Why Chris Gotterup is not your usual Masters rookie

Chris Gotterup won all the awards in college golf, zipped through the Korn Ferry Tour in one year and blitzed the field in dominating the 2024 ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic in his 27th PGA Tour start.

That’s the definition of a man in a hurry to make his mark in golf’s major league and falls into the you-ain’t-seen-nothing-yet category.

Twenty-three months after that triumph at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, he has added three tournament victories — in the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open and this year’s conquest in the Sony and WM Phoenix Open. Flukes? He out-dueled Rory McIlroy in the Scottish and surged from behind to clip Hideki Matsuyama in a playoff in Phoenix.

From nowhere — No. 158 in the official world golf rankings prior to his Scottish win last summer — to 11th in the latest standings tells just how far and how fast he has come.

Gotterup makes his first start in the Masters this week, and he might be the most decorated rookie in the venerable tournament that unfolds for the 90th time on Thursday.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said Monday.

Pretty unbelievable, too — even to Gotterup.

“Probably not,” he said in responding to the did-you-see-this-coming question. “At some point, I had hoped to be here and to play in the Masters, but to be here, especially a year ago, with four wins, I probably wouldn’t have believed it.

“Obviously I’m happy to be here doing so. It’s been a fun ride the last year or so.”

But he had struggled after his triumph at Myrtle Beach. He did not register another top 20 the remainder of the year, spent three months nursing a hand injury and started the 2025 season with eight missed cuts in his first 11 starts.

Suddenly, he found his winning ways again.

‘I think that (Scottish Open) kind of kick-started everything for me,” he said. “I felt like I was at a good frame of my game at that point heading into that week. I had had a couple of top 25s and was playing well.

“Since then, I feel like I’ve kicked it into a different gear. That tournament gave me a ton of confidence going up against a great field.”

And here he is with an opportunity to defy Masters tradition and become only the fourth player — and first since 1979 — to win the year’s first major in his first start.

Gotterup played a practice round Monday with Justin Rose, who has come within a whisker of two Masters titles, losing to Sergio Garcia and McIlroy in playoffs.

“As a first-timer, it’s hard to really take it all in,” he said. “Having not played the tournament to where you need to be here on certain holes, you need to be here on others, and this wind — you haven’t seen it all.

“So it’s nice to hear what they have to say in that respect and at least be prepared for kind of anything that can come your way. It’s more preparation work and hearing that stuff than picking their brain on the course. It’s more kind of what to expect if this happens, what to expect if this happens. It was great.”

He expects challenges from the wind, but he said: “I think we’re so used to playing different holes, different courses, stuff that makes you uncomfortable. You kind of just find a way around that.”

Yes, he expects to be nervous on the first tee Thursday, but he knows from his play over the past year that he belongs on the big stage.

“That comes from just being comfortable and being (in contention) more often,” Gotterup said. “I would say that my first year and second year, I played well. Then I got up near the lead and kind of faded away and finished 25th. I feel like I took things from that.

“Now I feel like after winning a couple big events, I feel like I’m comfortable being there ... and I feel like I’ve played well and earned the right to be in that spot when I’m playing well. I’d say just been putting myself up there and trying to execute, and having executed under the gun makes you feel like you can do it again.”

Can he do it at Augusta National, in his first Masters? History notes the challenge, but then again, he’s not the usual Masters rookie.

This story was originally published April 7, 2026 at 7:12 AM with the headline "Why Chris Gotterup is not your usual Masters rookie."