Over the weekend, former Rutgers golfer Chris Gotterup etched his name into the history books with a win at the Myrtle Beach Classic.
Former Rutgers star and PGA Tour golfer Chris Gotterup made headlines on Sunday. The New Jersey native won the Myrtle Beach Classic, becoming the first Scarlet Knight in school history to win a PGA Tour event. Gotterup, who was with Rutgers from 2017-2020, finished 22 under par.
For Gotterup, it was a performance he will never forget, as he won a $720,000 prize. Due to his success, the 24-year-old has earned a spot in this week’s PGA Championship at Valhalla. He will also now be able to compete in the 2025 Players Championship and the Sentry.
On the final day of the classic, Gotterup took his game to another level. He finished with a four-under-par 67 to secure the win. On Sunday, he was able to create some separation from the competition with a clutch birdie from 15 feet on hole 16 to create a six-shot advantage.
During his biggest career win, Gotterup had to battle adversity after struggling on the first hole.
“I felt good, like better than I thought I would feel coming out of the gates even though I made two bogeys,” Gotterup said in a PGA postgame interview. “Kind of a crappy putt on the first hole and a really tough two-putt on the next. Then to bounce back the way I did, it’s just kind of how I roll.”
Although Gotterup is now shifting his focus to Valhalla, his performance last weekend secured a special place for him in history. He became the first Jersey Shore native to win the event since 1948. That has not changed his mindset but only increased his drive.
Gotterup led by four after 54 holes and ended up winning by six at the third opposite-field event on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule, which was held at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in South Carolina.
Full prize money and FedEx Cup points only follow victories in the non-additional events, but, a win is a win and Gotterup banked $720,000 for his victory. He also earned a spot in the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in five days.
Check out the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic prize money payouts for each PGA Tour golfer.
Gotterup’s first win on the PGA Tour has punched his ticket to Valhalla.
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.”
Chris Gotterup and his family celebrate after the final round of the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic at Dunes Golf & Beach Club. (Photo: Raj Mehta/Getty Images)
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.
The 2022 Haskins Award winner is in contention in Myrtle Beach.
Chris Gotterup birdied six of his last eight holes, including four straight to close out his round of 64, to grab the solo lead after 36 holes at the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic.
The third opposite-field event on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule is being held at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in South Carolina, where the 2022 Haskins Award winner went on a late tear, chipping to two-feet for a tap-in birdie on No. 15, sinking a six-footer for birdie on No. 16, draining a 50-footer for birdie on the par-3 17th and closing with a 17-foot birdie putt on 18.
“We were really just executing shots pretty solidly down the stretch there,” the former Oklahoma Sooner said. “It got pretty windy, so definitely a good finish for me today.”
Robert MacIntyre, tied for the lead after an opening 64, held the solo lead for the good part of Friday before Gotterup stormed up the leaderboard with his birdie onslaught. Still, MacIntyre shot 64-67 and is at 11 under, just a shot back. Should he hoist the trophy Sunday, MacIntyre would be the 16th left-handed golfer to win a PGA Tour event.
Jorge Campillo is solo third at 10 under and there are four golfers at 9 under, tied for fourth.
There have been six first-time winners in 2024. Twelve of the top 14 golfers on the leaderboard after 36 holes are seeking their first PGA Tour win.
As far as making a decision for Golfweek’s Male Amateur of the Year, that wasn’t easy. You had champions and multiple-time winners. You had golfers who broke out and became stars. All in all, a banner year for men’s amateur golfers made it difficult to make this decision. But ultimately, it came down to who was the best when it mattered most.
The 2022 Golfweek Award winner for Male Amateur of the Year goes to …
Gotterup rose from No. 136 to No. 1 of the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.
With both a fall and spring season, college golfers have ample time and opportunities to improve their game and subsequently their ranking.
As men’s and women’s teams across U.S. prepare for the start of the 2022-23 season, Golfweek has teamed up with Rapsodo to show just how much a player can improve over the course of a college golf season with the inaugural Most Improved Players powered by Rapsodo. The award winners were decided by using the Golfweek/Sagarin Men’s Collegiate Individual Rankings to determine which player improved the most by percentage from the 2020-21 season to the 2021-22 season.
