Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: Gotterup, Up and Away

Amanda Balionis of CBS grabbed Chris Gotterup for the traditionally-quick greenside interview immediately after he won the WM Phoenix Open on Sunday.

"We saw it at the Scottish Open; when the moment is biggest, when your back is against the wall, that's when you show up. Where does that come from?" Balionis asked.

"You know, a lot of hard work," Gotterup started to say. But he was obviously choked up. "You make me cry every time." He paused and put his hand over his eyes.

Gotterup eventually composed himself and completed the answer, but he's going to have to figure out this Balionis thing.

Because it appears he's going to be doing a lot of winning.

Gotterup rallied with a birdie on No. 18 in regulation, then another on the first playoff hole, to overtake Hideki Matsuyama and win the WMPO for his second title already in 2026 and the fourth of his career.

Gotterup did the PGA Tour a big favor, with the tournament going overtime and creeping ever so close to the Super Bowl. Gotterup's walk-off 18-footer came within minutes of the coin toss.

The raucous atmosphere at TPC Scottsdale, while obviously welcome and encouraged by the Tour, unfortunately played a part in the outcome. Matsuyama had to back off a 25-footer on 18 in regulation when a make would've won it for him. He missed. And then when he was on the tee on the first playoff hole, a chair fell and made a loud sound just as he was in his backspin. He held up in time, somehow, but he then put his drive in the water.

Let's get back to Gotterup.

After winning the Myrtle Beach Classic in 2024, the aforementioned Scottish Open last year, the Sony Open in January and now the WMPO, he has zoomed up to No. 5 in the world rankings.

Gotterup obviously is playing well, but it's not so simple. There are still two areas of his game he'd like to improve: driving accuracy and putting. He's among the longest hitters on Tour, but he ranked 46th on the week in hitting fairways and is outside the top-100 so far in the young season. Hitting it that far is minimizing the accuracy troubles, but there could be courses on which it comes back to bite him.

He also ranked T49 on the week in SG: Putting, which usually makes winning hard. He did have two good putting days across his 63-71-70-64 tournament.

"I don't know," Gotterup said when asked about putting. "I wish it was easier Friday and Saturday. I just couldn't get in a rhythm, couldn't -- it gets tough out here in the afternoon. One, it gets really firm, hard to get it in the good spot, and then two, you obviously are playing behind everyone, so it's a challenge in itself. I hit a couple loose putts and obviously wasn't comfortable with what I was doing."

It also helped mightily that he ranked third in the field in both SG: Approach and Around-the-Green.

But ultimately, winning is all that matters. And only one man is winning more than Gotterup (see: Scheffler, Scottie).

"I'm just really enjoying being out here right now, and I'm having fun," Gotterup said.

"I feel confident in what I'm doing and feel like I have played well enough to feel confident to be able to be in those positions. So far, I've been able to capitalize on those, and I'm excited for the rest of the year."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Hideki Matsuyama
It's fair to say that Matsuyama kicked away this title, which would've been his third at the WMPO. But as mentioned above, there were extenuating circumstances. He bogeyed 18 after driving it into the church pew bunkers and hitting the lip trying to get out. He then sent his playoff drive into the water after the distraction. It was on him, however, that there were driver issues all week. He ranked 68th in driving accuracy for the week. Matsuyama had been 5-for-5 on Tour with the 54-hole lead. This was his first top-10 on the PGA Tour since his last win at the 2025 Sentry, though he did win the Hero World Challenge. Matsuyama is up to No. 11 in the world during a good start to the season, with T13 at the Sony and T11 at the Farmers.

Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler went from almost missing the cut to almost winning. He rallied from an opening 73 with a 65 on Friday. With a 67-64 he zoomed all the way up to the leaderboard to miss the playoff by one shot. In other words, an off-week for the world No. 1. We know it's a surprise when he doesn't win, but in 2024 and '25, he won only 33 percent of the time, 14 of 42 starts. Scheffler will be back at it this week at Pebble Beach in the first Signature Event of the season.

Michael Thorbjornsen
Thorbjornsen is one of the top players on Tour, one of those "It's only a matter of time till he wins" guys. After an electrifying eagle on No. 15 on Sunday thrust him into the lead, it looked like that time was now. But then the 24-year-old got unnerved on 16 (who wouldn't?), bogeyed two straight holes and settled for a tie for third. Thorbjornsen led the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, which is his strength. His putting is a weakness, yet he ranked a respectable 33rd   in the field. His time is still coming, and seemingly a lot sooner than later.

