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The young man from Alabama makes history by winning an amateur at the PGA 33 years later.

Nick Dunlap: a cheer for amateurism!

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Nick Dunlap
Nick Dunlap posa sonriente con el trofeo de ganador del American Express.

Champion’s wood and star honours. Long live amateurism! Nick Dunlap gave all golf fans goosebumps by living a fairy tale with a dream ending. Winning the American Express in a big way, with tension moistening his hands before each shot and resolving like a master, with determination and poise, a tournament he arrived at as a guest of the sponsor and from which he leaves with the stripes of an emerging figure.

Dunlap (-29), a lanky lad of 20 years and 29 days, faced a putt of a metre and a half to sneak into the legendary stories of this sport. And he plugged it right in the middle under the watchful eye of Justin Thomas (-27), a figure moulded in the same place as him, the University of Alabama, and Sam Burns (-25), who threw away his week’s work on the last two flags (water and water, double bogey and double bogey). And he was obliged to hole out to avoid a playoff with Christiaan Bezuidenhout (-28), superb in the decisive stretch.

Nick, the boy from Huntsville with a shy face, took a deep breath, leaned on his caddie on the course and his parents and girlfriend, who travelled to admire the feat in person, and was gradually defeating his rivals with composure. With this victory, for which he will not receive the cheque for 1.5 million dollars but will have the exemption on the PGA Tour if he turns professional, he sneaks into the select list of players who achieved a victory on the tour as amateurs. There were seven and now there are eight. The last one had been Phil Mickelson in January 1991. Thirty-three years later this lad emerges with a great look that he already showed by winning the US Amateur and the US Junior Amateur, a feat shared only with a certain Tiger Woods, and on Saturday he achieved another mark that only one amateur on the PGA Tour (Patrick Cantlay at the Travelers in 2011) had achieved: making 60 shots in a round.

You have to be very good and have nerves of steel to hold your nerve in a stellar Sunday match against none other than Burns and Thomas. The forecasts indicated that both were going to destroy Dunlap and that he would take a monumental tumble. And monumental was the victory of a boy who brought out his best game in the second nine holes and frustrated the two Yankee stars, both with their backsides bare from experiencing similar situations to the one that occurred this 21st of January at the Stadium Course in Palm Springs.

It was not a day for birdies, at least for the leading trio. This was a game of chess or Risk. Move piece, let’s see what face you have, you play short or long from the tee… The three of them started marking and even Dunlap hit first with a birdie on the 5th, just like Burns, but Thomas only strung pars, one after another, although on that flag he saved par after going into the water.

On the 7th, Nick made the only severe mistake of the round by getting wet with the tee shot even hitting an iron to secure and scored a double bogey. Since the fifteenth hole of the first round he had not signed a mistake. And there he could have had doubts, stage fright, the fear of ‘what am I doing here with guys like these playing the American Express’… And not a bit of it. He forgot the blot with a birdie at the 8th and calmed the spirits with pars while Thomas soaked his ball again at the 11th, where Dunlap signed the par and was overtaken on the leaderboard at that moment by Burns, who did nail the birdie. Then Nick forgave the tie at the 12th after a high school iron shot, but those shots showed that he was focused and not afraid.

Behind them were breaking in players with very low rounds, like Kevin Yu (-27), who got to be co-leader with -28 alongside Burns, although the bogey at the 18th took him out of the winning equation despite his -9 partial. Or Xander Schauffele (-27), who suddenly started to bite and came very close to the comeback, licking his ball the birdie at the 17th. And what about Bezuidenhout (-28). The winner at Valderrama in 2019 was the one who forced Dunlap to make the par putt at the 18th. The South African was in the VIP wagon, but definitely entered the fight for the victory by scoring an eagle from the fairway at the 15th and with an iron and a textbook putt at the 18th for birdie. Leader in the clubhouse.

Dunlap forgave again at the 15th after a majestic tee shot and an iron that hit the mast, missing the two-metre birdie putt. Even so, calm. He took the thorn out at the 16th to catch Burns, uneasy about having wasted the par 5. The tense tee shot at the 17th was solved by Dunlap with a tight shot to the front of the green and Burns, perhaps pressured by not getting the previous birdie, sent it into the water. Surprise! The veteran was more nervous than the youngster, who did his job (par) knowing that the same was worth it at the 18th.

He hit a poor 3-wood at the last flag that went far to the right. Burns, unhinged, took another dip… Dunlap hit a six iron to the right that hit a spectator and left himself a downhill chip with a joke to get the ball close and win the tournament. He passed a metre and a half. Bezuidenhout was practising rubbing his hands. But the boy from Alabama, the amateur who has done the same feat as Mickelson, and six more, achieved 33 years ago, took a breath, made his natural swing and put it in as if a thousand stories were not going through his head at once.

His victory has been resounding and will be more so in the future. Dunlap has arrived to stay, although he will have to decide in the coming months whether to turn professional, continue studying or turn professional and continue studying at the same time, like Rose Zhang. It has been so great, so huge, so impressive what he has starred this week at the American Express that a double winner like Jon Rahm was one of the first to congratulate him through social media. “What an amazing achievement by Nick Dunlap, stellar play and what a way to come through under pressure to join a very select group of PGA Tour tournament winners as an amateur! Great future ahead for this great talent! Congratulations,” wrote the Spanish champion, impressed with Nick, with his eyes soaked in tears after his victory. Long live amateurism!

Final results of the American Express 2024