Christopher Gotterup Named Big Ten Player of the Year
May 18 | Men's Golf
Junior also earns First Team All-Big Ten, Les Bolstad Award for lowest season stroke
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – After his standout junior season, Christopher Gotterup was named the 2020 Big Ten Player of the Year, announced by the conference on Monday. A 2020 GCAA All-American, Gotterup was also named First Team All-Big Ten and the winner of the Les Bolstad Award, given to the individual with the lowest season stroke in the conference.
Gotterup is the first Big Ten Player of the Year winner since Rutgers men's golf joined the conference in 2014. The Little Silver, New Jersey, native is also the first Scarlet Knight to be named First Team All-Big Ten, as he earned second team honors as a sophomore last season.
"I'm beyond happy to be named this year's Big Ten Player of the Year and the Les Bolstad Award winner," Gotterup said. "It shows that I put a lot of work into my game, and it couldn't be possible without everyone back at Rutgers and at home. I'm so happy to bring this back to Rutgers."
"I'm so proud and thrilled for Chris to receive all of this recognition from the Big Ten today," said head coach Rob Shutte. "It further represents the incredible year Chris had and the type of talent he is. He is a Jersey kid who decided to stay home at Rutgers, work incredibly hard and is now seeing all that hard work pay off."
One of the top individuals in the country, Gotterup captured a slew of national awards this past season, including All-America accolades from the Golf Coaches Association of America (third team) and Golfweek (honorable mention). Gotterup is the first All-America golfer at Rutgers since James Guerra earned honorable mention All-America from the GCAA in 1985.
Gotterup also collected PING Division I Northeast All-Region honors for the third consecutive season, and was recognized in the final Arnold Palmer Cup rankings, a list recognizing the top individuals in the country, at No. 10 overall. Other awards handed out to Gotterup this season included the Co-Ben Hogan Award October Golfer of the Month, the 2019 Metropolitan Golf Association (MGA) Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year and the 2019 New Jersey State Golf Association (NJSGA) Amateur Player of the Year award.
A 2019-20 Preseason All-Big Ten selection, Gotterup recorded three consecutive top 5 finishes to close out the 2019 fall campaign, which include an eight-shot win at the Fighting Irish Classic when he fired a 14-under par score of 199. Gotterup also tied for fifth place at the Quail Valley Collegiate with a 54-hole score of 205 (-11) during the impressive fall season.
Gotterup is the first Big Ten Player of the Year winner since Rutgers men's golf joined the conference in 2014. The Little Silver, New Jersey, native is also the first Scarlet Knight to be named First Team All-Big Ten, as he earned second team honors as a sophomore last season.
Gotterup finished the 2019-20 campaign as the top ranked Big Ten individual and No. 23 nationally with his 70.39 adjusted scoring average. Despite the season being cut short, Gotterup helped RU to one of its best years in program history after it finished with the lowest team scoring average (288.74) and highest final team ranking (86) since 1993. Gotterup set a number of program records along the way, which included season stroke average, season par 3 scoring (3.00), season par 4 scoring (3.99) and season par 5 scoring (4.57).After his standout season on the links, @ChrisGotterup is your 2019-2020 @bigten Player of the Year! 💪🥤 #GoRU pic.twitter.com/fnQfIyNnT4
— Rutgers Mens Golf (@RUMensGolf) May 18, 2020
"I'm beyond happy to be named this year's Big Ten Player of the Year and the Les Bolstad Award winner," Gotterup said. "It shows that I put a lot of work into my game, and it couldn't be possible without everyone back at Rutgers and at home. I'm so happy to bring this back to Rutgers."
"I'm so proud and thrilled for Chris to receive all of this recognition from the Big Ten today," said head coach Rob Shutte. "It further represents the incredible year Chris had and the type of talent he is. He is a Jersey kid who decided to stay home at Rutgers, work incredibly hard and is now seeing all that hard work pay off."
One of the top individuals in the country, Gotterup captured a slew of national awards this past season, including All-America accolades from the Golf Coaches Association of America (third team) and Golfweek (honorable mention). Gotterup is the first All-America golfer at Rutgers since James Guerra earned honorable mention All-America from the GCAA in 1985.
Gotterup also collected PING Division I Northeast All-Region honors for the third consecutive season, and was recognized in the final Arnold Palmer Cup rankings, a list recognizing the top individuals in the country, at No. 10 overall. Other awards handed out to Gotterup this season included the Co-Ben Hogan Award October Golfer of the Month, the 2019 Metropolitan Golf Association (MGA) Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year and the 2019 New Jersey State Golf Association (NJSGA) Amateur Player of the Year award.
A 2019-20 Preseason All-Big Ten selection, Gotterup recorded three consecutive top 5 finishes to close out the 2019 fall campaign, which include an eight-shot win at the Fighting Irish Classic when he fired a 14-under par score of 199. Gotterup also tied for fifth place at the Quail Valley Collegiate with a 54-hole score of 205 (-11) during the impressive fall season.
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Golf
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