Si Woo Kim
Kim is no stranger to fast starts. Two of his four career wins have come in January – the 2021 Amex and the 2023 Sony Open. But this may be his best start to a season. He tied for third this week, a week after tying for second, a week after tying for sixth, a week after tying for 11th. Kim ranked top-five in the WMPO field in SG: Off-the-Tee, Approach and Around-the-Green. As usual, he can go as far as his putter takes him. He ranked 57th on the greens.

Akshay Bhatia
When you rank sixth in both SG: Approach and Putting, that's often good enough to win the tournament. For Bhatia, it resulted in coming up one shot short. He tied for third, after opening the season with two missed cuts. Bhatia had a few good finishes in 2025 and made the Tour Championship. So in that way it was a successful season. But we wonder if he'd consider it a success since he didn't really contend for a title, much less win one. Even though he was conspicuously absent on TV while other even lower finishers were being shown, this week can go down as contending.

Nicolai Hojgaard
It's fair to say that Hojgaard's first two seasons on the PGA Tour have been underwhelming. Heck, he hasn't even been the best Hojgaard. But on Sunday he completed the best week of his Tour career, tying for third. That followed a T22 at the Farmers and before that a tie for fourth in Dubai. Someone to keep an eye on.

Jake Knapp
Knapp locked up one of the five spots in the fittingly named Aon Swing 5. He will be in the two upcoming Signature Events, along with Pierceson Coody, Ryo Hisatsune, Matt McCarty and Patrick Rodgers. Knapp tied for eighth at the WMPO, continuing a strong start to his season, with a tie for 11th at the Sony and for fifth at the Farmers.

Viktor Hovland
Hovland tied for 10th in his season debut. Going back to last season's BMW Championship playoff event, he has seven straight worldwide top-25s. He surely has a lot to prove after a so-so 2025.

Pierceson Coody
As mentioned above, Coody is heading to Pebble Beach and Riviera via the Aon Swing 5. He has four top-20s in four starts and, with a putter as good as his can be, contending is often a possibility. Not so much this week with a tie for 10th, he was runner-up last week at the Farmers following top-20s in both the Sony and Amex.

Rickie Fowler
After last year's bounceback season in which Fowler finished in the top-50 of the point standings, he's off to a solid start to 2026. Two starts, two top-20s. More specifically, two T18s. We will see Fowler the next two weeks at the Signature Events at Pebble Beach and Riviera.

Sahith Theegala
Theegala continues to show that 2025 was an outlier. He tied for 18th at Phoenix on the heels of consecutive top-10s and four made cuts in four starts in 2026.

Xander Schauffele
At least Schauffele didn't miss the cut, as he did last week, but he wasn't much better. He needed a Sunday 65 just to finish T41. He has fallen to 10th in the world rankings.

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa tied for 54th. He missed the cut at the Sony in his only other start so far. It's fair to wonder what has happened to his game.

MISSED CUTS

Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns, Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Marco Penge. Koepka missed the cut by two strokes, taking a big step back from last week's return to the Tout. Phoenix is a place his game has shined. But not this week. He lost more than three shots to the field on the greens after another bad putting week at the Farmers. We'll see Koepka next at the Cognizant in three weeks. … For Spieth, Phoenix was almost an automatic good week amid many weeks of so-so-play. He has six career top-10s, including four in the previous five years. … Burns does not have a top-25 in two starts. … Horschel does not have a top-25 in three starts. … Finau's good fortunes lasted all of one week. He tied for 11th at the Farmers but has missed the cut in his four other starts in 2025. … Penge was the top player coming over from the DP World Tour this season and was ranked 29th in the OWGR at year's end. It's too soon to worry, but he's 0-for-2 in cuts made on the PGA Tour in 2026.

DP WORLD TOUR

There's no question Patrick Reed will be back on the PGA Tour as early as September. It's looking like he could make an immediate impact. Reed won for the second time on the DP World Tour already this season, edging Calum Hill by two strokes to capture the Qatar Masters.

Reed won two weeks ago in Dubai and, in between wins, lost in a playoff in Bahrain. He is back up to 17 in the world rankings.

Reed left LIV and will be eligible to return to the PGA Tour for the fall season. Presumably, he could play whatever fall events he wants to via sponsor's exemptions. He clearly will have some PGA status in 2027, at a minimum as one of the top 10 finishers on the DPWT in 2026. He has already virtually locked up a top-10 spot.

For up-to-the-minute updates on injuries, tournament participation and overall golfer performance, head to RotoWire's latest golf news or follow @RotoWireGolf on X.