You’d hardly blame Nick Dunlap for collapsing.
Regressing to the mean, so to speak.
The 20-year-old Alabama sophomore had outpaced 155 professional golfers for 61 holes.
But water always finds its level.
Amateurs do not win tournaments on the PGA Tour.
It hadn’t happened for 33 years.
Guys have made runs, held leads, but closing the deal iss another proposition entirely.
But Nick Dunlap is different.
The kids these days are different.
The best college players these daysthey’re amateurs in name only, really.
Dunlap was outfitted in Adidas head-to-toe all week.
He’s not doing that for free.
He’s been hitting balls on launch monitors since his pre-teen years.
Hell, he shot 59 in competition as a 12-year-old.
More recently, he’s been sharpening his competitive instincts every week in the pressure-cooker that is college golf.
He’s with data-backed course management systems.
He hangs out with Nick Saban.
McCabe had conveyed a simple message to him: the round will not go as you expect it to.
It never does in golf.
How you react when you’re punched in the mouth will be crucial.
That seventh hole was gut-check time.
Amateur, which he also won.
That win made him just the second player, after some Woods guy, to win both the U.S.
Junior and the U.S. Just gotta hit it solid.
Make the par putt, make history.
“Most nervous I’ve ever been, by far.
Just tried to breathe, but also look up and enjoy it a little bit.
Dunlap’s life truly flipped in an afternoon.
But he didn’t push the putt.
Dunlap was asked after the round if he has homework outstanding.
“Yeah…probably won’t do it though.”
There’s no need.
It is hard to imagine he attends even one more college course.
With the victory, Dunlap skipped about five steps in the normal development process of a professional golfer.
He went from an elite college player to a top-level PGA Tour pro.
He is fully exempt on the PGA Tour through the end of the 2026 season.
He’s now ranked No.
68 in the world, ahead of guys like Billy Horschel and Erik van Rooyen.
Four of those don’t have a cut, which means guaranteed paydays.
In the span of five hours his lifelong dream became a reality.
Dunlap’s victory is the culmination of a youth movement in golf that’s been years in the making.
“This generation of Aberg, Surratt, Sargent, Dunlap, and M.W.
I’d argue it’s not necessarily the talent that sets them apart from prior generations.
It’s everything else.
They’re not necessarily more naturally gifted than players of years past.
They’re just…they’re smarter.
They’ve received better instruction.
They’ve got better equipment.
They’ve got a better understanding of statistics and what produces lower scores.
They know their launch monitor numbers.
They know the benefits of mindfulness and meditation.
All sports grow and progress.
Football players today are better than football players were 20 years ago.
The same is true in virtually every sport.
Tiger had a distance advantage, and a meditation advantage, that will never exist again.”
He was asecondteam All-American last year.
He finished second in his most recent college start.
The level of college and amateur golf is, quite simply, stronger than its ever been.
And it’s producing players ready to win big time events right away.
Gone is the learning curve that used to exist on the PGA Tour.
Opens and stuff like that.
Last year, that was Ludvig Aberg.
This year, Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford is leading the standings.
Ben An knows he’s got his work cut out for him.
But days like Sunday are when those words mean something.
It was also a reminder of the value non-signature events can have.
The Dunlap story simply isn’t possible in a 80-player field comprised only of established PGA Tour players.
Rory reigns again in Dubai
Is Rory McIlroy underrated?
It’s a conversation we have on tomorrow’s Fore Play podcast.
It’s a funny proposition given just how much media attention he gets.
That’s the casual-fan narrative, at least.
But man, what a career this guy’s had.
He was in a bit of a reflective mood after clipping Adrian Meronk and Cameron Young for the victory.
“I wanted to do what Tiger Woods did,” he said.
“Whether it be this trophy or major championship trophies or whatever it is.
I sat up here on Wednesday and talked about global golf and something like the Australian Open.
I think it’s a very cool thing.”
Again, big week for History and Legacy.
He’s throwing everything at the wall.
Gotta respect the effort.
This always seemed the likely outcome after he and Nike parted ways after 27 years.
Which brings us to TaylorMade.
Obviously we have a relationship with TaylorMade.
Tyrrell Hatton, whose name has been floated in rumors, was asked if he might jump.
Id say theres several people who have had conversations… Who really knows, though…
A transgender golfer won a women’s golf event.
Justin Thomas feels like back after a T3 finish at the American Express.
He’s posted top fives in each of his last four starts and is back up to No.
23 in the world rankings.
Aaron Rodgers had a hole-in-one at Shadow Creek in his first round of golf since his Achilles surgery.
I think if you keep going down a spiral of thinking like what if, its endless.
I worked hard in the two weeks leading up to this event.
To win at home has been nice.”
Not bad for 26.
Loved this video of the Alabama golf team reacting to their boy’s winning putt.
No one asked, but this remains my favorite SI cover of all time:
Until next time,
Dan
