The Scottish Open is special. How long can it last like that?

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland – Times are changing in golf. You’ve heard it all, how the status quo at the top of the game has gone from Elite events to Featured events to Signature events to … Championship Series and Challenger Series. All that in about four years, which is confusing.

Yes, the PGA Tour’s future has been hard to pin down for a while, but it feels about 80% baked. The only glaring – though still very important – details that still need to be ironed out. To create an easier-than-ever, more profitable television product for you to enjoy, the PGA Tour will be divided into two divisions, plagued by tight boundaries, with unpredictable schedules and fields.

But how does this come about with the question: Who gets the Scottish Open? Or rather, it does or got the Scottish Open?

This week’s event does everything What PGA Tour management wants for its future, major events. It is located just outside the main metro in Edinburgh. It is played on a physical (and increasingly popular) golf course. That property bigwhich means it has a parking space.

And not just parking – there are a number of cottages on site (and on the neighboring Archerfield Estate) that are home to players. And those not lucky enough to stay at the Renaissance, perhaps, have even more fun down the road, at the Marine Hotel in North Berwick, where one of the best courses in the world is free to play all week. PGA Tour players are there I am happy if they are here.

The Scottish has a calendar, too – it usually hosts the week before the Open Championship – playing in the future of the tour. The Championship Series is all about getting top players to play two or three week stretches or back-to-back tournaments, drawing attention to the weeks between majors and then taking a well-deserved break before doing it again.

The event itself is great, too. It has been growing, little by little, over the years, thanks to a dedicated sponsor at Genesis. This year the course has been moved again for fun, and it works. The construction of stands has increased. The fan village comes alive every night, with concerts and players offering a little something extra for golfers – not unlike what they do at the big events in the States.

Then there is the crowd. The smartest golf crowd in the world, they say. The Scots, who, in cold and foggy times, are seen in large numbers and wearing a lot of shorts because, the winter in Scotland is so dull that when summer comes, you have no valid excuse to miss it. Tournament organizers have followed their American counterparts, adding another hospitality section this year. If huddling around spectators and tripping over dunes and fescue isn’t your way of watching golf, there’s a new package for you called the Thistle Club.

There are a lot of great tournaments on the current Tour schedule but almost all of them leave a box unchecked – maybe a sponsor wants out, maybe the course isn’t the right fit, maybe the space on the calendar is too tight – putting them at risk of not being included in the coveted Championship Series. There is no room for everyone to be happy, but this event is in Scotland it should be. It seems to tick all the boxes. What happened with the Scottish Open is not completely as far as the PGA Tour. This is a jointly approved the event, managed by DP World Tour, which features prominently in its program and includes many of its membership. These two sides have their strategic alliances, but how far does that agreement go?

Part of this week’s field is made up of top players outside in the United States – golfers like Nacho Elvira, Bernd Wiesberger, Alejandro Del Rey, among many others with more name recognition. Half of the PGA Tour, simply put, includes more star power. According to the Official World Golf Ranking, the highest-ranked player to enter the DP World Tour (discounting LIV golfers such as Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton), Marco Penge, is 48 years old in the world. And, excluding Rahm and Hatton, that means the top 29 players in the field are here on the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour’s co-sanctioning of this tournament is a big reason why the fans show up, why there is so much media coverage, and a big reason why this tournament – even in its current state – still has the potential to be a big thing. The Scottish Open under the Championship Series model could draw even bigger crowds, increase its field capacity and potentially increase its operating budget.

But, can anything be lost in that process?

It’s a must-have conversation, and one that’s been in the background all week. The country’s favorite golfer, Bob MacIntyre, ended his pre-tournament press conference with the belief that everything would be fine.

“I think the Scottish Open should come before the Open,” he said, calling for the Championship/Challengers rule to be dropped. “I think it will be. I think there will be something different. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to anybody about it.”

MacIntyre won the event in 2024, rising to the top in the process. He won the Canadian Open last month that summer, and reminded reporters that that the competition can look for similar exceptions. The current model of the Championship Series means that players on that championship track cannot play in the Challenger Series, a problem that Canadians such as Corey Conners and Nick Taylor may find unpleasant.

Then there is the history of these competitions. How they are played, where they are played, WHO he has been playing. Rory McIlroy has called the Scottish “blueprint” for the country’s opening – the kind of tournaments locals grow up wanting to compete in. The type of international tournaments the PGA Tour insists it is interested in doing business with. As long as they can get together – with the relevant governing bodies, like the DP World Tour – to decide who will play. This week’s Scottish Open has six players from Scotland in the field. If it were to be cut down to just those on the proposed Championship list, only one Scot would remain, Bob Mac. (Perhaps surprisingly, he will finish higher than any of his peers this week.)

MacIntyre and McIlroy were the right experts to ask about the future of this event because they care about it as much as anyone. Each has argued for it multiple times, and each has provided additional details as to why it is important. McIlroy called it a “good lead-in” to next week’s Open Championship. In other words, as long as the Scottish Open is played the week before the last major of the year, McIlroy will probably be here. MacIntyre will absolutely be here. But he’s not sure what they’re supposed to be playing for.

“I personally think the Scottish Open will go well, to be honest with you,” MacIntyre said, before offering a rare thought: a golfer raising a modest purse.

“I don’t see it as a 20 million event. I see it as a Rolex/European Tour series, like a high-level European Tour event. I don’t – I think it would be a bit crazy to put a 20 million event in Scotland and the world we live in today. I mean, it’s not like America, you know what I mean?”

There were no follow-up questions on that quote. But maybe there should be.

The author welcomes your feedback at sean.zak@golf.com.