Chris Gotterup Wins the WM Phoenix Open in a Playoff: Elo Ratings & Rankings Impact
What a weekend at the WM Phoenix Open!
Chris Gotterup started off on fire shooting a first round 63. This bagged him +27 Elo points from his tee time partners Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth who shot 73 and 70 respectively.
Round one definitely wasn't Scottie's best round, that's for sure, but he came back fighting shooting 65, 67 and 64 for the remaining rounds. That got him into a tie for 3rd overall and reduced the Elo damage from the first round with an overall Elo change of +1, leaving him in first place on the PGA Tour rankings.
Hideki Matsuyama was in form all week shooting 68, 64, 68, 68. He missed out on the win after battling his driver on the last day and if it wasn't for an amazing putt by Gotterup, you never know. Hideki still earned an astonishing +80 Elo points for the tournament moving him up 29 spots in the PGA rankings from 37th to 8th.
As mentioned, Chris Gotterup took the win with a ridiculous drive in the playoff and a putt that never looked like missing. Chris is currently sitting 15th in the overall PGA rankings and with an Elo increase of +21 taking him to 1,789 he's in the best form of his life.
Chris would have gone up by more if it wasn't for Si Woo Kim and Akshay Bhatia in round 3 who are both close to peak form right now.
Other notable players in form are:
- Christo Lamprecht gaining +80 Elo taking him from #2,077 → #482 on the PGA Tour rankings
- Seung-taek Lee gaining +65 Elo taking him from #1,813 → #553 in the rankings
- Kevin Roy gaining +56 Elo moving him from #104 → #45 in the rankings
Both Seung-taek and Kevin are at their Elo peak right now and Christo is creeping toward his peak from November 2024.
Not everyone was in form though, with the following players dropping down the rankings:
- Xander Schauffele dropped 54 Elo and is now out of the top 10 in the PGA rankings going from #6 to #26
- Haotong Li dropping 63 Elo and going from #101 → #234 in the rankings
- Austin Smotherman dropping 62 Elo and falling 127 spots in the rankings to #229
- Alejandro Tosti down 60 Elo and is now #429 on the PGA Tour
As always, every big Elo change comes with a big upset. Congrats to:
- Hank Lebioda beating Xander Schauffele in round 3 (expected win: 16.8%)
- Marcelo Rozo beating Sam Burns in round 2 (expected win: 17.0%)
- Davis Riley beating J.T. Poston in round 1 (expected win: 18.6%)
- Rafael Campos beating Corey Conners in round 1 (expected win: 20.9%)
- Min Woo Lee beating Si Woo Kim in round 1 (expected win: 21.2%)