Weekend: Gotterup Continues To (Phoenix) Rise
Reeds wins for the second time in three weeks, Smylie hits the LIV jackpot in his debut, and the Africa Am sends Buchanan to Birkdale.
The weekend gave us so much. And I’m not referring to the PGA Tour marketeers and corresponding fanboys resurrecting silly fifth major nonsense.
No, it was actual on-course action that gave us a clear indication of who is ready for The Masters. And there were gifts galore: we don’t have to hear about Scottsdale’s 16th hole party for another year, pitchers and catchers report soon, and no one—except his devoted family— has to hear Cris Collinsworth’s voice again until September. Life is good!
After a union-mandated vote, The Quad’s Gen-Z staff agreed to let others dissect that wet turd of a Super Bowl. But if need be, I’m happy to point to World Series Game 7 highlights or the 2025 Masters final round as definitive evidence of what actual sports thrills look like.
For golf fans, the WM Phoenix Open produced plenty to love after the Thursday-to-Saturday nonsense wound down and TPC Scottsdale could work its usual Sunday magic. There was the usual nonsense, highlighted by a cross-necklace-wearing-cabbage-haircut-inbred(adjacent)-central-casting-jag attempting to interfere with play (and who has now been banned from Tour events going forward bit should get months of aggrievement content for his troubles).
There will also be lingering questions about the integrity of Sunday’s competition after Hideki Matsuyama backed off several shots due to noise on his backswing (early verdict: one was probably intentional, while the higher-profile playoff incident appears accidental according to smart scribes on the ground).
But we know this: rock-hard greens separated the wheat from the chaff, or in golf terms, the overseeded rye from the hearty Bermuda.
Chris Gotterup is for real, while Matsuyama and Scottie Scheffler are a tweak or two away from having the Tradition Unlike Any Other all to themselves. Or until defending champion Rory McIlroy makes a statement win upon his return to the States (starting Thursday in Pebble Beach).
Gotterup Wins WM In A Playoff
A year ago, no one (with a life) outside of golf could pick Chris Gotterup out of a lineup.
Now he’s a four-time PGA Tour winner thanks to birdies on five of his last six holes, followed by another in sudden death to win the WM Phoenix Open.
The 26-year-old’s biggest career win came over a quality field at a TPC Scottsdale playing firm and fast, hinting at big things for the former Oklahoma golfer on the tougher stages awaiting his stout game.
Gotterup began the final round four strokes back of Hideki Matsuyama and posted a final round 64 featuring an absurd six birdies in his final seven holes played. The last of those came in an unexpected playoff thanks to Matsuyama and his balky driver bogeying the last, sending the WM to its seventh playoff in 11 years.
Gotterup made nine birdies Sunday to tie his career-high in a round on the PGA Tour (2025 Genesis Scottish Open).
“Even during the back nine, I was like, all right, just keep climbing the board, try to get into a good spot,” Gotterup said of his shock at reaching a playoff. “I knew I needed to birdie 18, and I had some, let’s say, maybe a little luck involved in that shot, but to come out on top and do it the way I did in the playoff was awesome.”
Asked about a run that’s seen him win in three of his last 11 starts, Gotterup isn’t reflecting too much. Which might explain his success.
“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,” he said. “So far, I’ve been able to capitalize on those, and I’m excited for the rest of the year. I’ve got a bunch of tournaments coming up that I haven’t played in some cool spots. Really just looking forward to what’s to come.”
Sunday featured several players with a decent shot at winning. But crazy-firm TPC Scottsdale greens eliminated plenty of pretenders. Ultimately, it was poor work off the tee that caught up with the third-round leader and former WM champion, Matsuyama.
How bad was his driving?
Matsuyama hit just 25 of 56 (generous) TPC Scottsdale fairways and lost nearly five shots to the field with the big stick. According to ShotLink, he still averaged 304.8 yards on all drives. Hallelujah! Ahhh…the juiced equipment era sure can mask a performance that would have resulted in a final-round 80 in the days before rulemakers decided that manufacturers and their $700 drivers were above skill-exposing regulation.
I digress.
With respect to Matsuyama, who acknowledged his less-than-A game play— “Didn't have my best stuff, but hung in there”—he hung around enough to force a playoff. And before hitting only three fairways Sunday, he showed that his game is otherwise in fine form. How else to explain posting 16-under-par after a driving performance that would have ranked as the fourth worst in PGA Tour history had he won?
Matsuyama gained 6.630 strokes on the field with approach play that left him 36’7” from the hole on average (T12). He made 361’7” of putts thanks to a mere 107 for the week.
