Most important flight in golf? Spieth on special PGA Tour charter to Scotland

Scotland will showpiece two huge golf tournaments over the next fortnight and the PGA Tour have made sure their stars arrive safely on the links.

The Genesis Scottish Open is set to take centre-stage at The Renaissance Club and will serve as the perfect warm-up act to next week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon.

The exciting back-to-back events come following a busy run on the PGA Tour since last month’s US Open.

American Davis Thompson claimed his first career win at the John Deere Classic in Illinois on Sunday.

But he had little time to celebrate at TPC Deere Run as he and 32 fellow PGA Tour pros were whisked onto a charter flight to take them to Edinburgh overnight.

To help attract the strongest field possible, John Deere sponsor a special flight from Quad Cities International Airport to Britain to ease logistics for the players.

Jordan Spieth, Aaron Rai and Sepp Straka were among the players on the plane to Scotland and will all tee it up at Renaissance on Thursday.

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Golfers are regular flyers with tournaments held all over the world each week.

But the one-off charter is a welcome addition to the calendar with the Scottish events always popular with American players.

The Genesis Scottish Open will welcome a glittering field this week with 13 of the world’s top 20 players teeing it up while the best in the game will then head to Troon next week.

Spieth said recently that while the charter was a ‘great perk’, it wasn’t the sole reason for him teeing it up at TPC Deere Run.

He said: “That had nothing to do with me playing this week at all.

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“It absolutely is great that it’s been done like that whether it was to the Scottish or the Open but especially to the Scottish where you’re not getting guys to go to a major that seems easier.

“It’s a great perk but it made no difference in me playing next week or playing this week.”

Rory McIlroy won the Scottish Open last year, holding off local boy Robert MacIntyre to win by one stroke on the final hole.

Brian Harman then stormed to victory at The Open at Royal Liverpool, battling the elements to secure a dominate win.