– Chris Gotterup (-15), the young man from Easton, Maryland, residing in Edmond, Oklahoma: another product from the inexhaustible and versatile American factory of great players and stars. There isn’t a year when two or three don’t emerge. Or four or five. Afterwards, of course, some confirm themselves and others perhaps settle, because among other things, there isn’t room for everyone in the world’s top 50, for example. But what Gotterup has done this week to secure victory in the Scottish Open is not exactly an ordinary feat, a run-of-the-mill triumph, if there ever were any, especially because he had to contend in the star match on Saturday and Sunday with a formidable opponent like Rory McIlroy (-13), who had also regained the thread of the calm trance of golf, he is one of the levitators. If the pun is allowed, the Northern Irishman remained too calm over the back nine of the Renaissance Golf in North Berwick, just when it was time to ignite and shift gears against a rival who was playing great golf and would end up delivering a score of 66 strokes.
– Surely it wasn’t like that, as things look very different from the sidelines, but somehow it seemed over those back nine that McIlroy was playing more to the opponent’s mistake. It’s true that in the final stretch Gotterup slightly felt the pressure of the moment, signing a bogey on the 15th and managing a delicate recovery on the 17th, but right at that moment of tension, the great champion, the brand-new Grand Slam Career, lacked sharpness in his game or a point of determination.
– The American started with a bogey on the 1st hole, but then went on to score up to six birdies without having to sink a single putt from more than three metres away to convert them, which speaks to the intent of his shots, how accurate he was, his splendid control of distances and, above all, his outstanding adaptation to this new environment, the links, in which he has had very few experiences.
– Next week, at the Open at Royal Portrush, he will have a good opportunity to start defining whether he is one of those who confirm or those who settle. Because, yes, Gotterup has earned one of the three spots up for grabs for the Open, the first he will play in his career, as he wasn’t in the last Major of the year. The other two have gone to Nicolai Hojgaard (-12), who today performed an extraordinary operation signing a card of 64 strokes, and the German Matti Schmid (-6), who secured it by finishing in 17th place. Such is the number of players in this tournament who had already secured their spot, that the three vacancies moved down the table.
– It has been confirmed in some way, therefore, that Jorge Campillo (-5, today a round of 69) and Alejandro Del Rey (+1, round of 74) started today with serious and real options to get into the Open. In fact, the Extremaduran came quite close (he would have needed to reach -7), and that’s despite starting the day with a double bogey on the 2nd hole. He then reacted positively and, in fact, his end of the round must be considered most unfortunate, considering the Royal Portrush objective, as he missed birdie putts from just a metre away on the 16th and 17th holes, and even on the 18th he was putting for birdie again, although this time from about nine metres (on Friday, on this same hole, he sank a birdie putt from that same distance to make the cut).
– Gotterup, as we said, has taken a leap to another dimension. And Marco Penge (-13), who finished in second position, tied with Rory, after delivering a 66 today, is also on his way there. Certainly, this other formidable hitter, like the winner, like Rory, is doing his homework in time to end up earning one of the ten PGA Tour cards that are distributed at the end of the season on the DP World Tour. For now, this second place has propelled him to third position in the Race to Dubai and we’ll still have to see if he is capable of winning again this year on the European circuit.
– The card of the day was a formidable 63 from Justin Rose (-11), a result that wouldn’t even have served Scottie Scheffler (-9, today a round of 67) or Xander Schauffele (-9, today a round of 66) to take the victory. Whoever doesn’t find solace, certainly, is because they don’t want to. The Californian and the Texan’s performance can, of course, be seen from another point of view: without having been super (Scottie suffered on the greens in the last three rounds like never before) they finished inside the top ten and in some way completed a more than decent tune-up for next week’s Open. Surely we’ll see them at the top in Royal Portrush.
