Chris Gotterup’s rapid rise in the golfing world continued with an epic comeback on Super Bowl Sunday.
Entering the final day of the Phoenix Open trailing leader Hideki Matsuyama by four strokes, the Rutgers alum stormed back to force a playoff hole, where he won the competition with a long birdie putt minutes before the NFL’s championship game kicked off in Santa Clara.
The Phoenix Open title marks Gotterup’s second win in three tournaments in 2026, a red-hot start to the year that has boosted his stock in multiple ways. He is now ranked fifth in the world in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), a 23-spot jump from the start of the year and a 201-spot jump from where he stood after last year’s Phoenix Open.
The victory earned Gotterup a prize of $1,728,000, bringing his career earnings into the eight-figure range: $10,099,780. The fourth PGA Tour win of his career, only World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (14) and Rory McIlroy (5) have won more events in the past three years than him.
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Gotterup’s big weekend finished as well as it started. He led the field at TPC Scottsdale by two strokes following the first day, where he shot an 8-under 63 without a single bogey while getting paired with Scheffler and former world No. 1 Jordan Spieth.
Gotterup slipped down the leaderboard with back-to-back uneven days, shooting a combined 1-under-par across the second and third rounds. He entered the final day at 9-under, sitting four strokes behind a steady Matsuyama, who put together three straight days of strong golf.
Gotterup needed a big finish and a bit of luck to overcome the deficit, and he got both.
He finished with five birdies on his final six holes, putting pressure on Matsuyama. The leader cracked under pressure, missing a go-ahead putt on 18 to allow the tournament to go into a playoff. In the extra hole, Gotterup notched a 27-foot birdie to seal the victory after Matsuyama yanked his shot into the water.
“You never know what to expect,” Gotterup said, per the Associated Press. “We went over to the first tee, hit a couple balls, was watching, and then all of a sudden you’re out there on 18 and everyone is going nuts and you’re like, all right, this is it.”