British Open: Chris Gotterup's career-altering run in the UK has forced himself into the Ryder Cup conversation
That's not a bad thing, it was just reality. The 26-year-old only turned pro a few years ago, and he had won a single time on Tour.
But now, after a dominant and stunning two weeks in the United Kingdom, Gotterup will return home playing just about as well as anyone in the sport. It's been so good, in fact, that he's even now in the conversation to represent the United States at Bethpage Black this fall.
'I expected to play well, but I don't think I expected quite this well,' Gotterup said after his third-place finish at the British Open on Sunday. 'I don't know what's going on over here, but maybe my European blood in me has come to life.'
Gotterup posted a 4-under 67 on Sunday at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland to record what was by far his best finish in a major championship. He was in the mix for most of the week with everyone except for Scottie Scheffler, who rolled to a blowout four-shot win.
Gotterup, however, wasn't even supposed to be in the field at Portrush. He had to earn it with his victory last week at The Renaissance Club, which left him an emotional wreck in the immediate aftermath on the green in Scotland. The win was the second of his career, following his inaugural PGA Tour victory in Myrtle Beach last year, and earned him admittance to just his fourth ever major start.
After shooting a 1-over 72 on Thursday at the British Open, Gotterup rebounded to back up his win perfectly. He made two eagles on Friday to get right back under par, and then he kept himself in it with a third-round 68. While it wasn't enough to catch Scheffler — nobody could — Gotterup never wavered.
This two-week stretch has completely changed Gotterup's career trajectory. He entered the Scottish Open at No. 158 in the Official World Golf Rankings. His win there jumped him up more than 100 spots, and Sunday's outing will move him to a new career-high. He's at No. 23 in the FedExCup standings, too, which now has him solidly in the FedExCup Playoffs and the Tour's signature events next season.
Gotterup is also bringing home a $1.128 million check, which brings his two-week total to just more than $2.7 million. That came about $65,000 shy of matching his previous career earnings.
He's undoubtedly set up for success on the Tour for years to come, and in a much more stable position than he was earlier this month. But perhaps most notably, Gotterup has thrust himself into the Ryder Cup conversation.
Gotterup moved up 30 spots in the Ryder Cup standings after his Scottish Open win, and his third-place finish should move him inside the top 20. While that's likely too far out of it to earn an automatic bid — the top six American golfers in the standings after the BMW Championship will earn guaranteed spots on the team — it's not unreasonable to think that Keegan Bradley could use one of his captain's picks on Gotterup to round out his 12-man team.
That is something that had never crossed Gotterup's mind.
'I haven't thought about it at all. I mean, it really wasn't ever on my radar,' Gotterup said. 'I obviously helped to play well, and it would be a miracle. Now I mean, I have no idea.
'Northeast is my home, and we'll see what happens.'
Regardless of what happens with his U.S. Team future, Gotterup absolutely erupted over the last two weeks. His golf future is trending up faster than anyone could've guessed.
And if he keeps it up, that may just make Bradley's decision even easier.
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Forbes
13 minutes ago
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Is This The Greatest Day In Golf Travel?
Yes, you can play three famous Bitish Open courses, all classic links, in one great day. Casual runners aspire to complete a marathon. Recreational cyclists often undertake a 'Century,' or 100-mile ride, for charity. But to up the ante in their sport, golfers typically just look to play a better, more historic, more famous course, rather than go longer or bigger. But now, thanks to the Hagen 54, they can do both—in one long, great day. In fact, playing three Open Championship (aka British Open) venues without an overnight break may just be the greatest day in golf travel. Last Thursday, one week after the world's best golfers teed it up in the Open at Royal Portrush, we saw the debut of the Hagen 54, a one-of-a-kind golf event that has been over a century in the making. The 'Father of professional golf,' Walter Hagen was the Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods of his time, before Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, and is credited with being the one to grow the game in America and really put golf on the map. His 11 Majors titles remains third only to those other two guys, and he amassed 44 PGA Tour wins and was Ryder Cup captain a record six times. There is always going to be debate about who is the sport's GOAT, but Hagen is always in the discussion, and with a doubt, one of the very, very best and highest profile golfers to ever live. British Open venue Royal Cinque Ports is a real deal seaside links—and one of the Top 100 Courses in ... More the World. As he recounted in his memoir, The Walter Hagen Story, his preparation for the 1920 Open was anything but routine. 'Anyone who knows the coastal links in Kent, south-east of London, will remember there are three links, adjoining each other. Deal, the first, Sandwich directly east, known as the Royal St. George's, then a little south of Sandwich and east lies Prince's links. While we were in London for the 1920 British Open, Jim Barnes and I started one morning to play the three links as if they were one. After playing eleven holes on the Deal course, we hopped a fence over to Sandwich and played ten holes there, crossed to Prince's links and completed all the holes there, coming back to the original starting place. We finished the remainder of the holes on the Sandwich and Deal layouts, ending up on the eighteenth at Deal. Scores? I've forgotten. We weren't trying to break any records. We were just lucky to go that far. We did it for fun.' Many courses in the UK go by both their place name and formal name, such as Sandwich/Royal St. George's, Hoylake/Royal Liverpool, and what he calls Deal is more widely known as Royal Cinque Ports. Right next door is the 27-hole links of Princes Golf Club, another historic British Open venue. History? Royal St. George's was the first course outside Scotland to host the Open, in 1894, and since then, 15 times. Royal Cinque Ports has done it twice (ironically, two other scheduled events were moved to its neighbor, Royal St George's, due to abnormally high tide flooding, so the history should be 13 and 4). Princes Golf Club (Hagen got it wrong, no apostrophe) has held the Open once, but considering there have only been 14 courses used for golf's oldest Major, and several of those have been removed from consideration (usually for logistic reasons such as limited room for hospitality or road infrastructure), it's still a really, really big deal. By comparison, the much younger US Open has been held on 52 different courses. Princes hosted the 1932 Open in which American great Gene Sarazen debuted his new invention, the sand wedge, for the first time, another turning point in the history of the game. Given the scary pot bunkers and sandy scrapes that make links golf so special, the tool came in very handy, and Sarazen set a new Open record of 283 here. A big bunker next to the final green, with walls so steep they need railroad ties to hold it up, is now memorialized as the famous Sarazen bunker, and in the Fifties the course was expanded to its current 27-hole size, so you can play here a couple of days in arow with a different mix of holes. How often do you get to play your 49th hole of the day? Royal St. Georges is currently ranked 20th in the world by Golf Digest, and Royal Cinque Ports 79th, and both are also in Golf Magazine's Top 100. 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