Dustin Johnson’s move to the inaugural LIV Golf event was seen as a major moment for the new league, especially since he was the highest-ranked player in the field at Centurion.
Only three players – Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, and Scottie Scheffler – have had longer reigns as world number one than Dustin Johnson.
His 24 wins on the PGA Tour included two major titles. Before his switch to LIV Golf, he had last won at both The Masters and the Tour Championship.
Although his time with LIV has not matched the highs of his early career, Johnson is still someone many fans hope could one day return to the PGA Tour.
And while that may not happen anytime soon, there is a young player emerging who has started drawing comparisons to him.
Chris Gotterup draws comparisons to Dustin Johnson
The 2026 PGA Tour season got underway at Waialae last week, with Chris Gotterup taking the Sony Open in Hawaii by two strokes after a final round 64.
Gotterup has emerged as a rising name in golf over the past year. His breakthrough came at the Scottish Open, where he outplayed Rory McIlroy at The Renaissance Club to claim an impressive victory.
Following Sunday’s win, Smylie Kaufman spoke on The Smylie Show about just how high Gotterup’s ceiling might be.
Kaufman stated: “He’s got the tools. He’s got the superpower of being an incredible driver of the golf ball. A really cool customer too. I kind of like his moxie too, the way he carries himself, that swagger. It reminds me a lot of Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka. He’s got this masculinity and strength to him when you watch him that seems intimidating as well.
“He’s won a PGA Tour event in every season he’s been on the PGA Tour now and Steve Sands gave a pretty good stat of there’s five or six players, a lot of names that you would recognise: Jon Rahm, Tom Kim, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, players that have done similar to him. So he’s in that elite company of players who’ve played very well early in their PGA Tour career – and also have won.
“What does that do for him moving forward, the future, the whole big picture with Chris Gotterup? I wouldn’t say that Chris Gotterup is just going to go out and now he’s going to win a major championship. He has all the tools to go and do that.
“I think for Chris, it’s just about staying focused. I think Chris is a player that continues to build confidence and if he’s just able to focus on the things that he can control, he can take his game to heights maybe even he could not have dreamed of.”
Chris Gotterup’s early success mirrors Dustin Johnson’s start to PGA Tour career
It is not every day a young player is compared to Johnson or Koepka, even if the comparisons start with attitude and presence on the course. But Gotterup has begun to justify those early links with some strong showings.
His Scottish Open win caught plenty of golf fans off guard. And with McIlroy applying pressure in the final round, he held his nerve impressively.
Interestingly, Johnson also picked up a win in each of his first three seasons as a full PGA Tour member – something Gotterup matched with his victory at Waialae.
It took another six years before Johnson captured his first major title.
Gotterup faces a tough challenge trying to match that kind of achievement, especially given how Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy have shaped this era.
A third-place finish at last year’s Open Championship further highlighted what he might be capable of down the line.
Nobody should be surprised if he eventually breaks through and wins one of golf’s biggest prizes.
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