Author: James “Jimmy” Caldwell

The Gotterup Moment: Why Chris’s Phoenix Victory Signals Something Bigger for Tour Golf I’ve been around professional golf long enough to know that playoff victories at marquee events don’t just make headlines—they make careers. When Chris Gotterup rolled in that birdie putt on the 18th hole to defeat Hideki Matsuyama at the WM Phoenix Open, he wasn’t just winning a tournament. He was announcing his arrival as a player the tour’s elite need to start respecting. What strikes me most about this result isn’t necessarily the dramatic finish—though watching Matsuyama find the water with his tee shot in a playoff…

Why Golf’s Greatest Upsets Still Matter: A 35-Year Perspective on Unpredictability After three and a half decades covering professional golf – and yes, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time lugging bags for some of the game’s greats – I’ve learned one immutable truth: golf has a peculiar way of humbling even the most confident prognosticators among us. We saw it again recently when a thoughtful piece circulated highlighting some of golf’s most shocking upsets. Reading through that list, I found myself reflecting not just on what happened in those moments, but what they reveal about the nature…

Stop Chasing the Magic Bullet: Duncan McCarthy’s Simple Truth About Getting Better at Golf After 35 years watching golfers of all stripes—from tour pros grinding for majors to weekend warriors grinding through Saturday morning fourballs—I’ve noticed something interesting happens every January. The range fills up with renewed purpose. New drivers arrive. Golf books get dusted off. There’s this palpable sense that this year, finally, we’ll unlock whatever’s been holding us back. Then by March, most of us are playing pretty much the same as we did in December. Mental performance coach Duncan McCarthy, who’s spent 15 years working with tour…

Gotterup’s Breakthrough Masks a Deeper Story: Matsuyama’s Collapse and Golf’s Playoff Roulette There’s a moment in every caddie’s life when you realize that tournaments aren’t won—they’re often lost. Having stood in the bag for Tom Lehman during his own playoff heartbreaks, I recognized something familiar watching Hideki Matsuyama’s final nine holes at TPC Scottsdale on Sunday. It wasn’t Gotterup’s brilliant closing stretch that’ll stick with me. It was Matsuyama’s unraveling, and what it tells us about the fragility of leads in modern professional golf. Let’s be clear: Chris Gotterup earned his Phoenix Open victory. A closing 7-under 64 punctuated by…

The Phoenix Open Still Knows How to Deliver—And What Chris Gotterup’s Win Tells Us About Modern Tour Depth I’ve been covering professional golf for 35 years, and I’ve watched the WM Phoenix Open evolve from a quirky desert stop into one of the most reliably dramatic events on the PGA Tour schedule. This year’s edition at TPC Scottsdale didn’t disappoint, though the outcome might have surprised plenty of casual observers who expected Scottie Scheffler or one of the other heavy hitters to claim victory. They didn’t. Instead, Chris Gotterup—a player who doesn’t dominate the conversation around tour dominance—walked away with…

Scottie’s Phoenix Stumble: A Reminder That Even the Best Have Rough Fridays I’ve been covering professional golf for 35 years, and I’ve learned that the most compelling stories aren’t always about the victories. Sometimes they’re about the 73s—particularly when they come from the world’s best player in the middle of an otherwise spectacular run. Scottie Scheffler’s opening round at the 2026 WM Phoenix Open was, by his standards, a disaster. And yet, watching the reaction from certain corners of the golf world, you’d think he’d missed the cut entirely. Let me be clear about something: one bad round doesn’t redefine…

Gotterup’s Hot Hand Reveals a Tour in Flux—And That’s Not Necessarily a Bad Thing In 35 years covering professional golf, I’ve learned that momentum is as real as a Scottsdale sun-baked fairway. Chris Gotterup just proved it spectacularly at TPC Scottsdale, and what strikes me most isn’t just that he won—it’s what his back-to-back victories tell us about the current state of PGA Tour competition. Let me be direct: the tour feels more wide-open than it has in years, and Gotterup’s surge is Exhibit A. When the Hottest Player Beats the Most Reliable Hideki Matsuyama came into Sunday looking like…

Gotterup’s Redemption Arc: When Short Game Wizardry Beats Experience I’ve watched a lot of playoff drama unfold at TPC Scottsdale over the years, and Sunday’s WM Phoenix Open finish between Chris Gotterup and Hideki Matsuyama reminded me of something I should never forget: in match play situations, the player making the most birdies down the stretch often plays the most aggressive golf when it matters most. Gotterup’s second PGA Tour win in just three starts this season tells a story that goes well beyond the obvious narrative of a young player catching fire. What strikes me most is how he’s…