Chris Gotterup was too busy packing to fully unpack a turn of events that placed him on the podium to collect the winner’s trophy at the John Deere Classic on Sunday.
From Silvis to Scotland, Gotterup resets his compass and his watch in an attempt to dial in the same form that paved his path to a theatric statement victory over Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy in the 2025 Scottish Open.
The whirlwind for the 26-year-old ascending to No. 7 in the Official World Golf Ranking picked up speed in Scotland in 2025. His 15-under tournament in North Berwick last July arguably was the most impactful of his five career wins, punching a ticket to the Open Championship where he debuted with a bang, tying for third place.
Form is not much of a debate at the moment for Gotterup. He played a flawless 18 at TPC Deere Run with a final-round 62 on Sunday to bag a victory he carried over the pond for his title defense at Renaissance Club this week — once he regains his bearings.
“Getting straight back to the house, packing up and getting on a plane to Scotland, I didn’t really have time to catch up on all my stuff on my phone,” Gotterup said Tuesday in Scotland of the fast-forward nature of the past 48 hours. “Yeah, over the next couple weeks when I have some time, I’ll get through it all. It’s weird, the last couple times — like every time I’ve won, I feel like I’ve been in a rush to get to like my next spot. So hopefully sometime I can win one and have a week off afterwards.”
From where he stood 12 months ago, Gotterup has climbed front-and-center among favorites at the Scottish Open.
Gotterup won’t be in the shadows in Scotland. He’s opening Thursday on No. 10 in a marquee grouping (3:28 a.m. ET) of the past three tournament champions with McIlroy (2023) and Scotsman Robert McIntyre (2024).
“There will be a bunch of people out there I would assume. Hopefully I feel a few more fans rooting for me than against me than last time. It will be fun,” he said Tuesday ahead of the tournament. “Obviously those two are beloved here, and I’m excited for the opportunity. It been nice to kind of get in the mix a little bit with these big groups and just get more comfortable in that scenario. Yeah, I think that’s kind of what you want when you are playing out here. You want to be in the big groups, and yeah, I’ll be looking forward to that on Thursday.”
Gotterup, like Norway’s Viktor Hovland, credited playing collegiate golf at the University of Oklahoma for the ability to play a low, piercing tee shot through the wind and understand when to let nature work in your favor.
But he had never slain a links track in quite the same way he took down Renaissance Club in 2025. The remodeled Renaissance, Gotterup said, isn’t dramatically different than the course he played previously. The current 10th hole formerly was the first hole largely to enhance fan viewing and seating around the trademark par-3 15th (formerly No. 6) with defined stadium-hole features.
Only the eighth, ninth, 17th and 18th holes are in the same sequence as 2025. Nos 1-7 now play as 10 through 16. What last year’s field knew as 10-16 became 1-7.
As long as he can keep his stored notes straight this week, there is plenty of confidence left over on those pages. Gotterup birdied the hole twice with two pars in his four rounds at Renaissance last year.
“I don’t think it will change how you play the holes. More the flow is a little different of the course,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I don’t think it changes much other than you’ve just got to remember what hole you’re on. All of our notes are all mixed up, though.”
Gotterup said he didn’t sleep much on the flight to Scotland but less than two weeks from his 27th birthday hasn’t felt any of the physical toll of playing four consecutive weeks entering the Scottish Open.
He would like to be the position of returning to the United States with an additional trophy or two. His plan is to get more comfortable in marquee groupings, and “continue to put my best stuff out there” even if others wonder whether he might be “over his skis.”
“I don’t know about over my skis but definitely been moments where I’m like, ‘Wow, this is kind of crazy,'” he said. “But at the end of the day, you kind of take that. It’s there and you either stand up to it or … I think that’s why this tournament last year was so big to me. I played in groups and played well and kind of faded away on the weekends but without that experience, I don’t think I would have been able to stand up on the tee on Sunday and play well.”
