Matthew Coritz

Nick Dunlap has won at every level. He won a bunch of junior events. A whole lot of Amateur events as well, including the most coveted of them all, the U.S. Amateur. Oh, you bet he’s won in College too. He’s been on a winning Walker Cup team. Surely the PGA Tour is a different level though right? It’ll definitely take him time to adjust to the major leagues of golf competing with the best in the world. Ok, maybe at best he’ll compete over the first 3 days of a tournament and fade a little bit on Sunday while we all commend the amateur’s valiant effort. Nope. Winners win. With his win at last week’s American Express, the 20 year old University of Alabama star Nick Dunlap has become the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson last did it in 1991. This after last year joining Tiger Woods as the only players to complete the US Junior and US Amateur double. What a moment and what a player. 

Starting the day 3 clear of the closest challenger, Nick Dunlap was paired in the final group with 2 elite players Justin Thomas and Sam Burns. Both are not only household names but also came in with a knack for chasing down the competition on Sundays. Both have wins when down by as many as 7 strokes going into the final day, with Sam Burns doing it at the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge and Justin Thomas more famously doing it at the 2022 PGA Championship. Dunlap had to fight through some self inflicted adversity as well, after doubling the Par 4 7th after a shanked tee shot into the water. With Burns birdieing the hole, it was quite the swing as he drew even with Dunlap at -26. From there, it was all Dunlap though. He was able to pull away, playing bogey-free with 3 birdies in the final 11 holes. Burns was the one who folded down the stretch with a couple doubles. Justin Thomas had a solid day at -4 but that was not enough to close the gap after starting the day 4 back of Dunlap. 

The kid simply has it all. The ball speed is easy into the mid 180’s. He has all the makings of a generational talent but to get this win this soon? Crazy. We are starting to see the next generation creep into the game and the game is just getting more and more athletic. These kids are taught with pro-style teaching and have access to launch monitors, better coaches, and new philosophies driven by statistics and the results are showing. Ludvig Aberg, Nick Dunlap, Gordon Sargent, and more are here and they’re here to stay. It is easy every year for the big amateur talent to be branded as the next big thing but once again this is different. He’s some kind of mix of Bryson Dechambeau and Jordan Spieth. Both were top level prospects with Bryson getting the job done at the US Amateur, and Jordan Speith being the youngest to win on the PGA Tour at 19. Dunlap is taking the resume of great players all over and making their accomplishments look routine. 

While giving the kid time to enjoy this incredible win, the question has to go immediately to whether he will turn pro. He’s now exempt into all the signature events for the rest of the year. He was already exempt into the Masters, US Open, and The Open with his US Am win but now he could turn pro and be eligible for the Masters, US Open, and the PGA Championship, with the chance to qualify for The Open by way of being ranked in the top 50 of the OWGR. It is a tough spot to be in with his college teammates though as it is midseason and I’m sure he’d love to win a national championship with his boys, but this is a pretty unprecedented spot. I’m sure his teammates would understand the decision to go pro. Then again, this is the NIL era. What’s to say some Alabama Boosters don’t get together and throw him quite a bit of money to stay the rest of this season? He’s already in the Masters anyway and that PGA Tour Card will still be waiting. These will be an interesting next couple of days to weeks for Mr. Dunlap. 

With that being said, let’s take time to again appreciate what we just witnessed. It could be easy to say, with the fractured state of the Pro game, this would not have happened with all the guys on one tour. That is simply not true. This is the strongest field this event has had in quite a bit of time. With the new schedule the Tour has adopted each week will have much stronger fields than in years past because of the stakes of playing being the ability to qualify into the signature events. This win is not only legitimate, it’s magical. 

Alabama Coach Jay Seawell has seen plenty of talent in his day most notably, fellow Sunday Groupmate and 2-time major champion Justin Thomas. But when asked about Dunlap, he had this to say, “If he stays healthy and all the things that happen in athletics, I think he could be … I don’t want to say Jack [Nicklaus] or Tiger, but he’s the first person I’ve ever seen that could be. I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on him, but I do think he’s a guy who I think has the ability and the mindset and the physicality to be historic in this game.” Quite high praise from one of the college game’s best coaches. While he deservedly will enjoy this win, I can’t wait to see what Dunlap does next.