​As the PGA Tour reorganizes its schedule and competition format, Rory McIlroy is keen to ensure that one category of events remains firmly in focus. When people hear “national open,” they often think of the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, but there are dozens of other national opens held on various tours around the world each year, and this week’s Genesis Scottish Open is among them.
The Scottish Open has grown significantly in prestige and field strength in recent seasons. In 2022, the PGA Tour began co-sanctioning the event with the DP World Tour, ensuring it has taken place every year since 1986, and Genesis became the title sponsor in that same year. Since then, the list of Scottish Open champions has included McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Robert MacIntyre, and Chris Gotterup—names who are all currently ranked inside the world’s top 20. The tournament, which starts Thursday at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, has evolved into an excellent prelude to the Open Championship, which follows the next week. It gives UK fans another opportunity to witness the game’s biggest stars while also allowing PGA Tour players—and American audiences—the chance to adjust their body clocks and reacquaint themselves with links golf.
“I think since this event has been co-sanctioned, it really has went from strength-to-strength,” McIlroy said at a media briefing at the Renaissance Club on Wednesday. “You look at the quality of the field this week, you get a great sponsor like Genesis on board. They have kept making improvements to the golf course and the facilities each and every year. So I think for these strong National Opens, this, to me, is the blueprint of what it can be and what can happen. Yeah, I think it’s a perfect lead-in to The Open Championship.”
McIlroy’s vision for strengthening national opens extends to a different event that could serve as another major stepping stone.
“I’ve thought about whether the Canadian Open could become co-sanctioned as well, leading into the U.S. Open,” McIlroy said. “That could be interesting, too, in terms of building out this series of national opens that carry more meaning behind them. I’m not sure how that fits into the Track 1 and Track 2 framework, but I see this event and the way it’s been run over the past few years and I definitely feel like it’s the blueprint for many of the other national opens.”
With the PGA Tour moving to a two-track system, there is ongoing debate about which tournaments belong to which tier. Track 1, to be renamed the Championship Series, will be more exclusive and feature most of the Tour’s marquee events, with fields tightened for stronger search engine optimization and broader perception of prestige. The evolution of these national opens—led by the Scottish Open’s example—could influence how other national opens are structured and integrated into the broader season, underscoring McIlroy’s belief that they can serve as meaningful, strategic bridges to the majors.