Chris Gotterup makes Masters debut, focuses on placement over power
AUGUSTA, Ga. | Chris Gotterup is playing in his first Masters Tournament but he understands one thing already: Power alone won’t win at the Augusta National Golf Club .
Gotterup, who had the distinction of being a college player of the year in two major conferences (Big Ten with Rutgers and the Big 12 with Oklahoma), is the only multiple winner on the PGA Tour this season and he’s collected four titles since his rookie season in 2024.
But it was the second victory that earned him a ticket to the Masters, winning the Genesis Scottish Open last season after a final-round battle with Rory McIlroy . He then opened the 2026 season by winning the Sony Open and added the WM Phoenix Open .
Gotterup brings a big bat to the Masters. The 6-foot, 210-pounder is fifth on the PGA Tour in driving distance, averaging 319.9 yards, and is a decent 34 th in greens in regulation, finding the putting surface 68.7 percent of the time.
That won’t be enough and he knows it, although he’s encouraged by his improvement on the PGA Tour’s Strokes Gained Putting index from 101 st last year to 80 th this season, and a bump to 42 nd in 3-putt avoidance (11 in 540 holes) from last year’s 110 th (49 in 1,638 holes).
Gotterup also won this year at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, a par-70 course with narrow fairways and small greens and won his Scottish Open title at The Renaissance Club, with six European players behind him on the leaderboard, led by Rory McIlroy.
“Honestly, if I feel like I’m striking it well, I feel like I can play anywhere,” said the 26-year-old native of Maryland’s Eastern Shore who grew up in New Jersey. “Obviously, that’s going to be the emphasis this week that tee-to-green is very important here. From what I’ve seen, it’s about placement. I think putting gets hard here if you’re not in the right spot and that comes from tee-to-green more so than putting and chipping. That’s more recovery work than, I feel like, execution.”
Gotterup played a practice round with Justin Rose
To that end, Gotterup got himself into a practice round grouping with Justin Rose , a veteran of 20 Masters starts with 17 cuts made and three runner-up finishes, the last in 2025 when he lost to Rory McIlroy in a playoff.
The practice round was brokered by Rose’s caddie, Mark “Fooch” Fulcher, purely by chance. Gotterup and his coach Jason Birnbaum were working in South Florida, went to dinner and ran into Fulcher.
“We’ve played a couple of times this year,” Gotterup said of Rose. “Justin has had great success here. Fooch has been around 20-plus times. There’s not too many better people to play a practice round who have seen the ups and downs of this place. It was fun. We don’t play the exact same type of game but it’s fun to hear what they had to say, what they’ve done well and and they’ve maybe missed the mark at.”
Gotterup on Amen Corner: ‘bites people’
Gotterup never wanted to play Augusta National or even attend as a fan until he qualified for the tournament, so he’s still building a base of experience.
For example, he said he loves the par-4 seventh hole, one of the tightest driving holes on the first nine.
“That might not be a lot pf people’s favorite,” he said. “It demands a great tee ball. You can either make the hole look very easy with a great drive and a wedge or you can make a mess of that hole pretty quickly if you’re slapping it around in the bunkers.”
He’s eager for a whack at the par-5 second hole in competition.
But Gotterup has watched enough of the Masters on TV to know the importance of Amen Corner , Nos. 11, 12 and the tee shot at No. 13.
“It’s iconic,” he said of the real estate that comprises the par-4, par-3 and par-5 holes. “I think it’s the spot that you watch on TV, kind of where the tournament’s won every year, it seems. I feel like you either step up and perform or you kind of back out ... maybe not on purse but it seems to be the one that kind of bites people.”
Gotterup also said that he needs to find a balance between working during practice rounds and on the practice areas and stopping to smell the azaleas.
“I just think embracing the whole experience and trying to take it all in and enjoy it, while also trying to go out there and compete and give it everything I’ve got,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Chris Gotterup's Masters debut: Placement is key
