It is his third successive season with a victory as he moves closer to golf’s A-list.<\/p>\n
Gotterup was two shots behind when he took advantage of a collapse by 54-hole leader Davis Riley and then poured it on with a mixture of power and putting along the back nine of breezy Waialae Country Club to keep everyone else from catching him.<\/p>\n
Gotterup, who finished at 16-under 264, moves to No.17 in the world. He was at No.195 in the world when he left the Sony Open a year ago.<\/p>\n
“I just felt like this week I was in a good frame of mind, just happy to be here,” Gotterup said. “I felt like I was in control of my brain, which is the most important thing. I drove it great and made some putts when it mattered.”<\/p>\n
Adam Scott was the only Australian to make the cut, and finished in a tie for 40th after a final-round 68.<\/p>\n
Ryan Gerard birdied his last two holes for a 65 and to finish alone in second. He flew to Mauritius at the end of last year and was runner-up to move into the top 50 and secure a spot in his first Masters. Now he’s just outside the top 30.<\/p>\n
Patrick Rodgers had another chance at his first PGA Tour victory, but he went without a birdie on the back nine until the final hole. He closed with a 65 to finish third.<\/p>\n
Gotterup won the Scottish Open last year by outplaying Rory McIlroy, and he won the opposite-field Myrtle Beach Classic in his rookie season.<\/p>\n
Riley started with a two-shot lead on Sunday (Monday AEDT) and stayed two ahead with a pair of birdies through the opening five holes. And then it all fell apart quickly \u2014 three-putt bogeys from long range on the sixth and seventh, and a wild tee shot into the trees that led to double bogey on the eighth.<\/p>\n
That stretch took from two shots ahead to three shots behind, and Riley never caught up.<\/p>\n
Gotterup had a host of players chasing him, but not for long. Even on an old-school Waialae course with doglegs framed by royal palms, he pounded away with tee shots of 330-plus yards early on the back nine. But it was his putter that ultimately made a difference.<\/p>\n
The Sony Open was the latest start to the PGA Tour season because The Sentry at Kapalua on Maui was cancelled due to a water dispute that had the course brown in September.<\/p>\n
The final round at Waialae was played under a vibe that this might be the last of Hawaii on the tour. The Sony Open title sponsorship expires this year, and there is a movement to start the tour season later than ever in 2027 and going forward, either right before or after the NFL’s Super Bowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is his third successive season with a victory as he moves closer to golf’s A-list. Gotterup was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-422573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}