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Playoff For The People

Playoff For The People

Plus: Pebble Beach House For Sale, Jail Golf, and More.

Josey Orr
February 09, 2026

Good Afternoon. The two hottest golfers on the planet to start 2026?

Patrick Reed and Chris Gotterup. Not even Brandel Chamblee could’ve predicted that.

Chipping Ladder Drill - Patrick Reed

Have you ever tried this?

More Swing Tips:

⛳️ Nelly Korda’s Favorite Swing Thought

Golf Behind Bars: Inside America’s Most Unlikely Club

At Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Washington, golf has become more than a game, it’s a second chance.

Quick Recap: The WM Open

Chris Gotterup Wins In Playoff

For the 5th time in 8 years, the WM Open was decided by a playoff.

As with many playoffs in golf, how you got there is often more interesting than what happened once you arrived. That was the case yesterday too.

Heading into the day, Hideki Matsuyama had a perfect 5/5 record when carrying the 54-hole lead into the final round. For most of Sunday, it looked like that would change to 6/6, and we’d all move on to watching the Super Bowl.

Then things started to get interesting.

Scottie Scheffler made a charge and got himself to 15-under. After a rough start on Thursday, the World No. 1 made just one bogey in the final 54 holes of the tournament.

Chris Gotterup birdied five of the last six holes to get to 16-under. As he stood over his ball on the 72nd hole, his win probability was a measly .7%.

Meanwhile, Hideki Matsuyama and Michael Thorbjornsen ping ponged back and forth at the top of the leaderboard.

After Thorbjornsen bogeyed the 16th and 17th, he dropped to 15-under. Cya.

As Hideki Matsuyama stepped to the 18th tee, he was 17-under and one shot clear of Gotterup. Easy money, right? Wrong.

His tee shot found the church pew bunker, his approach shot didn’t reach the green, he wedged it on from there, and had a par putt to win.

— (@)

He would go on to make bogey, drop to 16-under, and find himself in a playoff with Gotterup.

Then, he was interrupted again while he was over the ball during his tee shot of the playoff hole.

— (@)

His ball would ultimately find the water. He played a great recovery shot to give himself a chance at par, but Gotterup would add one more birdie to his tally and win on the first playoff hole.

Gotterup was Caddyshanks pre-tournament pick, so we were pretty happy with the result, but damn if we didn’t feel bad for Hideki, who did not deserve the disruptions he faced.

As always, he was a complete class act even during defeat.

Now we’re on to the iconic Pebble Beach with another loaded field.

Pebble Beach Pro-Am Odds For This Week

Scottie Scheffler +300
Rory McIlroy +1300
Viktor Hovland +2500
Tommy Fleetwood +2500
Justin Rose +2500
Si Woo Kim +2700

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