Chris Gotterup walked back to the John Deere Classic as a different player than the one who arrived in 2022. He said three PGA Tour wins have changed how he handles the grind, even after a mixed run since the WM Phoenix Open.
John Deere Classic return
“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,” Gotterup said this week. That T4 in 2022 came when he had only a handful of professional starts behind him.
The early finish gave him a reference point. It also gave him a place to measure how far he has come since then, from a newcomer at the John Deere Classic to a World No. 14 golfer with multiple PGA Tour wins.
Wins and the climb
Gotterup said the climb has changed the way he plays between the hot weeks. “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 said.
The results back up that shift. He finished T-3 at Korn Ferry Tour Q-School to earn his 2023 card, then secured PGA Tour status for 2024 with a 23rd-place finish on the Korn Ferry Tour points list. From there, he won the Myrtle Beach Classic in 2024, the Genesis Scottish Open in 2025, the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2026 and the WM Phoenix Open in 2026.
Mixed results since WM Phoenix Open
That run pushed him as high as No. 5 in the World Rankings, but the form after the WM Phoenix Open has not been clean. He shot 71 and 74 and missed the cut at The Genesis Invitational, then has logged only two top-10 finishes since that win.
One of those came at the Texas Children's Houston Open, where he finished T6. He also added a T10 at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, plus a T43 at the U.S. Open and a T24 at The Masters. The numbers show a player with a much higher floor than the one who arrived at the John Deere Classic in 2022, but not yet a fully stable ceiling.
Gotterup now heads to TPC Deere Run trying to reset the week-to-week baseline before defending his Genesis Scottish Open title. The question is no longer whether he belongs; it is how quickly the results at this level become the norm.