Chris Gotterup, who transferred to Oklahoma from Rutgers for his final year of college golf, had a standout senior season that saw him rise from No. 136 to No. 1 of the rankings, an impressive 99.26 percent improvement. The New Jersey native won the Haskins Award and was named Golfweek’s Men’s Player of the Year thanks to a pair of victories at the East Lake Cup and Puerto Rico Classic as well as top-five finishes in six events, including a second place showing at the Big 12 Championship and T-5 at the NCAA Championship. Gotterup finished the year with an impressive 63-26-3 record against the top 25.
Chris Gotterup made sure 21 other players have a pay day come Sunday.
Eighty-seven.
That’s how many golfers survived the 36-hole cut at this week’s Wyndham Championship, the regular-season finale. It’s the most players to make the cut on the PGA Tour since the cut rule changed to low 65 and ties to start the 2019-20 season, breaking the previous high mark of 84 at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May.
There are 21 golfers, including Shane Lowry, who flew home and needed to hire a private jet to get back for his third round 11:20 am tee time (see photo below), Justin Rose and Mark Hubbard, who owe Chris Gotterup big time – at least a thank you note if not a good bottle of wine. When play was suspended on Friday at 8:20 p.m. due to darkness, seven golfers remained on the course with exactly 65 golfers at 2-under or better and 88 at 1-under or better. Four of the remaining players would determine the cut on Saturday morning when play resumed: Bo Hoag (-3 thru 16 holes) Chris Gotterup (-2 thru 17 holes) Austin Smotherman (-1 thru 16 holes) and Joshua Creel (E thru 17 holes).
This is nuts. Also Gotterup has 4 feet for bogey to potentially make the cut. But if Smotherman plays his last 2 in 1 under, the cut moves from -1 to -2 and there are currently 88(!) guys at -1. Chaos https://t.co/MOADudLHMf
Hoag made pars to complete a round of 69, while Creel parred in too, but was on the wrong side of the cutline at even-par 140.
Gotterup is a hero to 21 players who have weekend plans and a paycheck thanks to his bogey at the last hole. He went to sleep needing to make a 4-foot bogey to make the cut. He made it and the bogey at the last meant he signed for 69 and a 36-hole total of 1-under 139.
That brings us to the sad fate of rookie Austin Smotherman. He entered the week at No. 125 on the FedEx Cup point standings. The hot seat got too hot to handle despite a bogey-free 65 in the first round. On Friday, he was leaking oil, 4-over through 16, and facing a 12-foot birdie putt that would have lifted him to 2-under and bounced out all the players at 1-under when play was suspended.
With his 2022-23 Tour card and FedEx Cup playoff hopes hanging in the balance, Smotherman lipped out the birdie putt when play resumed at 6:47 am on Saturday. But thanks to Gotterup’s bogey, all he needed was a par at his last hole to make the cut on the number. It wasn’t to be. Despite finding the fairway at No. 9 with his tee shot, he pushed his approach at the par 4 from 158 yards and missed the green. Shortsided, his pitch ran 33 feet past the hole. Having to make the par putt, he didn’t come up short, but his do-or-die putt rolled 7 feet past the hole. He missed the meaningless comebacker, tapping in for double bogey and a round of 76.
Heartbreak for Austin Smotherman.
He’s projected to miss the #FedExCup Playoffs (ranked No. 125 entering the week) after going par-double bogey on his final two holes after the restart to miss the cut @WyndhamChamp. pic.twitter.com/ZMIfxE2AYE
As Max Homa tweeted of Smotherman, “I feel for him. That’s gotta be brutal to sleep on that with your season on the line #golf.”
The last time 87 players or more made the 36-hole cut on Tour was at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship (87). The score of 1-under 139 is the highest 36-hole cut at the Wyndham Championship since 2013.
Damn. Cut stays at -1. Smotherman misses. I feel for him that’s gotta be brutal to sleep on that w/ ur season on the line. #golf af. And yes I’m up early getting worms and whatnot. Credit to me https://t.co/73HS5Gt3Rh
After having Cam Smith at The Open, let’s get another winner.
We’re pretty sure the world of golf is going to be feeling a hangover-type come down from the festivities at the 150th Open. Our reward for pushing through the long weekend?
The 3M Open.
Tony Finau, coming off a T-28 at the Old Course, is the betting favorite at +1200. Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im are next at +1500. Chez Reavie won the opposite field event last week at the Barracuda Championship and sits at +3000.
TPC Twin Cities is a par-71 layout that will measure 7,431 yards this week.
There aren’t many star-level names in this field, so we’ll have to find some value farther down the board.
