Chris Gotterup came to play this week.
After opening with a Thursday 66, he shot his PGA Tour-best 64 in Friday’s second round of the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic, where he took a one-shot lead into the weekend.
Saturday’s third round at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club saw a 65 from Gotterup, the 2022 Haskins Award winner as the top player in college golf at Oklahoma, and that opened up a four-shot lead after 54 holes, tying the largest lead after three rounds on Tour this season.
During Sunday’s final round, he stumbled out of the gate with back-to-back bogeys but that appeared to merely wake him up, as he went birdie-eagle-birdie over his next three holes. He made the turn in 33 and then went 2 under down the stretch to shoot a final-round 67, with birdies on three of his last four holes, to finish at 21 under and cruise to a six-shot win over Alistair Docherty and Davis Thompson. That marks the largest margin of victory this year, besting the five-shot margin Scottie Scheffler had at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Gotterup then celebrated with family as his mom, dad and brother all made the trip on Mother’s Day to watch his maiden victory.
“Well, I saved my ass because I ordered some flowers and they didn’t come,” he said. “They’re not supposed to come until tomorrow, so I gave her at least something today. But it’s awesome. They came down this morning, and after the first two holes they were probably a little iffy, but yeah, just a great day.”
In his 27th start, Gotterup became the seventh first-time winner and second in as many weeks in 2024. In addition to the first-place check for $720,000, Gotterup punched his ticket into the PGA Championship at Valhalla, which starts Thursday. It’ll be his second major start following an appearance in the 2022 U.S. Open. He’s also the fourth rookie to win on the PGA Tour in 2024.
Ryan McCormick, Beau Hossler, Kevin Yu, Ryan Fox and Jorge Campillo all tied for fourth at 15 under. Alex Smalley tied for 20th at 11 under but got good news earlier in the day when he was added to the PGA Championship field after Steve Stricker withdrew Sunday morning.