New Jersey duo hoping to make impact at U.S. Open in neighboring Pennsylvania

USA Today

a day ago

New Jersey duo hoping to make impact at U.S. Open in neighboring Pennsylvania
There are 156 golfers in this week's U.S. Open, but only two of them understand the beauty of the Navesink River and the aggravation of Route 35 traffic. A pair of New Jersey lifers.
Chris Gotterup hails from Little Silver and attended Christian Brothers Academy. Ryan McCormick was raised in Middletown and went to Mater Dei High School. They aren't the sole New Jerseyans in the field this week at Oakmont Country Club in the Pittsburgh suburbs, but they are the only ones who didn't split at the first opportunity. Gotterup earned All-America honors at Rutgers, while McCormick became the Big East individual champion at St. John's.
'I know he takes great pride in that, and I take great pride in it,' Gotterup said of their local bona fides. 'There are good players who grow up in Jersey and go away to college. We're two of the only guys who have toughed it out and climbed through the ranks in a place where you wouldn't think you could do it.'
Gotterup, 25, is making his second appearance at the U.S. Open after also qualifying in 2022. This is the first U.S. Open for McCormick, 33.
More: 'It better not be easier when you're done': 5 things I learned from Gil Hanse on Oakmont
'It speaks to how quality the golf is in New Jersey and especially in Monmouth County,' McCormick said. 'It's awesome that we're both out here playing still.'
Oakmont is an iconic venue, one of the most demanding in the country. When they tee off Thursday, however, don't expect guys who have played through tough conditions for much of their lives to be intimidated.
'I like to describe myself as someone who is gritty, and I know Ryan would say the same thing,' Gotterup said. 'That's just part of our New Jersey roots.'
More: What would an 18 handicap shoot at Oakmont? Pros weigh in, and their answers are hilarious
Chris Gotterup: 'Still earning my place'
Golf is a funny game. In 2024, Gotterup was in good position to qualify for the U.S. Open, but he three-putted the final hole and missed the cutoff by one stroke. This year, at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, he rallied with a six-under final round to punch a ticket.
'It was looking like for a long time that I wasn't going to be here,' he said. 'I turned on the jets at the end, and it ended up being enough.'
He'll need those jets at Oakmont, where he's grouped with Joakim Langergren and Mason Howell. They tee off at 8:46 a.m. Thursday and 2:31 p.m. Friday.
'In a perfect world, you'd be out here for two straight weeks trying to learn every little nuance that you could,' Gotterup said after a couple of practice rounds on the course. 'There are some holes where it breaks your brain; if you're in the rough and you hit it 40 yards short of the green, it's going to get there. It's a mental challenge more than anything.'
It doesn't hurt that he won a PGA Tour event last year, shooting 22 under par at the Myrtle Beach Classic in South Carolina.
'That honestly feels like a long time ago,' Gotterup said. 'I feel like I'm still earning my place out here.'
He's done that since graduating CBA. At Rutgers, he developed from an average college golfer into a star, and as a postgraduate at the University of Oklahoma he won the Fred Haskins Award as the most outstanding Division I golfer in 2022.
At a time when the professionalization of college football and basketball is casting a cloud over the future of other intercollegiate sports, Gotterup can attest to the virtues of his time on campus.
'There were so many stepping stones for me that, even if I was good enough at Rutgers to turn pro, I would not be in the same position I am now,' he said. 'I needed those years of getting the crap beat out of me and coach yelling at me and teachers telling me, that I wasn't trying hard enough in school. There are all these pieces that built up to get my feet underneath me to the point where I can finally kick some (butt).'
His biggest piece of advice for the current crop of high school golf standouts?
'Go somewhere where you're going to be comfortable and you're going to play -- for me, that was Rutgers,' he said. 'And it's important to not get burnt out. Do other stuff, play basketball. You don't need to act like a tour pro at 17.'
Ryan McCormick: 'You're in the right spot'
It's been a roller-coaster couple of years for McCormick, who lives in Florida now but spends his summers in Jersey. He earned his PGA Tour card in 2023 but took his lumps.
'It was difficult and I learned a lot and I got my butt kicked – and I played well a few weeks out of the year,' he said of the PGA Tour. 'But in our business, there is really no long-term security unless you win.'
He ended up on the Korn Ferry Tour this year.
'Every time you advance in anything, but especially in golf, you play against better competition and better courses, you find out about yourself and how good your game is really, and what you need to do to get better,' he said. 'As frustrating as last year was, I learned a lot, and I'm a lot better for it now. I'm probably the best version of myself with my golf game that I've been in my life.'
It all came together June 2, when McCormick punched his ticket to Oakmont by winning his U.S. Open qualifier by a whopping five strokes.
McCormick is a huge Seton Hall basketball fan – his family has owned season tickets since the 1990s – and he drew an analogy that hardwood aficionados will appreciate.
'It was like Darius Lane or Jeremy Hazell,' he said, referencing former Pirate sharpshooters. 'When they get hot, you just keep feeding them. I hit it really well.'
In Oakmont, he's grouped with Trevor Cone and amateur Zachary Pollo. Their tee times are 2:20 p.m.on Thursday and 8:35 a.m. Friday.
'I've been trying to qualify for the U.S. Open since I was 15,' McCormick said. 'I've always watched every day. It's my favorite golf event.'
Part of his typical pre-event preparation is playing a video-game version of the course on PGA Tour 2K. Anything to gain a little extra insight.
'I always try to do my research on the golf course that I'm playing,' McCormick said. 'I've been spending time looking at the past US Opens there, watching the final rounds of the last three of them. You never know what you might pick up on that might help you out there.
'I know they've changed the course, But as far as venues go, this is probably one of the top U.S. Opens you'd want play – you think of Winged Foot, Pebble Beach and Oakmont. So to qualify in a year when it's at such a historic venue is exciting.'
If he does something notable this week, you may see replays of a strange clip from April, when he played a round in Georgia with tape over his mouth to control frustrated outbursts.
'It really went all over the world through all different types of news outlets,' McCormick said. 'It was an unbelievable thing that I had no idea was going to get so much attention.'
McCormick said the idea was to enhance his focus.
'I've never been afraid to try anything that will help me,' he said. 'It was an exercise that I had in an old book of mine – go play with earplugs in, go play without talking, go hit some shots with a blindfold. Eliminating the senses. I took that to the extreme obviously. The feedback was out of control. But the golfers really understood, and I'm glad for the most part people found it funny.'
McCormick's U.S. Open debut marks a full-circle moment for his family. His father Mark McCormick, the longtime head pro at Suburban Golf Club in Union, qualified at age 49 in 2012. It's in the blood, for sure.
'When we moved to Middletown, my dad put this small green in the backyard,' Ryan said. 'My brother (also named Mark) would sometimes practice with me and make up leaderboards for all four majors. I remember us doing the 'U.S. Open' a lot. Now I'll be on the real leaderboard and he won't have to create a fake leaderboard for me to compete on.'
Dream big. That's Ryan McCormick's advice anyone growing up in the Garden State who might have a future in golf.
'I always believed in myself, but there were plenty of times as a junior and even in high school when I got my butt kicked, and I just kept working,' he said. 'Just know that between Chris and I and Max Greyserman (a Short Hills native who also qualified), it shows that if your dreams are to play on the PGA Tour, you're in the right spot. Just keep working on it.'
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996. Contact him at [e-mail]