North Burwick, Scotland – Chris Gotterup’s toughest task is to wake up on Friday. Once he left, he really stopped until he tied the course record with 9 61 and headed into the Scottish Open with a two-shot lead.
Gotterup rolled on three long putts, as always off the tee, capturing a spectacular day in the sunshine of the Revival Club with little wind.
Harry Hall (64) was two shots behind and refreshed LudvigÅberg (65), leading a group back to three shots.
Aberg is just the rest he needs – returning to Sweden for the first time in a year, having the chance to meet friends and eat their mother’s special sausage and refresh.
He overcame the Bogey Bogey game over the next 15 holes. This made him the only player in the top five in the afternoon, when the wind kicked along Forth’s craze, the track became firm and resilient enough to frustrate Scottie Scheffler and many others.
Scheffler is the world’s No. 1 player with one-on-three shots, and after watching a point after the putter bounces, he stretches his arm out with his thumb to simulate the celebration. Not that bad. He still fired 68, 6 shots behind.
Rutgers star Gotterup finished his final season at Oklahoma with 129 and 11 shots.
Rory McIlroy had five birdies in the last nine games (he started at 10th) and turned it into 65 to join the group with a score of less than 133. Xander Schauffele defended his title in the Open Championship next week, scoring five shots after 66.
Schauffele rarely gets frustrated with anything, let alone a 66-point score. This is different. The ideal that weather can achieve in these parts is ideal, not all blue skies and bright sunshine, but breeze.
“It’s there,” Schauffele said.
This is exactly what Gotterup does. He was still a little stuck when he preferred to sleep, trying to cope with the shock at 5:15 a.m. He hit it with several birds. He hit 30 feet on the tough seventh hole. He hit the birdie in the top 9 of the 29-year-old in a 20-foot birdie.
In the next five holes, three more birds brought him under 9 years old. There are two more birdies – one hole is 5 – that will make him break 60.
“That didn’t cross my brain at all,” Gotterup said. “I think 10 (below) would be cool. I think it’s still the lowest round I had on the tournament golf course. I didn’t complain.”
Gotterup and Lead the Championship, leading the way to capture one of the three attractions of the open championship. It would be nice to stay for several weeks – he played for the past two weeks and planned to fly to California on Monday to participate in the PGA Tour event in Lake Tahoe – but that’s not why he came here.
He likes to go to Scotland and even comes to Scotland like last year (missing layoffs). Also, he happened to see the prediction, and the whole week was ideal. Fans are willing to accept it because they have been shorted on Saturday and tickets on Sunday are also fast.
“Probably not much better place,” Gotterup said, not clear if he talks entirely about Scotland or his position on the rankings.
Last year, he won the Myrtle Beach Classic, a counter-match. He looked like a pure athlete, and it was 12 years of playing hockey as a kid in New Jersey, and then he decided to invest more time on golf.
“Lacrosse helps me with speed. It’s a similar move,” he said. “When you shoot hockey, I try to tear it apart. When I grow up, I try to hit the ball. That’s how I play. Maybe if I grow up here, it’s different.”
He didn’t know about Shinty’s rough Scottish game, a favorite sport for defending champion Robert MacIntyre. From a Gotterup perspective, he would be very suitable.
McIntyre is very happy to be on the weekend. In the afternoon, the wind was blowing violent enough and the sun roasted the greens to make them bounce back and it was difficult to find a good score. Cut settled on 1 stroke below 139. McIntyre made a night bird and Justin Thomas made a 6-foot bird in the 18th hole to digitize it.