A sizeable and intriguing group finished T3, with all leaving Scottsdale full of optimism for the Masters (if they get there). \
Scottie Scheffler, Akshay Bhatia, Si Woo Kim, Michael Thorbjornsen, and Nicolai Hojgaard finished a stroke out of the playoff.
Scheffler is on track for a third Masters win if he maintains his form and finds himself on the right side of the draw. While Scheffler’s approach play still hasn’t been up to his ridiculous best, he captured the recent American Express with pretty dreadful stuff by his (statistical) standards and improved at the WM. Scheffler gained three strokes on the field by hitting a healthy 58/72 greens and tightening up his proximity with a 38’11” average.
“I’m not going to nitpick too many 64s,” Scheffler said ahead of starts at Pebble Beach and Riviera. “String together a few more of those. If you want to nitpick, let’s look a little bit further back in the week.”
Scheffler’s final round 64 highlighted one of many ridiculous stats tied to his run of brilliant golf over the last five years:
Scheffler is also riding a top-10 streak, as noted by Justin Ray and the PGA Tour:
In case you’re wondering how the betting world sees things, Gotterup’s win moved him up to 55-1 in Oddschecker’s roundup of Masters odds. He’s still a jaw-dropping distance behind chip-chunker and what-has-he-done-lately Collin Morikawa.
Matsuyama rose to a still-enticing 35-1 while Scheffler remains a very reasonable 3-1 shot.
But who cares what old school betting markets think?
For the first time during a final round, I watched Kalshi’s prediction market as the round and playoff ensued. It’s a fascinating look into how old-school wagering is falling far behind with its ties to “the House.” The WM playoff proved especially fun to watch on Kalshi, as Matsuyama’s chances of winning the playoff dropped to 1% after his tee shot into the water, but rose to 14% with a strong approach that set up a par putt chance. Things then returned to gar—bage for his backers when Gotterup stuck his approach and made his winning birdie.
And if Kalshi’s on-screen numbers are to be believed, nearly $40 million was wagered invested.
Also…
Despite a smaller field (120 from 132), barely discernible breezes, zero frost delays, and highs in the low 80s, the field was unable to complete the first or second rounds on time.
Si Woo Kim (T3/-15) has posted three consecutive top-10 finishes and is one of two players to finish inside the top 20 in all four events to start the 2026 PGA Tour season (other: Pierceson Coody)
Michael Thorbjornsen (T3/-15) eagled the par-5 15th hole to take the lead before bogeying Nos. 16 and 17. The former Stanford great still recorded his seventh top-five finish in his 48th career start.
Brooks Koepka, a two-time WM Phoenix Open champion (2015, 2021) and the Returning Member Program Founding Member Emeritus, posted rounds of 75-69 to miss the cut (T86/+2).
The
Par 3par 4 17th may be a glorified par-3, but with a multi-quadrant green and firm conditions, it remained the most interesting par-4 on the PGA Tour. Averaging 3.706 over four rounds, players still took on the green despite all of the risks involved. But they’re just following orders from their data analysts working from basements across the globe!
Reed Wins Again
With his second title in three weeks, Patrick Reed has all but locked up one of the ten PGA Tour cards bequeathed to the DP World Tour.
Reed, 35, is eligible to return to the PGA Tour in September after serving out a suspension and receiving a reprieve detailed in Clause 48b/12.2 in the soon-to-be published Returning Members Program handbook**.
Reed’s two-stroke win at the lifeless 2026 Qatar Masters played out in front of tens of people over the majestic Doha Golf Club.
“The golf we’ve played since basically the off-season has been some stellar golf, I feel really confident in my golf game right now, and it’s always awesome to come and play the way we do, especially over here,” Reed said.
Thanks to a two-under-par final round 70, the 35-year-old former LIV golfer held off Scotland’s Calum Hill, last week’s fellow playoff runner-up alongside Reed. Hill’s impressive Qatar bounce-back followed last week’s second-playoff hole shank.
“This is going to allow me to take confidence going into the rest of the year, especially with the different ways I had to do it,” Reed said. “I had a really comfortable lead in Dubai, and then I had to come chase last week, and then here to have a lead and then lose it and have to fight back. I basically did it all three different ways and for me it’s just kind of build on the great things and just move forward and look forward to the rest of the year.”
Another notable to play well included former Amateur champion Jacob Skov Olesen, who shared third with Johannes Veerman.
**Just kidding…it would be rude to publish a handbook while making the rules up as you go. At this pace, Reed might even get into The Players after another Returning Members Program revision.
Smylie Wins In LIV Debut
