GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 13, 2025

Chris Gotterup

The Renaissance Club

Press Conference

CLARE BODEL: Congratulations, your first time playing The Scottish Open, and you're leaving with a trophy. Could you sum up for us how that feels?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: I mean, obviously, amazing. But yeah, I know this tournament is special to Scotland and everyone in the golf world for the most part. I mean, you look at the names on the board, they have it in the gym every day, and happy to put my name up next to those guys.

CLARE BODEL: Quite a lot comes with this. You're now a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR, first Rolex Series Event here in Europe and you secured your spot in The Open next week. It's a lot to process. Have you managed to take it in?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: Yeah, it won't settle in until everything kind of works out. We'll be going up to Portrush tomorrow. Be right back at it. It will be nice when I get back home at some point and really settle in and process all that happened today.

Q. To win this trophy and to do so holding off Rory McIlroy and a lot of big names who were making a run at you, how satisfying is that?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: Yeah, very, knew today was going to be a battle and Rory is one of the best to ever do it. Happy I edged him out. It wasn't going to be an easy day. There was a pretty bunched -- there's bunch of guys at 9. So I knew someone was going to do something.

So yeah, I really settled in nicely to the round after the first hole, and didn't really look back.

Q. You missed a putt at 14 and bogeyed 15. What was the mindset and to then birdie 16? That was huge?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: We got warned on like 13 for pace, which was a little odd because we were waiting all day.

Then we got to 15. On 15, I got individually timed, which was shocking, and so that got my blood going a little bit more than it was already going trying to win a golf tournament.

I talked all week, especially Friday and Saturday, how I didn't birdie 16, and I knew that's going to be the hole. And I had a 10-footer or whatever it was for birdie and I made it, and I felt like that was the point where it was my tournament to lose.

Q. Friday after the 61, you talked about what your plans for the next week might look like. How does it feel now to cancel those flights?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: Yeah, I might do it right now in front of you. It's great. I'm happy to be playing my first Open next week. It's great. There's nothing other to say than I'm excited to go up to Portrush and get back to playing some tournament golf next week.

But I'm happy I'm not flying from here to California, that's for sure.

Q. Last year on the PGA TOUR, you managed to secure your breakthrough victory. Wondering how this compares, such a massive tournament. Is this the biggest day of your career so far?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: Yeah, I would say. So they are both very special. The first is the first, and I feel like a lot of people say that the second one is harder just because you have expectations and whatnot. It's definitely more a validation this week.

Myrtle Beach was amazing, but this one, I feel like I've been talking to my team about I want to take the next step, and I feel like this is part of that.

Q. Did you surprise yourself in any way with how you held it together? And how difficult was it knowing, obviously, Rory was a bit of a hometown favourite?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: Yeah, I definitely was the villain out there today a little bit. There was a lot of "Rory"ies and not many "Chris"es.

I mean, it feels great. I felt like I was ready and prepared mentally today. And that's kind of what I've been talking about over the last couple of weeks; that I've kind of gotten into the mix a little bit and kind of just, you know, faded away a little bit. And today, my goal was to hang in there tough and I felt like I did that really well.

Q. The only other time you held a 54-hold lead was Myrtle and you converted that one, and you convert this one. How do you feel you play in like these big moments or just kind of what's your mindset in attacking these opportunities?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: I think it's, one, obviously you have to be playing pretty well just to be in that position. So you know you're capable of doing it. And having done it before at the college level and at the pro level now, too, it's nice to have the experience.

But I think it's more of -- I feel like I focus more when I'm in the heat of it because you know how important every shot is. When you're playing on a Thursday back at home on tour or whatever, you're kind of just trying to find your rhythm and figure it out and hopefully get into a rhythm.

But out here, every shot on the weekend is going to count, not that they all do but heightened focus is what makes me play better when pressure is on.

Q. How do you go from the high to experiencing lows and bouncing back?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: Yeah, I think that's probably why I got to choked up there in the interview. I finished last year really in a bad -- not bad place but just like you said, you win early in the year and you're like, all right, I'm going to kick it into gear here.

And then just kind of do a whole lot of nothing until the end of the year.

My hand started hurting me. I had surgery a couple years ago and I was like, oh, here we go again. It ended up being all right. I took three months off and I got back -- taking the time off was important. I definitely felt a little burnt out.

I just had fun this year, more than last year in terms of who I've been hanging out with on the course, and obviously Brady has been really helpful and even my buddy, Hayden, who caddied for me at the start of the year, he was awesome, too. Everyone that's kind of involved in my circle has been very beneficial in that aspect, as well.

Q. The 1-iron, I know it's been in the bag a long time. Did you hit it much this week, and where did you find that way back when?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: I don't know if I can answer this question because who I got it from told me not to tell anyone where I got it from because then he was going to have to deal with the ramifications of that.

So I'll just say, I've had a 2-iron -- it's basically a 2-iron. It just has 1 on it. We've been talking about the new stuff and I haven't really liked the new stuff as much, but the old ones that I liked, they had one on the truck. You know, they gave me one.

I didn't use it as much as I thought I was going to use it this week because I feel like here it's more so carrying certain bunkers where 2-iron can kind of rub into a couple.

But I hit it two or three times. It's funny, we were playing a practise round with Wyndham on Tuesday and I just hit it for fun on 8, and I laid the sod into the hazard over the tee box and I was like, maybe this club isn't great for me this week.

I hit it on 3, second shot, yesterday. I don't know if I hit it -- I might have hit it one more time. Other than that, I didn't use it as much as I expected it to. But I'll definitely be using it the rest of the year are to you are shoe. There will definitely be some holes at Wyndham or something like that where I can use it.

Q. I know your college coach fortuitously was in the area and was able to come visit. What was it like to have at least some close people here with you this week to celebrate?

CHRIS GOTTERUP: Yeah, he texted me a video last night. I don't even remember, somewhere in Europe, some airport. I'm sure he was doing some recruiting. He went out and was like, I'm coming to Scotland.

I'm like, awesome, see you tomorrow.

That's awesome. He's the guy that gave me my first kind of chance -- I shouldn't say first chance. He believed in me way before a lot of other people did, besides my parents. For him to be here and see that unfold is pretty cool.

CLARE BODEL: Congratulations again, Chris. Look forward to seeing you back next year.