One of the coolest things about my (I use the following word loosely) job is getting access to excellence. Interviewing top golfers means I get to see and hear firsthand how the very best in the world operate. That is a very cool thing. Interesting, inspiring, instructive. Were I more talented and more disciplined I might even be able to put these lessons into practice and really make something of myself. At the very least I’ll settle for a little enrichment via osmosis.
The only downside is that when I listen back to what were very cool conversations I have to hear myself talk, too. Re-watching this latest episode of “Warming Up,” for instance, I don’t just get the thoughtful Jersey wisdom of four-time (and twice this year!) PGA Tour winner Chris Gotterup — I get to second-guess my own contributions, too, and rue each missed opportunity.
Where did I whiff with Gotterup? Here’s a start: one of the most notable things about his approach is the fact that he doesn’t strap his glove; it flaps like an unfurled sail. But I never brought it up, never teed him up for storytime, even as that piece of loose velcro waved in my face.
This is no crime of humanity — I wouldn’t have been the first to ask about it, nor the last — but in this setting? With glove in hand and club in hand, and the opportunity to provide and demonstrate context with his explanation? What a miss!
I hold myself slightly less to blame for the second question I wish I’d asked: Why do you get so emotional after your wins? Don’t get me wrong, I would cry like a baby if I made it into a PGA Tour field, never mind made a cut. But Gotterup has won at every level and is not, on the surface, a particularly emotive guy; our conversation slipped more than once into laid-back, low-key monotone. What is it about the post-win moments with Amanda Balionis that bring on the waterworks?
Alas, this was a delayed-release episode, filmed just before Gotterup notched either of his 2026 victories. (To the many high-profile PGA Tour pros reading this: If you come on ‘Warming Up’ you, too, will immediately win multiple events.) So I’ll give myself a break there; we’ll save that question for next time.
But enough about what we didn’t get. There’s much more we did. Below are five lessons I managed to slip out of Gotterup — and I hope you’ll watch the full thing to get a better sense of how Gotterup gets it done.
1. He doesn’t worry what his swing looks like.
We may be in an era of style over substance — in life, not just golf — but Gotterup doesn’t have time to worry about his golf swing’s aesthetic. He’s too busy making sure it actually works.
“I heavily rely on feel and like, I’m not very technical,” he said. “I’m not worried about what my swing looks like, I just want to know: Does the club feel good in my hands? And can I make the ball go left to right? Can I go right to left? Can I hit my numbers? Because at the end of the day, once you get out on the course you’re just trying to put the ball where you want it to go and I don’t need to be thinking about where my club head is in my swing on hole 7 in a tournament. So for me, it’s about what I can do to create consistency and feel good about it. Am I getting results with the numbers that I want? Especially pre-tournament and during a tournament, that’s all that matters for me.”
If you’re an Adam Scott imitator or you’re continually typing “tiger woods 2000 golf swing” into YouTube, I’m not here to pass judgment. That’s art. But Gotterup remembers that his swing is means to an end. What makes us different makes it great. If it works, it doesn’t matter how it looks. And his works very, very well.
2. He’ll check ball speed to make sure everything’s okay.
Mostly when Gotterup uses his launch monitor it’s to check out carry distances. But there’s another number he uses as a gauge to see how his entire body is working. This was interesting:
“I’ll look at ball speed too … with driver, because I can kind of tell if my body’s in a good spot,” Gotterup said. “Obviously if it’s cold, it’s different, but if I’m on the lower side, I probably need to go see someone trainer-wise and be like, something’s not [right], or I need to like go to the gym and do something to kind of get back into it. But most of that comes if I’ve played four or five tournaments in a row — that’s kind of where it like starts to fall off.”
3. Winning is exhausting.
Okay, this one may not be particularly relatable. But it is interesting. Gotterup is something of an expert on what it’s like to win PGA Tour events now, and one thing he’s learned is that all those good times take a toll.
“Yeah, it elevates the experience, but it also drains the body more,” he said. “Oh my god, yeah. I didn’t sleep after I won, and not because I was out partying or doing anything. I couldn’t go to sleep. And then you get up at 5 [a.m.] the next day to go travel to Northern Ireland and then you’ve got to get ready for a major. I think it’s a balance of like, living the highs and then like … alright, that’s gone, I’ve got to get ready for next week.”
When Gotterup first won, in Myrtle Beach, it was the week before the PGA Championship. When he won next, at the Genesis Scottish Open, it was right before the Open Championship. He adapted his prep accordingly.
“I’m not gonna sit here and complain like I had a bad time [laughing] but when I won my first year I got into the PGA the next week and I was like whoa, I’ve got to get ready for the PGA and like, practice super hard, and I wore myself out by the time Thursday came around. And so [after the Scottish] I was like, I’m gonna take the opposite approach. I’m going to do nothing on Monday, ease my way into the week … try to learn from past experiences and be able to take that into into each week.”
It certainly worked that week; Gotterup finished third at Royal Portrush.
4. You can learn a lot by caddying — but more from data.
Gotterup used to caddie; he speaks of it fondly. But he also had an important learning, which is that players lie, but launch monitors don’t.
How far does his 8-iron go?
“I’m probably in the 165-70 range here this week,” he said. “But usually, you know, middle of the summer, 100 degrees, it’s probably 180, give or take. So that’s why I use [a launch monitor], because it’s helpful with knowing like, where I’m at for the week. And it doesn’t lie. It’s not like when I was caddying or whatever as a kid, some guy would say, oh, I hit my 8-iron 170. It’s like, no, you probably you probably hit it 145.”
There are two reminders in that: No. 1, find out how far your clubs go. No. 2, if your 8-iron goes 145, you’re probably doing pretty well. Gotterup smashes it, and you’re only 20 yards behind him? Not bad.
5. It’s all a mysterious equation.
Okay, it isn’t all mysterious. Talent and hard work are a pretty powerful combination. But for the world’s best players, figuring out when to push harder vs. taking a deep breath is an inexact science.
“There’s plenty of times where it’s like, I don’t know if hitting balls is going to help me today,” he said. “It’s like, yeah, if you have a bad round or whatever it might be better just to go get a dinner and get out of there instead of trying to figure it all out.”
So how to decide? He shrugged.
“No one really knows the answer, you kind of just guess and hope you’re right.”
You can watch the complete Warming Up interview with Gotterup below, or on YouTube here.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
