The United States Amateur was first contested in 1895 and was won by noted golf course architect C.B. Macdonald. In the ensuing years golfers of note such as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Bobby Jones, Viktor Hovland, Bryson DeChambeau, Deane Beman, Francis Outimet, Chick Evans, Jordan Spieth, and Arnold Palmer have held the Amateur title. Others who have won the U.S. Amateur but failed to parlay it into a career in golf would include Jess Sweetser, Davidson Herron, Max Marston, Skee Riegel, Eric Meeks, and Mitch Voges among others. The United States Junior was initially played in 1948. Gay Brewer won that second tournament in 1949 and other well know Junior Am champs included Tiger Woods, David Duval, Hunter Mahan, Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, and Johnny Miller. Among those Junior Am titlists who didn’t have a career in the game were previous winners Terry Noe, Cory Whitsett, Scott Erickson, Rich Marik, and 1969 champ Aly Trompas. Trompas was a regular on the NCGA circuit in the 1980s and 1990s. The theme behind this list of who’s who and who’s not is that you can never tell really tell who will make it or won’t make it in the world of golf.
Only three golfers have won both the U.S. Junior and the U.S. Amateur. Two of them have done pretty well for themselves in the world of professional golf, namely Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth. The third golfer is currently on the golf team at the University of Alabama and goes by the name Nick Dunlap. Dunlap won the Junior in 2021 and won the Amateur last summer. If there was any doubt as to whether Dunlap would have what it takes to make it on the professional level, he cast aside all doubters with his victory last Sunday in the PGA Tour’s Desert Classic at PGA West. Dunlap received an exemption into the Desert Classic because of his U.S. Am win and shot rounds of 64-65-60-70 for a score of 259 and a one stroke margin of victory over a strong field of PGA Tour regulars. His accumulated score for four rounds was -29 under par and Nick became the first amateur golfer to win on tour since Phil Mickelson won the Tucson Open in 1991. This was mighty impressive stuff for a college golfer who just so happens to be 20 years and 29 days old.
Yet perhaps I have overestimated the situation at hand. Nick Dunlap has always done mighty impressive stuff in the world of competitive golf. When Nick was in the summer out of 6th grade, he shot a stunning 59 in a junior tournament at the Highland Park Golf Course in Birmingham to win by 13 strokes. An outstanding athlete, he advanced to the finals of the NFL’s Punt Pass and Kick that fall. As an adolescent, Dunlap was playing in the money games with professionals at Greystone Golf and Country Club and he was holding his own.
Nick Dunlap started to compete on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) national circuit once he got into his teen aged years and had a number of highlights. He won the 2021 Dustin Johnson World Junior in Myrtle Beach, won the AJGA Polo Golf Junior, came in second at the Notah Begay III, and finished runner-up in the PGA Junior Championship. He won the Alabama Junior and in 2021 he was named the AJGA Boys Golfer of the Year. He also played in the 2022 United States Open although he missed the cut.
Dunlap was well known to the coaching staff at the University of Alabama and committed to play there in 2022. As a freshman he won the Linger Longer Collegiate Invitational and this past summer won two national amateur tournaments of note, namely the Northeast Amateur and the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst. Last August Nick won the 2023 United States Amateur at Cherry Hills in Denver (site of Arnold Palmer’s 1960 U.S. Open triumph) and earned a place on the winning Walker Cup team last autumn at St. Andrews’ Old Course in Scotland.
The Desert Classic is played over three courses in the LaQuinta area and the field for the tournament, formerly known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic, is larger than most this time of year when the sunlight is limited. Because of the three courses, it also has a 54 hole cut. Dunlap received a sponsor’s exemption and after shooting rounds of 64-65-60 he found himself three clear of the field going into Sunday’s final round. He would be paired with five time tour winner Sam Burns and two time major champion and former Alabama star alum Justin Thomas.
Dunlap had his first real hiccup of the tournament on Sunday morning when he made a double bogey six on the 7th hole while Burns birdied it. The result was that his relatively safe lead was gone. Yet Nick kept his composure and stayed within range of Burns while Thomas fell back into the pack. After 15 holes of play, Burns was -5 under for the day, Dunlap was just -1 under par, and Burns held on to a one stroke lead. On the par five 16th hole, Nick got up and down for a birdie while Burns was in the dormant Bermuda to the right of the green and could only make par. With just two holes to go, there was a two way tie at the top between the established PGA professional who had played for Team USA on the Ryder Cup team and the college sophomore.
PGA West is a Pete Dye design and its 17th hole, like the one at TPC Sawgrass, has an island green. I’ve played it and it is a daunting shot, even for the most steely-eyed of competitors. Dunlap had the honor and hit the green. Burns pushed his shot to the right and it splashed into the water. Dunlap made par, Burns made double bogey, and the college kid now led by two strokes with one hole remaining. However in the group finishing up ahead on the watery 18th hole, South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout was making a birdie to get within one.
Dunlap hit his tee shot into the dormant right rough, hit his second to the right of the green to avoid the water, chipped to six feet, and made the six footer for the win. Whether or not he turns pro right away, he still has a two year exemption on tour through 2026 and can get in a boatload of big money tournaments in the interim. Of course, he might be just like Mickelson and return to the college life for the time being. Because he’s an amateur he didn’t get the $1.5 million paycheck from the Desert Classic, but it’s a new world order for college golfers with the N.I.L and the ability for him to endorse cars for Tuscaloosa Motors and the like.
It’s hard to win the U.S. Junior. It’s even harder to win the U.S. Amateur. Only Tiger and Jordan have won both until Nick Dunlap added his name to that list last summer. It’s difficult to prognosticate in golf, but something tells me Nick Dunlap’s future is oh-so very bright.
