Chris Gotterup just birdied the first playoff hole to win the WM Phoenix Open after Hideki Matsuyama dumped his tee shot into the water. It's Gotterup's fourth career PGA Tour victory, his second win in three starts this season, and a continuation of a hot streak that now puts him in genuinely elite company.
But the win itself isn't what makes Gotterup interesting. It's how he got here.
From Lacrosse Kid to College Golf Afterthought
Gotterup grew up in Little Silver, New Jersey — not exactly a pipeline to professional golf. His dad was a collegiate tennis player and accomplished amateur golfer who won multiple New Jersey State Golf Association events, so the game was always around. But young Gotterup wasn't a one-sport prodigy grinding at a golf academy in Florida. He played lacrosse. He was an athlete first, a golfer second.
He played varsity golf at Christian Brothers Academy, then made a decision that raised eyebrows: he went to Rutgers. Not Oklahoma State. Not Texas. Not Arizona State. Rutgers — a school nobody associates with elite college golf. He played there for four years and was a four-time All-American, winning Big Ten Player of the Year. But even that wasn't enough to make him a household name. In 29 career tournaments with the Scarlet Knights, he posted seven top-five finishes and four top-tens. Solid, but not the résumé of someone you'd expect to become one of the best players on the planet within a few years.
Then he transferred to Oklahoma for a fifth year, and everything clicked. He won both the Haskins Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation's top college golfer in 2022. That earned him PGA Tour University status, and he chose the traditional Korn Ferry route rather than chasing a LIV payday.
The Fastest Climb You Aren't Talking About
Here's the stat that should make you pay attention: Gotterup is the most recent player to win three PGA Tour events in 70 starts or fewer. The only other guys who've done it recently? Tom Kim. Viktor Hovland. Collin Morikawa. Jon Rahm. Xander Schauffele.
That's not good company. That's generational company.
His win list tells the story of acceleration. The 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic was a nice debut victory, but nothing that screamed superstar. Then came the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open, where he beat Rory McIlroy by two shots. That was a statement. And now in 2026, he's opened with wins at the Sony Open and the WM Phoenix Open — two victories in his first three starts of the season.
At 26, Gotterup is playing with the kind of confidence that snowballs. After his Phoenix Open win, he put it simply: "I feel confident in what I'm doing and feel like I have played well enough to feel confident to be able to be in those positions. So far, I've been able to capitalize on those."
That's not bravado. That's earned certainty. There's a difference.
What Sunday Actually Looked Like
The final round at TPC Scottsdale was a chess match that turned into chaos. Matsuyama held a one-shot lead going into Sunday and seemed in control — until his driver betrayed him. He missed 11 fairways in the final round, and the 18th hole in regulation was a disaster: a pulled drive into the church pew bunkers, a second shot into the bunker face, and a failed up-and-down from 43 yards. He limped in with a 68.
Meanwhile, Gotterup was doing what hot players do: finding gears when he needed them. He birdied five of his last six holes to shoot a 64 and force the playoff at 16-under. Scottie Scheffler made a late charge too — four birdies in five holes on the back nine for his own 64 — but missed a 24-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have made it a three-man playoff.
In the playoff on 18, Matsuyama pulled his tee shot even further left than he had in regulation, sending it off the far bank and into the water. Gotterup striped a massive drive down the fairway, hit his approach, and rolled in a 27-foot birdie putt. Tournament over.
The TGL Factor Nobody Expected
One overlooked element of Gotterup's 2026 surge: he credits TGL — the tech-driven indoor golf league — with sharpening his competitive edge during the offseason. Usually a slow starter on Tour, Gotterup came out firing this year, and he attributes part of that to the high-pressure reps TGL provided. Practicing on the range at home doesn't replicate tournament pressure. Hitting shots with cameras rolling and fans watching — even in a simulator environment — apparently does.
He even set the TGL longest drive record at 374 yards, which tracks with the kind of raw power that makes his game so dangerous.
This is worth paying attention to, especially for the "TGL is just a gimmick" crowd. If one of the hottest players on the planet says it's helping him perform under pressure, maybe there's more substance there than the skeptics want to admit.
What Amateurs Can Actually Learn From Gotterup
It's easy to watch a 26-year-old bomb-and-gouge his way around TPC Scottsdale and think none of it applies to your Saturday foursome. But Gotterup's story has some genuinely transferable lessons:
Athleticism matters more than golf-specific training (at first). Gotterup's lacrosse background gave him coordination, explosiveness, and competitive instincts that translated directly to golf. If you're a parent wondering whether your kid should specialize in golf at age 10, Gotterup is evidence that multi-sport athletes often develop better. And if you're an adult golfer, investing in general fitness and mobility will likely help your game more than another hour on the range.
The path doesn't have to be linear. Gotterup went to Rutgers — a Big Ten school with no golf pedigree — before transferring to Oklahoma. His route to the Tour was unconventional. There's a lesson there about trusting the process even when you're not at the "right" place or following the expected trajectory.
Seek pressure, don't avoid it. Gotterup's TGL comments reveal a player who actively seeks out uncomfortable situations. Most amateurs do the opposite — they avoid competitive rounds, skip club championships, and stick to casual games where nothing's on the line. If you want to get better under pressure, you have to practice being under pressure. Enter that member-guest. Play that qualifier. Put something on the line.
Confidence compounds. Gotterup talks about feeling confident because he's put himself in contention and delivered. You build that loop through repetition. For amateurs, that means setting small, achievable goals — breaking 90, winning your flight, making a clutch putt in a match — and stacking those wins.
Where This Goes From Here
Gotterup moves on to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week, where he'll face a stacked Signature Event field including Scheffler, McIlroy, Justin Rose, and Tommy Fleetwood. A $20 million purse and no cut means 72 holes of elite competition.
If Gotterup wins three of his first four starts in 2026, we're not talking about a hot streak anymore. We're talking about a new tier. The early season belongs to him right now, and the way he's closing tournaments — five birdies in the last six holes on Sunday, a 27-foot bomb in a playoff — suggests this isn't luck. It's arrival.
The kid from the Jersey Shore, the one who played lacrosse and went to Rutgers, is playing the best golf on the planet right now. And he's only 26.
