Second major amateur victory in a week
Former Huntsville resident Nick Dunlap is spending his summer vacation collecting tournament wins and trophies.
The rising sophomore golfer at the University of Alabama collected his second win of the summer on Sunday, downing Karl Vilips 1-up to capture the 123rd North & South Amateur championship played on Pinehurst No. 2.
Dunlap, who now lists his hometown as Northport, won after he and Vilips waited overnight to resume their title match which was delayed by rain after 10 holes on Saturday. When the match was suspended, Dunlap was 2-down, and the players were on the 11th hole.
“Every win is special, but especially this place,” Dunlap, who also won last week at the Northeast Amateur, told Pinehurst.com. “There’s so much history behind it, and then you hear some of the names to also hold this trophy, it’s really special. To be in the history books of Pinehurst forever, to hopefully get some rounds in for next year’s Open, there’s nothing like it.”
Nick Dunlap joins a list that includes Ouimet, Nicklaus
With the win, Dunlap adds his name to a list of former champions that includes Francis Ouimet, Harvie Ward, Jack Nicklaus, Curtis Strange and Davis Love III.
A birdie from eight feet on the 12th hole got Dunlap to within 1-down, and an improbable halve on No. 13 was pivotal for the Tide golfer.
Dunlap’s approach on the short par 4 caught the green’s false front and rolled back into the fairway. His first pitch rolled back down to his feet and his second attempt went past the pin and rolled into the fringe. From there, he promptly chipped in for a bogey. When Vilips missed his par putt, Dunlap had halved the hole and maintained momentum.
“Fortunately, I got a gift from him,” Dunlap said of the miss. “It’s crazy how match play works. You can think you have a great chance to win the hole, and then two seconds later you’re for sure to lose the hole, and then two more seconds later you’re like, ‘I can still tie this hole.’”
And perhaps the chip-in wasn’t all that impossible.
‘I’ve made this shot so many times’
“I grew up with a 12 x 10 chipping green, and it was literally that shot,” Dunlap said. “It was identical. It was that shot. I got to go back to eight years ago. I’ve made this shot so many times. I just kind of got up and hit it.”
Dunlap won No. 15 to pull even and then a critical 12-foot par-saving putt while Vilips missed a birdie try on No. 16 kept the match even.
“Thirteen was big, but I think 16 was the turning point,” Dunlap said. “He hit a great shot on the green at 16, and to make that putt and tee off first on 17 and kind of force his hand was really big for me.”
Dunlap took the lead when Vilips three-putted on No. 17, and a routine par on No. 18 sealed the win for the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur champion.
“It’s really hard to win, and Karl had the momentum for a lot of the day yesterday, and my goal was just to try to halt that today,” Dunlap said. “And the thing is, you never know. Golf is really hard. He had 3 ½, 4 feet, and a player like Karl, you know he’s probably going to make it 99 times out of a hundred. But…you never know. There’s that 1 percent chance.”
Dunlap, who was a regular player at Canebrake Golf Club in Athens, was coming off a win in the Northeast Amateur in which he shot 68-67-63-66 for a two-shot win over Caleb Surratt at the Wannmoisett Country Club in Rhode Island.
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Featured image courtesy of John Patota
