The Florida Effect: Why Chris Gotterup’s Offseason Move Could Signal a Larger PGA Tour Shift

In my 35 years covering professional golf, I’ve learned that the most important shots aren’t always played on Sunday afternoon. Sometimes they’re played in November, when a player makes a quiet decision about where to spend the offseason. That’s exactly what Chris Gotterup did, and it might be one of the most underrated moves I’ve seen a young tour player make in the past decade.

Here’s what jumps out at me about Gotterup’s 2026 campaign: Two wins in his first three starts. A meteoric rise from outside the top-200 rankings to the top five in the Official World Golf Rankings. And the culprit? Moving from Oklahoma to Florida.

On the surface, it sounds almost too simple. And that’s precisely why I think it matters.

The Grind Never Stops for Tour Pros

Having spent years as a caddie for Tom Lehman back in the ’90s, I learned something crucial about professional golf: conditioning is a year-round commitment. The players who separate themselves aren’t necessarily the most talented—they’re the ones who refuse to let winter interrupt their process.

Look at Gotterup’s record before this season. He missed eight cuts in his first 12 events last year, with a best finish of T-16 at the Puerto Rico Open. The year before that? Five missed cuts and a withdrawal, topped off by a T-35 at the Cognizant Classic. That’s not the profile of a player lacking talent. That’s the profile of a player whose game was regressing during the offseason.

The brutal Oklahoma winters—the cold, the wind, the general inability to practice and play at full intensity—were essentially stealing three months of development from Gotterup every single year. He wasn’t getting worse as a golfer. He was just getting rustier faster than his competition.

“Yeah, I made a move this offseason down to Florida for hopefully reasons like this,” Gotterup said after his first round at the Sony Open in January. “Feel like my game is in better shape just because I’ve been putting in more work at home.”

That’s the sound of a player who finally figured something out. And it worked immediately.

A Simple Solution to a Real Problem

I want to be careful here not to oversimplify what’s happened. Gotterup’s improvement isn’t purely environmental. The kid clearly has talent—his ability to shape shots and control ball flight has always been there. What’s changed is his ability to maintain that sharpness year-round.

What strikes me most about this story is how obvious it seems in retrospect. We talk endlessly about swing coaches, equipment manufacturers, sports psychologists, and biomechanics analysts. We spend millions on marginal gains. Yet sometimes the biggest breakthrough is as straightforward as: Move somewhere warm where you can practice all winter.

The data backs this up. His first-season performance metrics are a stark contrast to his previous work:

• 2024: 8 missed cuts in 12 events, best finish T-16
• 2025: 5 missed cuts, 1 withdrawal, best finish T-35
• 2026: 2 wins in first 3 starts, top-5 world ranking

That’s not a marginal improvement. That’s transformation.

The Larger Tour Narrative

Here’s where I think this becomes genuinely interesting for the broader PGA Tour landscape. How many other young players are stuck in geographic situations that are subtly undermining their development? Gotterup might have just cracked open a window that other emerging talents should be climbing through.

“His natural swing allows him to shape shots both ways and control ball flight with ease. This season alone, Gotterup has already collected two PGA Tour wins and there’s every reason to believe more could be on the way soon.”

I’m not suggesting every player needs to pack up and move south. But for cold-weather guys trying to compete at the highest level? This is a blueprint worth considering. The tour has become ruthlessly competitive. The margin between making cuts and missing them often comes down to maintaining consistency week-to-week. Weather-forced layoffs are the enemy of that consistency.

The fact that Gotterup looked “completely at ease under pressure” in contention speaks to something deeper than just swing technique. It’s the confidence that comes from knowing your game hasn’t atrophied. When you’ve had four months to work on your craft without interruption, you show up to January events with a very different mindset.

Temper the Enthusiasm, But Not Much

Now, I’ll acknowledge what needs to be said: It’s early. Two wins don’t make a season, and even reaching the top five doesn’t guarantee sustained excellence. I’ve seen plenty of hot starts cool off by April. The real test will be how Gotterup holds up over 12 months, not three weeks.

But that’s not a reason to dismiss what we’re seeing. It’s a reason to pay attention. If Gotterup can maintain this trajectory—if a top-five ranking becomes a legitimate challenge to Scottie Scheffler and the other elite players—then his Florida decision becomes a case study that shapes how the next generation of tour players thinks about preparation.

After 15 Masters and countless other events, I’ve learned that golf’s biggest breakthroughs often come from the simplest places. Gotterup found one. Now we wait to see whether it sticks.