From the late wave and making his tourney debut on a sponsor exemption, non-member and World No. 671 Christopher Gotterup birdied three of his final five holes for a 6-under 32-33=65 in R1 of the John Deere Classic to sit T3, three adrift.
Beginning on 10 tee, the 22-year-old outflanked two squares at 13 (missed par-saver from 4'11") and 3, with eight circles at 12 (hole-out from greenside bunker), 14, 16, 17, 2, 5, 6 and 8 (fringe-shot from 12'10"), two conventionally from between 20 and 26 feet. On six (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, he posted 1.183 SG: Off-the-Tee, 2.128 SG: Approach, 3.114 SG: Around, No. 1 in that stat, and -0.130 SG: Putting with 26 total putts, lowlighted by a missed birdie at 7 from 5'0". Gotterup, who just finished his fifth year (red-shirt Sr.) at Oklahoma after four years at Rutgers, where he was the Big Ten Player of the Year in 2020, is making his fifth career PGA TOUR start, all this season, beginning with a T7 as an amateur at the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open back in March (68-68-70-71), and arrived off a T35 at last week’s Travelers (68-68-70-67) in his third event among the paid ranks. See link below to post-round comments.