There are two things we have learned so far in this young 2026 season, although one might be slightly more surprising than the other.
One: Scottie Scheffler is still really good and significantly better than everyone else. Scheffler opened his season at the American Express a couple of weeks ago and won by four. He made his second start at the WM Phoenix Open last week and finished just a shot out of a playoff — despite posting an uncharacteristic 73 on Thursday, six strokes higher than his worst round over the next three days.
And two? Chris Gotterup is for real.
If you were busy preparing for your Super Bowl watch party or getting your parlays in order and skipped Sunday’s finish, here’s the gist of what you missed: We’re just four events into the PGA Tour season and Gotterup has now won half of them. He’s vaulted to No. 5 in the World Ranking and is the second-highest-ranked American behind only Scheffler.
Back in 2024, Gotterup won the Myrtle Beach Classic for his first Tour win, although it went largely unnoticed by the greater golf audience since it was an alternate-field event and finished the same day Rory McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship. Gotterup then failed to crack the top 50 in his next eight events; he could have easily been a one-hit wonder.
“I definitely knew I was a work in progress, and still am,” Gotterup said Sunday, after he shot 64 in the final round and later beat Hideki Matsuyama in a playoff. “But I knew that my game was suited for out here, and I knew if I continued to work and at least had faith in what I was doing that I would be able to be in the position someday. To say I’ve won four times is pretty crazy.”
Fast forward to July 2025, and Gotterup — this time playing in the same tournament as McIlroy — outlasted the newly crowned Masters champ at the Scottish Open for career win No. 2. That made the 26-year-old former Rutgers and Oklahoma golfer a good story, but there are plenty of those throughout the golf season.
Everything he’s done since then, however, has proven he’s much more than that.
He took third at the Open Championship a week after the Scottish Open and tied for 10th a week later at the 3M Open. He also added a T10 at the Tour Championship and ended the season with a whole new slate of tournaments unlocked for 2026. Those haven’t even started — he’ll play Signature Events like Pebble, the Genesis and Bay Hill for the first time in the next month — and he’s already proven he’s worthy of a spot on the pre-tournament press conference schedules.
He wasted little time reminding 2025 was no fluke, as he opened this season by winning the Sony Open. After a top 20 at the Farmers and now a playoff win in Phoenix, he’s won three times in his last 10 starts.
Sunday’s win included birdies on five of his last six holes, and he birdied 18 again to beat Matuyama on the first extra hole.
“I’m just really enjoying being out here right now, and I’m having fun,” said Gotterup, who ranks second on Tour in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. “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, and I’m excited for the rest of the year.”
Besides earning entry into a handful of Signature Events, Gotterup will also make his Masters debut two months from now.
After his win Sunday, Gotterup was met by CBS reporter Amanda Balionis for the obligatory winner’s interview.
“We saw it at the Scottish Open,” she started, “when the moment is biggest, when your back is against the wall, that’s when you show up. Where does that come from?”
“You know, a lot of hard work,” Gotterup said, before pausing to settle his emotions. “You make me cry every time.”
With the run he’s on, you think he’d be used to it by now.
