Chris Gotterup benefits from Hideki Matsuyama’s meltdown in Phoenix, collects second win of PGA Tour season

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[Photo: Alex Goodlett]

This Chris Gotterup guy continues to display some mad skills, proving he is the proverbial force to be reckoned with by winning for the second time in three starts this year with a playoff victory over Hideki Matsuyama today at the WM Phoenix Open.

The strong and stocky Maryland native birdied five of his final six holes in regulation at TPC Scottsdale to reel in Matsuyama, a two-time winner of this event, and then birdied one more time on the first play-off hole, sinking a 27-footer (8.2 metres) on the par-4 18th hole, to register his fourth career PGA title and third in his last 10 starts.

“I’m just really enjoying being out here right now, and I’m having fun,” said Gotterup, who rallied for a seven-under 64, tied for the low round of the day, to finish at 16-under 268. “I feel confident in what I’m doing and feel like I have played well enough to feel confident to be able to be in those positions. So far, I’ve been able to capitalise on those, and I’m excited for the rest of the year.”

Over the course of the final round, Matsuyama was walking a tightrope with his driver, which continually threw him off balance. Somehow, despite finding just three fairways, he arrived at the 72nd hole still upright, nursing a one-stroke lead. But missing the fairway on 18 proved costly. He found the church-pew-designed bunker left of the fairway and then didn’t clear one of the grass mounds completely with his second shot. Well short of the green, he pitched to 25 feet (7.6 metres) and missed the winning par save.

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Then he pulled his tee shot left again in the play-off and got quite unlucky when his ball caromed off a pole near the grandstands and plopped into the water. Although he struck an excellent third to 26 feet (7.9 metres) after a penalty drop, Matsuyama never got a chance to hit another shot when Gotterup rolled in his birdie.

Matsuyama closed with a 68 and admitted he was “grinding all weekend.” Mostly that was off the tee, where he lost nearly five strokes (-4.809) to the field after hitting just 25 of 56 fairways. That won’t cut it against a guy who gained 4.042 strokes with the driver and was fourth in average driving distance at 332.2 yards (3.7 metres).

“I didn’t have my best stuff, but hung in there,” the former Masters champion said. “I wanted to avoid the play-off as much as I could, but I just hit a bad tee shot there in regulation at 18 and Chris made a good putt there in the play-off. So hats off to him.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler equalled Gotterup’s 64, highlighted by a 72-foot (21.9 metre) birdie putt at the par-4 14th hole. A two-time winner at TPC Scottsdale, Scheffler had one bogey over his final 54 holes after opening with a 73 and ended in a T-3 logjam at 269. The Texan posted his 17th consecutive top-10 finish, the first player since Billy Casper in 1965 to have a streak of that length.

Also third was Michael Thorbjornsen, who briefly surged past Matsuyama into the lead at 17 under with an 11-foot (3.4 metre) eagle putt at the par-5 15th hole. He relinquished those two strokes, however, with bogeys at 16, after missing the green, and 17 after finding the water off the tee and missing a seven-foot par save. He carded a 67.

The WM Phoenix Open was the final event to determine the AON Swing 5 group, which qualifies for the upcoming signature events, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational. Pierceson Coody, who had his fourth straight top-25 finish, placing 10th, topped the list, followed by Ryo Hisatsune, Jake Knapp, Matt McCarty and Patrick Rodgers.

Gotterup, who opened with a 62 for the first-round lead, won in the fifth play-off in seven years in the Sonoran Desert. His hopes for victory appeared to dim after he bogeyed the tough par-3 12th, but then he turned it on with his birdie flurry capped by three-footers (0.9 metres) on the last two holes.

“Just wanted to bounce back on 13 and then hit some high-quality shots coming in,” Gotterup said. “Yeah, just ended up sneaking up the leaderboard and just tried to keep making birdies, and then all of a sudden you’re in the mix.”

A Rutgers product, Gotterup opened the season by winning the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he had missed the cut the year prior. His previous WM Phoenix Open starts have resulted in two missed cuts. Both wins came after trailing after 54 holes, in this case being four down to Matsuyama. His growth as a golfer couldn’t be more pronounced.

Now ranked No. 5 in the world, Gotterup, 26, remained modest about his burst of success. No, he didn’t see this coming. But he also didn’t think it was out of the realm of possibility.

“You know … you get humbled a bit on Korn Ferry [Tour], and even when I got out here, you realise how good everyone is,” he said. “I definitely knew I was a work in progress, and still am. But I knew my game was suited for out here, and I knew that if I continued to work and at least had faith in what I was doing, I would be able to be in this position someday. To now I’ve won four times is pretty crazy.”

It’s also pretty impressive, coming so quickly.