A Historic Sports Event

Does the name Nick Dunlap ring a bell? Most likely, the name won’t mean much unless you are a real golf buff. And yet, Nick Dunlap achieved a rare feat in the annals of sports. He won a professional tournament as an amateur, the American Express tournament in Palm Springs, California. The last victory of an amateur golfer in a PGA tournament happened 33 years ago when a legendary figure of American and world golf, Phil Mickelson, managed to win a tournament reserved for professionals. Before Mickelson, the last amateur to win a professional tournament was in 1957.

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At the age of twenty, Nick Dunlap, a sophomore at the University of Alabama, thus achieves a feat that none of the greatest ever golf players has managed. Here we are referring to Bobby Jones, the founder of the Masters tournament at Augusta, who won the US Amateur three times, Tiger Woods, who was also a three-time amateur champion, winning three times in a row, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson. Tiger Woods changed his amateur status in the same year he won his last amateur title, winning two titles as a professional in the same year. Moreover, Nick Dunlap is the only player in the centuries-old history of golf to achieve the feat of winning the US Junior Amateur, US Amateur, and a PGA tournament (as an amateur).

Why is his amateur status of interest? Because Nick Dunlap would have won, if he had declared that he was changing his status and becoming a professional before the tournament, an interesting sum, $1,1512,000. The DraftKings betting site recorded only one bet at the beginning of the American Express tournament, of $10, which saw Nick Dunlap as the winner and resulted in a $3,000 win. The runner-up, South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout, would have received $600,000 less if Nick Dunlap had professional status, whereas, as it is, the money reserved for the winner was transferred to second place and so on.

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American college golf, of which Nick Dunlap is a part, is the breeding ground for professional golf. Almost all major universities have a golf course and a team of golfers who participate in competitions culminating in the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) championship, teams and individuals. Among the former NCAA champions, we find the same famous Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Phil Mickelson (three-time champion). This might be the only motivation that would stop Nick Dunlap from turning professional, the fact that he could compete, individually and with the team, for an NCAA title. But the victory at the American Express comes with a whole series of hard-to-ignore advantages. One of them, and perhaps the most important, would be the right to participate for the next two years in any tournament sanctioned by the PGA. Already, the pressure imposed by LIV, the parallel professional tour created by the Saudis, has led to an increase in prizes on the North American PGA tour. In 2023, 139 golfers won at least one million dollars, compared to tennis, where only 39 players reached the same financial performance in a competitive year.

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Already, as the winner of the US Amateur title, Nick Dunlap was assured participation in three of the four grand slam tournaments, as long as he maintains his amateur status. In terms of his place in the world rankings, thanks to his victory in the American Express tournament, Nick Dunlap has risen from position 4129 (!) to position 68, which represents an absolute record in the history of golf. Asked by a reporter at the press conference if he still has homework, Nick Dunlap replied, laughing, that of course he has homework to do, but he doesn’t think he’s going to do it anymore… perhaps a signal for what follows in his sports career.

Radu Roman
TRIBUNA.US