At 3:14 a.m. East Coast Time on July 17, Chris Gotterup stepped to the first tee at Royal Portrush Golf Club along with Lee Westwood and Thomas Detry. They are his first- and second-day playing partners as the 25-year-old Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, graduate takes on the Dunluce Course and the greatest golfers in the world at the 153rd British Open in Northern Ireland.
Gotterup shot a 1-over in his first round. He came into the season’s final major and the world’s oldest golf tournament – formally named The Open Championship — with plenty of momentum.
This past weekend he outdueled Rory McIlroy, the world’s No. 2 ranked golfer and 2025 Masters winner, to claim the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. On the July 13 final round, he shot 4-under 66 to finish 15-under, which bested McIlroy and Marco Penge by two strokes.
Rutgers golf coach Robert Shutte, who Gotterup played under in college, was on hand. Afterward he told pgatour.com writer Paul Hodowanic, “He’s gonna win majors. He keeps breaking through new ceilings.”
In an interview with CBS sports immediately following the match, a tearful, emotional Gotterup called his second PGA title “just awesome.”
“After my start this week, I really just struggled,” he said. “I found something on Friday, today I knew it would be a grind. . . I held it together really well; it was so much fun out there.”
The 2017 CBA grad is currently ranked 49th in the world and 39th in the FedEx Cup. He has earned $2,586,337 this season and $4,343,33 for his career.
Gotterup joined the PGA Tour in 2022 and got his first victory last May when he won the 2024 ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic by six shots. But from there he did not have a top 20 finish for the remainder of the year, missing three months with a hand injury.
The first part of this season was equally tough as Gotterup missed the cut in eight of his first 11 events. After getting a new caddie – Brady Stockton – at mid-season, he had top 30 finishes in eight of nine starts. He had his best finish in a major, tying for 23rd at this year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club with a score of 8-over.
The Open will be Gotterup’s fourth major. He tied for 43rd in the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline Mass.; and played in the 2024 PGA Championship but did not make the cut.
Gotterup’s career started at CBA, where he led the Colts to the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions his senior season.
In a story on the school’s website, Chris said, “CBA golf gave me the confidence that I can be one of the best players in the state of New Jersey because I was able to win a couple of times. The experience just set the foundation for me in my golf career.”
Gotterup went on to an outstanding collegiate career.
While at Rutgers he was Big Ten Player of the Year in 2019-20. Gotterup was awarded a fifth year due to COVID shutdowns and transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he won the 2022 Haskins Award as the country’s top golfer. He also earned the Jack Nicklaus Award as the top Division I player in the country. He finished tied for fifth in the NCAA Championship and got to No. 6 in the PGA Tour’s University rankings.
A Fair Haven native now living in Oklahoma, Gotterup made the cut in 36 of the 62 events he has played in since joining the tour. He has three top 5 finishes and four top 10 efforts.
Chris is following in the footsteps of his dad, Morten, a senior amateur golfer who has won four New Jersey State Golf Association events.