What does it take for a 13-year-old golfer to come to Pebble Beach? For Chris Gotterup, it took breaking par to win a bet with his father.

“My dad and I had a bet when I was growing up that once I broke par, he would take me out here,” Gotterup recalled Wednesday ahead of his pro debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “It’s one of those things that it was my first time, like being a decent player and getting to, like, play a place like this and enjoying it rather than being a young kid and not really knowing what you’re doing,” Gotterup said.

He broke par at Rumson Country Club in New Jersey when he carded a 2-under 69 at only 13 years old. The scorecard still sits framed in his parents’ basement, one of the only childhood mementos he kept. He came to Pebble Beach with his dad and brother. Gotterup remembers hitting the driver on 18, finding the fairway despite not playing particularly well that week. He remembers his brother lipping out a putt on the same hole and falling to his knees.

“I’m able to appreciate the history and greatness of this place,” Gotterup also mentioned.

Pebble Beach has a long history. It opened in 1919 and has hosted six U.S. Opens, more than any other course in the last fifty years. Jack Nicklaus won here in 1972. Tom Watson chipped in on 17 to beat Nicklaus in 1982. Tiger Woods won by 15 shots in 2000. After winning the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Rory McIlroy called it one of golf’s cathedrals, putting it alongside Augusta and St. Andrews. Nicklaus has said that if he had one round left, he would play it here.

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Chris Gotterup’s father, Morten, is a multiple NJSGA champion. He brought that competitive approach to family matches at Rumson, the same course where Chris Gotterup broke par. The two played against each other in club championships, drawing attention from other members.

The bet didn’t exist in isolation. Morten Gotterup, Chris’s father, won multiple NJSGA championships and brought that same intensity to family showdowns at Rumson, the very course where Chris earned his Pebble Beach ticket. The father-son duo

faced off in club championships multiple times, Gotterup revealed in a 5Clubs interview, with matches becoming spectacles at the club. “We definitely went back and forth,” he said. “The club liked it too, because they knew we’d go back and forth with each other on the golf course.”

The family thread runs through every milestone. In a July 2025 interview, Gotterup recalled watching The Open Championship as a kid, mornings on the couch with his dad and brother, the broadcast playing while the rest of America slept. “It’s definitely one that I’ve wanted to play in forever,” he said. The same dad who made the Pebble Beach bet. The same brother who lipped out on 18.

That competitive fire, first stoked in family matches, has now erupted on the PGA Tour. The promise he showed as a 13-year-old has fully materialized in 2026, with Gotterup putting together one of the most dominant starts to his season.

Chris Gotterup’s 2026 Performance Positions Him as the PGA Tour’s Most Dangerous Player

Gotterup has won twice in three starts this year. He closed with a 64 at the Sony Open in Hawaii to beat Ryan Gerard by two. At the WM Phoenix Open, he birdied five of his final six holes in regulation, then buried Hideki Matsuyama on the first playoff hole with another birdie.

The stat sheet reads like a misprint. Second on Tour in strokes gained total. Driving it 314 yards on average. FedExCup leader. World No. 5 — only Scottie Scheffler ranks higher among Americans.

Scheffler has noticed. “Scottie was following me at lunch and he’s like, ‘I’m just going to eat what you’re eating,'” Gotterup recounted with a grin.

A year ago, Gotterup sat outside the top 200 after missing cuts early in his second season, ineligible for signature events. Now he tees off Thursday at 1:16 PM ET alongside Wyndham Clark. No player since Johnny Miller in 1975 has won three of the PGA Tour’s first five events.

A kid from New Jersey broke par at 13 and his dad kept the promise. This week, that kid walks one of golf’s cathedrals carrying something more than clubs — the weight of a wager fulfilled, and the chance to write a chapter his teenage self couldn’t have imagined.