Golf course
TPC Twin Cities | Par 71 | 7,431 yards | Architect: Arnold Palmer
The second hole at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota. (Photo: David Berding-USA TODAY Sports)
Key statistics
Driving distance
Birdies or better percentage
Data Golf Information
Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. Sea Island GC, 2. East Lake Golf Club, 3. Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)
Trending: 1. Tony Finau (last three starts: MC, T-13, T-28), 2. Sahith Theegala (T-2, T-16, T-34), 3. Davis Riley (T-13, T-31, T-64), 3.
Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Sungjae Im (6.7 percent), 2. Hideki Matsuyama (5.2 percent), 3. Tony Finau (4.6 percent)
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“I definitely thought I could come in and play well. But I don’t think I expected to end up being No. 1,” he said.
Gotterup, ranked as the nation’s top player by Golfweek, won the East Lake Cup and the Puerto Rico Classic, while finishing runner-up at the Big 12 Championship and one stroke back at the NCAA Championships.
And that victory at the Puerto Rico Classic earned him a spot in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, where he finished tied for seventh.
Heading to the PGA Tour
Speaking of the PGA Tour, Gotterup will turn pro this week and has sponsor’s exemptions into three events over the next month, including next week’s RBC Canadian. And he’ll be looking to secure a spot two weeks from now at the U.S. Open at Monday’s sectional qualifier in Purchase, New York.
And by finishing seventh in the PGA Tour University rankings, he has an exemption on a PGA Tour international tour waiting for him.
Clearly, the decision to transfer to Oklahoma was a life-changing decision for Gotterup, the 2019 Big Ten Player of the Year.
“The toughest part wasn’t picking Oklahoma. The toughest part was leaving Rutgers,” he said. “Because I built myself there, I changed who I was and changed my game there. And with the COVID year we were given I felt it was the best decision for me to try something else. I did my four years at Rutgers and I loved it, but the opportunity was there and I felt like I had to take it.”
To say he took advantage of that opportunity would be an understatement.
Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl and Chris Gotterup. (Photo: Oklahoma Men’s Golf)
In all, the former CBA standout had 10 top-10 finishes for the Sooners. And at the NCAA Championship that concluded earlier this week in Scottsdale, Arizona, he finished one shot out of a playoff to decide the individual champion, while the Sooners finished tied for the lowest team score.
The move to the deep end of the college golf talent pool was simply a necessary step in his development of a player whose resume includes wins at the New Jersey Open and MGA Amateur.
“That was my whole thought process,” Gotterup said. “I grew up in New Jersey, I played in New Jersey at school. I knew if I wanted to take the next step, I’ve got to challenge myself. Travel somewhere else pretty far away from home and test myself against the best players, and in difficult conditions. Oklahoma, it can be pretty brutal conditions and it definitely made me more well-rounded.”
Next-level performance
Nothing showcased the level of the former Shore Conference champion’s play like his performance against PGA Tour-caliber competition in Puerto Rico in early March, finishing at 11-under-par while hanging at or near the top of the leaderboard throughout.
“That was a crazy week,” he said. “We’re traveling all over the place, I was not sure what was going on. And then to get down there and play well on the big stage was awesome.
“It’s funny. I’ve always had people telling me ‘you’re going to play well, you’re going to do amazing things,’ and you never really believe it because it hasn’t really happened. But then for it to kind of happen it’s kind of wild, it’s a weird feeling — I don’t know how to describe it but it definitely gives you confidence and you feel like you’re in a better spot.”
And given what Gotterup accomplished during his final college season, the sky’s the limit as he makes the jump to the sport’s highest level.
Gotterup is the first Sooner to win the Haskins Award as the best player in men’s college golf.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When Chris Gotterup transferred from Rutgers to Oklahoma at the end of last season, he wasn’t guaranteed a spot in the lineup for the Sooners, who had just finished runner-up to Pepperdine at the national championship.
So the Little Silver, New Jersey, native did what he does bet: get to work. And he kept working and improving all season long. His coaches noticed, his teammates noticed, and his peers noticed, too. Despite finishing just one shot out of a playoff for the individual title at this year’s NCAA Div. I Men’s Golf Championship, Gotterup had done enough to impress the voters and earn the 2022 Haskins Award, given annually to the player of the year in men’s college golf.
In 12 starts this season, Gotterup has two wins at the East Lake Cup and Puerto Rico Classic and finished in the top five in six events, including a second-place showing at the Big 12 Championship and T-5 at the NCAA Championship.
