European Ryder Cup standout Sepp Straka and Rolex Series Champion Victor Perez share the early spotlight at the Genesis Scottish Open, finishing tied for the lead after the opening round at The Renaissance Club.
The duo joins Colombia’s Nico Echavarria and American Jake Knapp at six under par, with all four carding impressive rounds of 64 to sit one shot clear atop a tightly packed leaderboard. Echavarria was the first to set the pace before being matched by Knapp and Straka in the morning wave. Perez, based in Dundee, surged late in the day to complete the leading quartet.
This event marks the start of the DP World Tour’s Closing Swing, and competition is fierce with 28 players within three strokes of the lead after just 18 holes.
Straka, who already boasts two PGA TOUR titles this season, is eyeing his maiden Rolex Series win. Perez, meanwhile, is seeking his first victory since claiming the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in 2023.
Scotland’s Calum Hill leads the home charge at five under, tied with Germany’s Marcel Siem and Matti Schmid, along with England’s Marco Penge.
Norwegian star Viktor Hovland posted a bogey-free round to finish at four under, alongside South Korea’s Tom Kim, New Zealander Ryan Fox, and Americans Wyndham Clark and Keith Mitchell.
A further 19 players are grouped at three under par. Notably, defending champion Robert MacIntyre, along with past winners Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele, opened with solid rounds of 68 to sit at two under heading into Friday.
About the DP World Tour
The DP World Tour is the main men’s professional golf tour of the European Tour group.
As golf’s global tour, we showcase global talent in global destinations and use our platform to build, entertain and connect our global community.
GLOBAL TALENT:Â We provide pathways and a platform for the leading international talent, bringing together golfing icons, national heroes and emerging stars from around the world.
GLOBAL DESTINATIONS: We stage tournaments in iconic cities and locations around the world and each week we celebrate and showcase the rich diversity of the courses, cities and cultures we visit.
GLOBAL COMMUNITY:Â We build, entertain and connect communities through our commitment to innovation, creative content and having a positive social and environmental impact.
Our 2025 Global Schedule features 42 tournaments in 26 different countries and comprises three distinct phases: five ‘Global Swings’, the ‘Back 9’ and the ‘DP World Tour Play-Offs’. It features five Rolex Series events – the premium category of events on the DP World Tour – and four Major Championships, all of which count towards the Race to Dubai Rankings, the Tour’s season-long competition which concludes at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
DP World, the leading provider of global smart end-to-end supply chain and logistics solutions, has been the title partner of the DP World Tour since the start of the 2022 season, the Tour’s 50th season following its formation in 1972.
We also enjoy the support of many of the world’s leading business brands with DP World, Rolex, Aldar, BMW, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Emirates, Fortinet and Vestas as Official Partners.
About the European Tour groupÂ
The European Tour group administers the DP World Tour, the HotelPlanner Tour, the Legends Tour and the G4D Tour and, as the Managing Partner of Ryder Cup Europe LLP, stages golf’s greatest team contest, the Ryder Cup, in partnership with the PGA of America.
The European Tour group has Strategic Partnerships with the PGA TOUR, the Sunshine Tour, the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association (CGA), the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO), the Korea Professional Golfers’ Association (KPGA), and the TATA Steel Professional Golf Tour of India. These partnerships provide global pathways for players from across the world to compete internationally on the DP World Tour, the main men’s professional golf Tour of the European Tour group which was established in 1972, as well as the HotelPlanner Tour.
