{"id":754216,"date":"2026-07-10T07:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/754216\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T07:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:30:15","slug":"gotterup-dialed-in-for-scottish-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/754216\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotterup dialed in for Scottish defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"Chris Gotterup offers a smile during a press conference before this week\u2019s Genesis Scottish Open. Andrew Redington, Getty Images<\/p>\n

NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND | It was a question worth asking. How did 26-year-old Chris Gotterup, who has won four times in the last 12 months, manage to shed the nerves which used to come his way?<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t shed them,\u201d he decided. \u201cIt\u2019s just that I\u2019ve come to accept that you can\u2019t run away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, the American is back at the Renaissance Club for the Genesis Scottish Open, the event he won by two from Rory McIlroy and Marco Penge a year ago. That happened to be the first time in his professional career that he had found himself playing alongside a leading light \u2013 McIlroy \u2013 in a final round. He wasn\u2019t sure how he would react and, when he bunkered his tee shot at the first, he was thinking, \u201cOh s***, here we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, there was no collapse. He was level with McIlroy after nine holes and, from then on, Rory was the one who was struggling. Gotterup kept fighting as he added a 66 to earlier rounds of 68, 61 and 70 and, thereafter, he was only fighting back tears at the thought of how everyone at home would have been watching.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He had started that week last July at 158th in the world ranking, and what he has done since, apart from finishing third in the following week\u2019s Open Championship at Royal Portrush, is to win the Sony Open in Hawaii in January,\u00a0 the WM Phoenix Open in February, and the John Deere Classic last Sunday. Now he is up to seventh in the ranking and you have to ask yourself \u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen next?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gotterup, who began his title defence this morning with a 2-under 68, was hoping that he would have a few more fans than he had last year when there were barely any cheers for him as against those for McIlroy. That was always going to happen, but what he didn\u2019t realise was that the Scottish crowd had taken to him in a big way. He wasn\u2019t best pleased with the referee who gave him a personal timing at the 16th hole, but so irritated was he with what he felt was an unfair complaint that he responded with an angry birdie.<\/p>\n

Has he changed at all in the last 12 months?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal life hasn\u2019t but golf-wise it\u2019s changed a lot,\u201d he said. Regarding his personal life, he thought he could do with a bit more in the way of a normal existence. A normal existence which would include dropping in on his parents, his father\u2019s three dogs and his girlfriend, Samantha Rae Monte, who works in the tourist industry and, in Gotterup\u2019s opinion, is \u201csuper helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like when I come over here it\u2019s a fresh start because it\u2019s so different from what we\u2019re used to. I just think the style of how you have to play out here and the creativity that goes with it is fun and challenging at the same time.\u201d \u2013 Chris Gotterup<\/p>\n

Then he forgot the \u201cnormal life\u201d for a moment as he reminded himself that he was flying to Scotland, a land he loves. Not just because of the benefit of being able to practise on a links but because it\u2019s different. He studies the views across the Firth of Forth and, barely had he touched down on Monday than he was playing at North Berwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like when I come over here it\u2019s a fresh start because it\u2019s so different from what we\u2019re used to. I just think the style of how you have to play out here and the creativity that goes with it is fun and challenging at the same time. \u2026 Then, when you leave the course, I just like going into the town. It feels almost vacation-ish, even if it\u2019s hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

He can rest assured that he\u2019ll be well-watched this week, even if there are six of the world\u2019s top 10 and 14 of the top 20 vying for attention. Major champions Scottie Scheffler, McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Aaron Rai, and Shane Lowry have all been working their tails off on the range, with the same applying to Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, and Sepp Straka.<\/p>\n

To a man, they have the feeling that they are playing two majors in a row. No wonder that the locals are eager to be among the 85,000 expected at the Renaissance as opposed to next week\u2019s 300,000 at the Open.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gotterup won for the third time this season last Sunday at the John Deere Classic. Tyler Clouse, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gotterup said the vibes were good as far as he was concerned, only before he disappeared to the putting green, he was faced with a touch of the stress he had known when he stood on that first tee with Rory a year ago.<\/p>\n

Three women who work for South Korea\u2019s SPOTV sports network had a handful of questions about his golf and the course. They nodded approvingly at his answers, though what didn\u2019t work quite so well was when it came to the two-part spiel they wanted him to deliver at the end.<\/p>\n

Part 1 inviting viewers to watch the tournament went fine. But Part 2 was the point where things went wrong.<\/p>\n

Instead of telling his audience where they could follow all four rounds, he hit on one wrong channel after another, including the BBC, before arriving at SPOTV at his fifth attempt.<\/p>\n

LEADERBOARD<\/a> | TEE TIMES<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 Global Golf Post LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Gotterup offers a smile during a press conference before this week\u2019s Genesis Scottish Open. Andrew Redington, Getty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[7694,5759,427,3332,99],"class_list":["post-754216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-chris-gotterup","tag-genesis-scottish-open","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}