Golf and surprises are often synonymous. Incredible strokes and inconceivable mistakes are a constant occurrence in this complex sport that causes so much satisfaction and misfortune to its practitioners. These are the sensations experienced last January by 20-year-old Nick Dunlap. In one week he experienced a carousel of emotions.
The first, enormous happiness for having achieved the feat of becoming the winner of a PGA Tour tournament while still an amateur, especially considering that he had not made the cut in his only three previous participations in a professional event. The surprise came at The American Express Championship, in La Quinta, California. Dunlap achieved the first victory of an amateur in the most powerful professional circuit in the world after 33 years (the previous one was Phil Mickelson).
He had entered the tournament thanks to an invitation from the sponsor for his status as last year’s US Amateur champion and for being third in the World Amateur Ranking.
At 20 years and 29 days, Dunlap became the second-youngest champion on the PGA Tour in the last 90 years, second only to Jordan Spieth, who won the 2013 John Deere Classic at 19 years and 11 months.
Just before the start of the American Express, Dunlap was ranked 4,129 in the Official World Golf Ranking and, after his PGA Tour victory, he climbed to 68th place, the biggest jump in the history of this planetary ranking, which is headed by fellow countryman Scottie Scheffler, with Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm in second and third place, respectively.
“I felt like the script was already written,” Dunlap said immediately after a final pair completed the victory. “It’s great to be here and experience this as an amateur. If you would have told me Wednesday night that I would have a putt to win this golf tournament, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“I wasn’t eligible for the check,” Dunlap said after his upset victory, “but it was a privilege to be here and to get the support of such a great crowd. To be able to show that amateur golf is also really good is unique. But I admit I’m still in shock. I’ve never seen so many cameras and so many journalists on the green.
The succulent check was the bitter side of his victory, since, being an amateur, he could not pocket such a large amount, or any other.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout, runner-up, took home $1,512,000 reserved for the top professional of the tournament, which distributed $8.4 million in prize money, and accumulated 300 FedExCup points.
But that situation, of not being paid for playing and doing well, would not happen again, since just a few days later, at the end of January, Dunlap took the step to professionalism and joined the PGA Tour.
In his meeting with the press at the University of Alabama, with emotions running high and surrounded by his parents, his girlfriend, his coach and a legion of journalists, photographers and television cameras, Dunlap officially announced his change of status to professionalism and outlined the tournaments he planned to play in the first few months, including the Masters. “The opportunity to choose your schedule on the PGA Tour is incredible,” said the young man from Huntsville, north Alabama.
Until early March and after his victory in the American Express Championship, Dunlap had already played three PGA Tour tournaments as a professional, and with not good results. In the first, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he finished 80th, in the second, The Genesis Invitational, he missed the cut, and in the third, the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, he finished 53rd.
In the aforementioned three tournaments played as a professional he only recorded one round under 70 (67), a very significant contrast with the extraordinary results that led him to write his name in the history of the PGA Tour by winning The American Express Championship as an amateur. It is a matter of waiting and watching his adaptation to ‘serious’ golf away from college.
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