ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Chris Gotterup might have three PGA Tour wins in the last seven months, but there's still places he has yet to see. Bay Hill is one of them. Gotterup also has yet to play in the next two signature events on the schedule at Harbour Town and Quail Hollow.
There's also that small matter of the Masters. He is only the third player since World War II to have won four times — Gotterup won an opposite-field event in 2024 — before getting to the Masters.
He saw Augusta National for the first time last week, taking his father and brother to play with a club member. And he had a few lasting impressions.
“Well, the chute on 18 is much tighter than TV gives it credit for,” Gotterup said Tuesday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
He also mentioned the green on the par-5 second hole looking much smaller, mainly because he has only seen it surrounded by thousands of spectators while watching on television.
“Two green is so wild looking because it looks so massive on TV and obviously the framing of all the people behind you,” he said. “It’s just like the green is thrown in like perfect grass. So it looked much smaller and different.”
He also played the Par 3 course, and he stopped in the pro shop before leaving — a couple of hats, something for his immediate family and his girlfriend, along with a deck of cards.
“Everyone in the world of golf would love to go play a round there,” he said. “But to be able to have the build-up into the Masters is awesome.”
Gotterup first qualified in July by winning the Scottish Open. Since then, he added victories in the Sony Open and at Torrey Pines.
Tiger Woods has left his prints all over the USGA by winning the U.S. Open by a record 15 shots, winning three straight times in the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur, and sharing the record with Bobby Jones of claiming nine USGA titles.
And now his name will be etched into a medal and a trophy.
The USGA announced at its annual meeting last week in New York the winner of the U.S. Amateur now will receive the Tiger Woods Medal, and the winner of the U.S. Junior Amateur will get the Tiger Woods Trophy.
“The USGA and its championships have played an enormous role in my life,” Woods said in a statement. “The U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur were defining moments in my development, both as a golfer and as a person. To be recognized in this way is incredibly humbling, and I hope it inspires young players to chase their dreams and appreciate the history and values of the game.”
The U.S. Amateur already has named its trophy for Theodore Havemeyer, the first USGA president.
The U.S. Open awards the Jack Nicklaus Medal to the winner, while the U.S. Women’s Open winner gets the Mickey Wright Medal. The USGA previously announced the JoAnne Carner Medal for the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion. Carner, known then as JoAnne Gunderson, is a four-time winner of the Women’s Amateur.
The Epson Tour, the developmental circuit for the LPGA, starts its season this week with some momentum on its side.
Epson America announced a three-year extension of its umbrella sponsorship of the tour which now runs through 2029. The extension includes increasing the winner's share to $100,000 at the season-ending Epson Tour Championship. It's the first time in the circuit's 46-year history that a winner will get six figures.
Among recent Epson Tour alumni is Grace Kim, who won her first major last year in France.
March not only starts the unofficial road to the Masters, Augusta is on the mind in the air, too. Delta Airlines, a tournament partner since 2018, has launched an entertainment collection for the Masters during flights on the seatback screens and personal devices.
Among the offerings are tournament films from 2019 (Tiger Woods) through 2025 (Rory McIlroy); episodes of “Hallowed Grounds” and other original content.
Delta also is ramping up service into Augusta Regional Airport with up to 18 flights a day and 3,800 available seats on peak days. New direct flights include Los Angeles, Nashville, Tennessee, and Newark, New Jersey.
The USGA hasn't entirely forgotten about Ohio when it comes to the U.S. Open.
Inverness Club in the far northwestern corner of Ohio will get the U.S. Open in 2045. It will be the fifth time Inverness gets a U.S. Open, but only after a 66-year absence. Hale Irwin won the the second of his three U.S. Open titles there in 1979.
The Donald Ross design went through an upgrade in 2018 by architect Andrew Green, who put back some of the design features that had been changed during an overhaul in the 1970s to prepare for the 1979 U.S. Open.
The announcement gives hope to clubs wanting the U.S. Open after the USGA announced its “anchor sites” that began filling the calendar. Riviera will get the 2031 U.S. Open after waiting 83 years, while Oakland Hills is set for 2034 after a 38-year absence.
The only other Ohio clubs to host the U.S. Open were Scioto in 1926 — 100 years later it will host the U.S. Senior Open this summer — and Canterbury in 1940 and 1946.
Sweetwater Country Club in the Houston suburbs is now part of the TPC Network, a move that comes some 40 years after it was home to LPGA corporate offices.
Sweetwater also hosted an LPGA event. But in 1989, the LPGA decided it was getting lost in Houston and found new digs in Daytona Beach, Florida. “We wanted to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond,” said Bill Blue, in his first year as LPGA commissioner. He was ousted less than a year later.
Sweetwater becomes the 31st course in the TPC network and fourth in Texas, joining TPC Craig Ranch and TPC Las Colinas in the Dallas area, and TPC San Antonio. TPC Houston will host one of five Q-schools for PGA Tour Americas at the end of March.
Rory McIlroy will be sharing a locker in the Champions Room at Augusta National with the late Ben Hogan and Raymond Floyd. ... The PGA of America is sticking with NBC Sports and USA Sports for the Ryder Cup, extending their agreement for two more years that will include the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship and the PGA Professional Championship. That takes the agreement through 2033, when the Ryder Cup will be held at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The PGA Championship is on CBS. ... Nico Echavarria became the first Cognizant Classic winner to go bogey-free on the weekend since the tournament moved to PGA National in 2007. ... Cypress Point, which staged the Walker Cup last September, will host the Curtis Cup in 2042 and another Walker Cup in 2048. Seminole Golf Club in Florida also will take men and women amateurs, hosting the Curtis Cup in 2046 and the Walker Cup in 2052. ... Joaquin Niemann is the latest player to sponsor an AJGA event. But he's doing it with his LIV Golf team. The Torque GC Championship will be June 9-11 in Florida. As part of the partnership, Torque GC will receive integrated brand visibility throughout tournament week, including digital coverage and promotional support across AJGA platforms.
Nico Echavarria (No. 34) is the only South American player among the top 100 in the world ranking.
“There's no need to reinvent the wheel when you get to the PGA Tour.” — Ryan Gerard.
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