Chris Gotterup (-8, 63 strokes) is the first solid leader of the WM Phoenix Open. This 26-year-old player from Maryland is no joke. He made a name for himself through the back door of the PGA Tour, without making much noise. He won a second-tier tournament, the Myrtle Beach Classic, and has gradually climbed the ranks to become something really serious. He won the Scottish Open, flirted with unseating Scottie Scheffler at the Open Championship, won again at the Sony Open to start the season, and has now made a statement in the opening at the noisy TPC Scottsdale.
This guy needs to be taken very seriously. He is already number 16 in the world rankings, let’s see how long it takes him to break into the top ten, he must be considered for this year’s majors, and from this very moment, he is one of the big favourites to make it into the United States team for the Ryder Cup. Yes, true, we are still far from all that, but these are the signs this robust player, similar in build to Brooks Koepka, is showing.
Moreover, this Thursday Gotterup shone in front of Scheffler. He shared a match with the World Number One and not only did he not shrink, but he also gave him a significant shake-up. What happened to Scottie today did seem like a joke. You tell anyone who hasn’t seen any of his round, and they would surely think you’re teasing them. But none of that. He shot 73, +2. Ten behind Gotterup. It’s his worst record at TPC Scottsdale and his first Thursday over par since the Travelers Championship in June.
As they say, it was a strange, strange day for Scheffler. He started like clockwork, with a textbook birdie on the 10th. Perfect drive to the fairway, second shot two feet from the hole, and birdie given. Nothing foreshadowed what was to come after, starting with the drive on the 11th. He went into the water from the tee on the left. Still, he saved a good bogey. He made up to five birdies in his round, so there’s not much to reproach him for there.
The problem is he made many mistakes, something uncharacteristic for this player. He showed his more Ryder Cup version. He missed on the wrong side on the 18th, and his first recovery approach came back to his feet. There he got frustrated, as if blaming himself for sending his second shot right there. Mistakes can happen, everyone makes them, but it kills Scheffler to do it on the wrong side. Immediately after, he three-putted on the 1st and finished the horribilis sequence with a double bogey on the 2nd. Everything went wrong on that hole. Drive to the bunker, second shot to the left rough, third that couldn’t even reach the green because the grass on that side was very bad (another miss on the wrong side), and a poor recovery approach. Four over in three holes. Not even the oldest in the place remember anything like it.
The finishing touch was another missed approach on the 8th hole. Again, at the entrance to the green, he tried to be precise, and the ball came back to his feet. Another unforced error. As said: it seemed like a joke. Has Scheffler been knocked out of the fight for victory? One would have to say emphatically yes. Anything else would be an epic story to tell on Sunday. He is capable of coming back, but it all depends on having two days with the best round of the day and the third signing another great result. He doesn’t even have the margin for a normal round.
Gotterup pulled a Scheffler. His shots to the green were immaculate, and he accompanied them with a great putting day. The key to his round was the six-under stretch between holes 13 and 18. It all started with a sensational eagle on the 13th, sinking a good eight-metre putt.
Gotterup has a two-stroke lead over Matt Fitzpatrick (-6), who also reached -8 but finished with two bogeys. Three strokes behind are Michael Thorbjornsen, Nicolai Hojgaard, and Pierceson Coody. Don’t be fooled by the leader’s score; the course is really demanding. The rough is very high, and there are some areas that are simply unplayable. The greens are already very hard and make things extremely difficult. You have to be very precise with chips and approaches. In fact, Scheffler wasn’t the only one to make seemingly gross errors around the green. The firmness and speed of the surfaces require surgical precision.
