NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Whatever Rory McIlroy needed to do, he’s already done it. He arrived in Scotland on Tuesday with a few objectives: play well, fell better hitting into left-to-right winds, get comfortable reading putts on these slower greens.
Check, check, check.
McIlroy doesn’t need another win, though he’d absolutely love adding to his tally this week. Just not as much as next week.
Chris Gotterup, on the other hand? Whatever he needed to do in Scotland, well, job’s not done yet. He has a flight booked to California that he’ll be boarding quickly, if things don’t go well, en route to next week’s Barracuda Championship. That would be at least 10 hours in the air recounting missed opportunities.
McIlroy is 36 and looking older by the day — his recently too-tight haircut exposing how much grey lies beneath. Gotterup turns 26 in a week, and is looking less green by the day. His family roots are Danish but this is just his second tournament of European golf … ever. The stats make McIlroy look like Goliath, but Gotterup is really just a McIlroy derivative. He hits it just as far, his irons are improving, his short game has rounded into form since the spring. When he putts well, look out.
Muscularly, you’d call Gotterup stocky. McIlroy is more of a ripped jockey. Mentally, Gotterup is as chill as they come, largely because he can be. Whenever McIlroy relaxes too much, he gets criticized. As a junior, Gotterup was one of many on the Jersey Shore. McIlroy was One of One on the Irish Sea. Like many Tour pros, their idea of a good time isn’t too different. Gotterup loves himself some Rutgers Basketball at Madison Square Garden. McIlroy flew his friends to Germany in January for a bucket list European football match, loving that he could blend into the crowd.
There’s a nickname for Gotterup’s friends and family outside the ropes — the Gotterup Gang. They’re waking up giddily in the States. Our boy could do it today. The nickname for McIlroy’s support? The broad swath known as Northern Ireland, anxious in a different way — not necessarily for Sunday but for the seven days that follow. Over in Belfast, the newspaper of record has been printing stories for weeks about the forthcoming Open at Royal Portrush, billed as the largest sporting event ever held in the country. The only golf stories written about anything else have been devoted to McIlroy, the native son, who flamed out before the weekend six years ago, when Portrush last hosted.
The PGA Tour offers us moments like this frequently. Very different people from very different places at very different moments in their life, all trying to do the same thing: use today’s 18 holes as a stepping stone — big or small — toward the next one. For those at home, it helps to know the characters and what makes them tick. Yes, even the fiery Wyndham Clark, the tattooed Jake Knapp, the grinding Matt Fitzpatrick and the Englishman nobody seems to know, Marco Penge, who are all just two shots back. Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman will be on the call, and rest assured, they’ve done their research.
