lee -8 13.525/2
Chris Gotterup -7 15.014/1
Robert MacIntyre -7 17.533/2
Victor Perez -7 46.045/1
Sudarshan Yellamaraju -7 75.074/1
Keita Nakajima -7 100.099/1
Nicolai Von Dellinghausen -7 200.0199/1
Joost Luiten -7 250.0249/1
Wyndham Clark -6 25.024/1
Nicolai Hojgaard -6 32.031/1
-6 and 75.074/1 bar
Given four of the last five Scottish Open winners are inside the top 12 at halfway, it's fair to say that course form stands up very well here but that just makes our job even harder with 36 holes to play. And it's hard enough looking at the in-ruuning trends...
The 2023 winner, McIlroy, is the man to beat and given he finished fourth when defending and second last year, after being matched in-running at a low of 1.635/8, it's very difficult to imagine he won't be a factor come Sunday evening, but being in front at this stage isn't always ideal.
Last year's winner, Chris Goitterup, who's attempting to become the first player to defend the title, was two clear 12 months ago after a sensational 62 in round two and Rory led by a stroke in 2023 but three clear 36-hole leaders have been beaten since the event moved to the Renaissance Course in 2019.
Bernd Wiesberger was tied at the top at halfway in 2019 and he was two clear through 54 holes, but he was lucky to win in the end with the runner-up, Benjamin Herbert, being matched at as low as 1.021/50 in running.
Herbert had been six back at halfway and three course winners have been outside the top 10 at this stage.
The 2020 winner, Aaron Rai, was eight adrift and tied 28th at this stage, Min Woo Lee, the 2021 winner, was six back and tied for 23rd at halfway and Robert MacIntyre trailed by four at this stage two years ago, so this is still a wide-open event, although the weather may help the leading pack.
Poor weather, and windy weather in particular, can create a volatile leaderboard but light winds and a bit of rain are predicted tomorrow and if it pans out that way, we can expect some low scores.
With 17 players separated by just three strokes, it's hard to see anyone from too far back making a charge this year.
If the conditions are good, and the rain arrives to take the sting out of the course, those in the front rank now will hold a big advantage and I suspect we need to be concentrating on the leaders.
Rory is a perfectly fair price at around 9/43.25 but I've gone against the trends and backed the defending champ, Gotterup, who did us a favour last week when winning the John Deere Classic from off the pace with 18 to play.
Understandably given his victory on Sunday, Gotterup took his time to get going this week and he was one-over-par after nine holes on Thursday morning, but he's improved nicely since, although he's bogeyed his final hole on each of the first two days.
The rough is a little thick this year so finding the fairways is crucial and putting is always important in this event.
On day one, Gotterup ranked 115th for Driving Accuracy, 76th for Putting Average and 121st for Putts Per GIR. In round two he ranked 11th, 20th and 14th for those three important metrics.
With three PGA Tour titles already in the bag in 2026, Gotterup is a reliable performer in the mix and trailing by two, he's a fair price at 14/115.00 on the Betfair Exchange.
Back Chris Gotterup
14:40 - July 10, 2026 - Open champion misses the cut in Scotland
With less than a week to go before the Open Championship begins, it's inevitable that attention starts to drift towards Royal Birkdale and the big story at this week's main event - the Scottish Open - is that the defending Open champion, Scottie Scheffler, is going to miss the cut at the Renaissance Course.
The world number one had made it through to the weekend in each of his last 78 PGA Tour events and his last missed cut was at the St Jude Championship in August 2022, so it's a sizable surprise to see him miss out.
He's still the man to beat next week according to the Open Championship win market but, having been matched at as low as 4/15.00, he's now out to 8.415/2.
"I got off to a tough start and then on the back nine I didn't feel like I was hitting it close enough to give myself enough opportunities. I think that's what it really comes down to. I got off to a poor start and didn't really hit it close enough to give myself a bunch of looks... pic.twitter.com/Sqk3LkZ3DO
-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 10, 2026
A pair of Englishman, Jordan Smith, on -9, and Matt Fitzpatrick, on -8, show the way but Rory McIlroy is within three with the vast majority of his second round still to play.
At the time of writing, Rory is trading at around 5/23.50 but I'll be back later today or first thing in the morning with a detailed look at the state of play at halfway.
Given the last four Open winners have finished 10th, 12th, 15th and eighth in the Scottish Open, it's well worth keeping an eye on the Open market.
If you want your appetite whetting further for the year's final major next week, take a look at Dave Tindall's 10-year trends piece here and Matt Cooper's Open Championship 2026 Player Guide here.