World No. 14 Chris Gotterup arrived at the John Deere Classic in 2022 with only a handful of professional starts to his name. A T4 finish that week gave him confidence he belonged, and four years later, he has returned as a multiple-time PGA Tour winner.

Speaking this week, Gotterup reflected on how far he has come since that breakthrough performance.

“Hopefully a similar person, but yeah, definitely a different player. I think, you know, especially here my first year, I think it was like my third tournament as a pro, came in fourth. I was like, all right, I think I got something here,” said Gotterup.

The T4 finish at the 2022 John Deere Classic gave Gotterup the confidence boost he needed, and he built on it by finishing T-3 at Korn Ferry Tour Q-School to earn his 2023 card before securing PGA Tour status for 2024 with a 23rd-place finish on the Korn Ferry Tour points list.

Gotterup did not let his momentum slip away.

“Then to be able to play well and kind of climb my way up the ranks has been fun. Hard but fun at the same time. I feel like, you know, my bad weeks have gotten a lot better, which is a good sign. Obviously my good weeks have resulted in really good,” he added in the interview accessed by ASAPSports.

Gotterup's rise continued with victories at the Myrtle Beach Classic in 2024, the Genesis Scottish Open in 2025, and the Sony Open in Hawaii and WM Phoenix Open this season, helping him climb as high as No. 5 in the World Rankings. Despite the success, his calm and laid-back personality has remained unchanged.

Following the two wins at the start of this season, Gotterup has had a bumpy run of results.

Gotterup’s ups and downs this season

Following the win at the WM Phoenix Open, Gotterup shot rounds of 71 and 74 and missed the cut at The Genesis Invitational.

Since the win, Gotterup has registered only two top-10 finishes. One of them came at the Texas Children's Houston Open, where he ended up tied for sixth, as recorded on the PGA Tour website. 

The other was at Aronimink in the PGA Championship. Gotterup finished at 3-under and secured a T10 finish.

Since his WM Phoenix Open victory, Gotterup's results have been mixed, including a T43 at the U.S. Open and a T24 at the Masters. He will look to regain momentum at TPC Deere Run before defending his Genesis Scottish Open title.

Do you think Gotterup will be able to secure the John Deere Classic title? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Written by

Avishek Sarkar

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav