SOUTHPORT, England — It was a year ago when Chris Gotterup officially introduced himself to the golf world.

He did so in a big way.

Staring down Rory McIlroy in the final round of a PGA Tour signature event close to McIlroy’s home roots — the Scottish Open — will do that for a young (26 years old) up-and-coming player who hadn’t been a regular on the international stage.

Jersey proud (seriously) and Jersey strong (literally), the burly, unafraid and unaffected Gotterup — a product of Little Silver, NJ, Rumson Country Club, Rutgers and Oklahoma — won at the Renaissance Club on the East Lothian coast of Scotland last July and followed that up by nearly winning the British Open the next week, tying for third.