PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Chris Gotterup still has the scorecard framed in the basement of his parent’s home in New Jersey. It shows that young Chris had shot 69 at Rumson Country Club, his home course when he was either 13 or 14. Some of the details are a bit foggy for the 26-year-old rising PGA Tour star but this he knows: it’s the only scorecard from his childhood that he kept.
“Me and my dad had a bet when I was growing up that once I broke par, he would take me out here,” Gotterup recalled of the famed seaside course along the Pacific Ocean. “So we came, I don’t know how many years ago it was, but we came then, me and my brother and my dad played. … just remember I have a video of my brother lipping out a putt on 18 and he fell to his knees.”
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Added Gotterup: “It’s one of those things that it was my first time like being a decent player and getting to like play a place like this and enjoying it rather than being a young kid and not really know what you’re doing. I was able to like appreciate the history and the greatness of this place.”
Chris Gotterup speaks to the media prior to the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
He’s been back once before – for a college tournament during his COVID year after transferring from Rutgers in his native New Jersey to golf powerhouse Oklahoma – and he will make his debut this week in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am fresh off a playoff victory at the WM Phoenix Open and as a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season having previously won the Sony Open in Hawaii.
He’s also climbed to No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking and the second ranked American behind only Scottie Scheffler. Even the world No. 1 has taken notice of Gotterup’s run of form, which includes winning the Genesis Scottish Open in July while outplaying Rory McIlory down the stretch.
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“Scottie was following me at lunch and he’s like, ‘I’m just going to eat what you’re eating,'” Gotterup recounted.
Heady stuff and consider this: Gotterup can become the first player in 51 years to win three of the first five events of the PGA Tour season since Johnny Miller in 1975.
“Just try to keep my head on straight and not get too over my skis and obviously get ready for, you know, the first signature event of the year and try to keep what I’ve been doing rolling,” Gotterup said.
Hard to fathom that about 10 months ago, Gotterup was ranked No. 228 in the world, his lone win the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic, an opposite-field event. Gotterup has been a bit of a late bloomer, lightly recruited despite winning the New Jersey State Open but he captured the Haskins and Jack Nicklaus Awards, two of the prizes awarded to the men’s collegiate player of the year. It took the long bomber a little while to get his footing. He missed the cut at five of his first six starts just a year ago and eight of 11 before he started dialing in his short irons from 100-150 yards.
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“Not that I didn’t practice it before, but it wasn’t a priority of mine. I didn’t think it needed to be,” he explained. “It’s been helpful to have stats breakdown be like, ‘Hey, numbers don’t lie, this is what it’s saying.'”
Chris Gotterup celebrates after winning the 2026 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale.
On Sunday, Gotterup charged home with five birdies in his last six holes of regulation, including wedging from 130 yards to 2 feet at the last, to shoot a final-round 64 at TPC Scottsdale. He capped the day off with another birdie on the first extra hole to beat Hideki Matsuyama. And then, in what is fast becoming a trademark of his, he began crying tears of joy as CBS’s Amanda Balionis tried to get him to explain his remarkable rally.
“I don’t know what happens in those interviews,” he said. “My girlfriend was like, ‘You’ve never cried in the two years that we’ve dated, only when you won.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know what causes it or why but it happens.’ It’s just a crazy feeling of like you’re trying to suppress everything all week of like there’s so much going on, there’s so much like going through your head and then like all of a sudden when the putt drops, it’s just like your brain lets everything back in and it’s an overwhelming amount of stuff hitting you at the same time and realizing what you just did.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Chris Gotterup first played Pebble Beach as a teen after winning a bet
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