Christopher

Gotterup

The Oklahoma product flashed with a T4 finish at the John Deere Classic this summer but only had a few months to rack up FedExCup Points. That leaves him as a non-member for the 2023 campaign so he’ll rely on sponsor’s invites and/or Monday Qualifiers to earn his way. His first start of the new season was a T51 at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, scooping up just 7 Non-Member FedExCup Points for his efforts. The 23-year-old has superstar upside but is still working on the consistency part of the equation, losing strokes to the field in six of his last nine rounds on the PGA TOUR.

The 23-year-old, who celebrated his birthday two days ago (July 20th), celebrated a big-time rally on Friday to make the weekend in his tourney debut. After kicking off with a zero-birdie 4-over 75, he opened Friday on 10 tee to a pair of bogey-5s, now 6-over total, but righted the ship with 16 holes of error-free golf, highlighted by an eagle-3 at 6 from 5'0" after a stellar approach from 271 yards, and a walk-off birdie-3 at 9 from 7'10" after an approach from 181 yards. Gotterup, a standout as a 5th-year (redshirt) senior at Oklahoma, is making his seventh career start, sixth as a pro, and already owns two top 10s, including a T7 as an amateur in Puerto Rico in his TOUR debut, where he was in the top 10 after every round, and a T4 at the John Deere two starts ago, where he was also in the top 10 after every round (65-67-69-66). See link below to post-round comments.

A total of 83 pros from a field of 155 pros and one amateur made the 36-hole cut of 5-under 139, 20 (T64) on the number. Gotterup, making his tourney debut as a pre-tourney 15/1 fave outright, was T144 after a three-birdie, six-bogey 75 in R1 on Thursday. In his second round on Friday, he was 2-under thru five when play was suspended due to darkness, now T137, and to his credit, returned on Saturday morning to complete his lap when several others did not. For the short (but long) week, the 22-year-old, who celebrates his birthday in 11 days (July 20th), totaled nine birdies against seven bogeys, and ranked 33rd SG: Putting (1.900) though 136th SG: Tee-to-Green (-4.915), losing the lion’s share of that around-the-green (-4.359). Other notable early exits, particularly in DFS circles, include: 140- Sam Ryder; Patton Kizzire; John Huh .. 142- Vaughn Taylor; Chase Seiffert; Bo Hoag; Lee Hodges .. 147- Michael Thompson; Kelly Kraft.

One hundred fifty-five players (of 156) completed 18 holes on Thursday at Keene Trace GC and the 22-year-old slots in at T144, 13 adrift of leader Adam Svensson. After last week’s T4 on debut at the John Deere on a sponsor exemption, his second top 10 in five career events (four as pro), he originally passed on the top-10 exemption into this week, say he was going to go home and take a day or two to get his feet under him, and to “just get back to normal life for a bit.” Later that same evening, the reigning Haskins and Nicklaus Award winner changed his mind, did go home for a bit, but then made the trip to Kentucky for his Barbasol debut, and was promptly inserted as a 15/1 fave outright. Today, on eight (of 14) fairways and 10 greens in regulation, he lost 6.874 strokes tee-to-green, gained 1.739 on-the-green, and was birdie-less 6-over thru 14 holes before rallying late with circles at 15, 16 and 18, two from between 13 and 17 feet. Gotterup did not conduct any media after R1, but did have a pre-tourney presser (link below), and will need something quite low in R2 if he wants to duke it out over the weekend.

The 22-year-old, who arrived off a T35 at last week’s Travelers on a sponsor invite, was making his tourney debut this week, also on a sponsor invite. This was his fifth career TOUR event, fourth as a pro, bettering a T7 at the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open in March in his only TOUR start as an amateur. That’s two top 10s in five events, and this one gains him an exemption into next week’s Barbasol, but according to his post-tourney comments (link below), he’s taking a pass (for now): “Yeah, going home. I need to take a day or two to just get my feet under me and see my family, dogs, and just get back to normal life for a bit.” The New Jersey resident, who recorded rounds of 65-67-69-66, the 65 his best so far, totaled two eagles and 21 birdies against eight bogeys, and ranked 2nd SG: Tee-to-Green (13.164) and 55th SG: Putting (-1.497), losing strokes with the flat stick in three of four rounds (R1/R3/R4).

The 22-year-old gained 6.4 strokes tee-to-green on day one, and while he slowed his pace today, he continued to flash those ball-striking skills. Most notably, was driving the green at the par-4 14th to set up a 41-foot eagle bomb. Overall, he gave himself five birdie-or-better looks from inside of 10 feet today. He pelted 16 greens despite splitting just half of the 14 fairways. “I really love this course. There is something about it. I don’t know why there are certain holes that I really like, certain tee shots I like.” Gotterup currently ranks 6th in the tee-to-green category this week and will continue to be a fun, young name to leaderboard watch this summer.

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.

The college star at Rutgers, and most recently Oklahoma, missed the cut two weeks ago in Canada but played his way to the weekend last week at the U.S. Open. He ended with a T43 finish and now he’ll try to keep that momentum rolling as he stays in the Northeast and plays this week’s event on a sponsor’s invite. Gotterup reached as high as 25th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and will now spend most of his time on the PGA TOUR Canada circuit after finishing 7th in the PGA TOUR University standings. A T7 earlier this season at the Puerto Rico Open really showcased the type of upside he has for weekly fantasy formats.

The 22-year-old Gotterup carded rounds of 67-70 at Century CC and Old Oaks CC to finish at 3-under 137 and tied with amateur Caleb Manuel (69-68) from Topsham, Maine, for two of the five available spots. Eight players finished at 2-under 138 and played off for the final three spots. Surviving the 8-for-3 playoff were 57-year-old Tour veteran Fran Quinn (69-69), who was in the field alongside his son, Owen, South Florida’s Brandon Matthews (70-68) and Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen (67-71). His appearance at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., mark the second U.S. Open start for Thorbjornsen, who three years ago at age 17 became the second youngest player since World War II to make the cut at a U.S. Open. First alternate is Kelly Kraft (69-69), the former U.S. Amateur champion who was seeking his first U.S. Open start, with Texan Chandler Phillips as second alternate. Missing out in the playoff were high school senior Ben James, who’ll play at the University of Virginia this fall, Iceland’s Haraldur Magnus and Michael Sweeney.