January 15, 2025

Nick Dunlap living out his dream on PGA Tour

By Gregg Dewalt, Alabama Golf News Editor
Nick Dunlap with Amex Trophy

Moving from rookie to journeyman

Huntsville’s Nick Dunlap has always known where he wanted to go from a professional golf aspect. After a rookie of the year season in which he won twice on the PGA Tour – including his first victory when he was still a college sophomore at the University of Alabama – Dunlap proved that he could navigate that road map.

As he begins defense of his American Express Championship in La Quinta, California, Dunlap admitted earlier this week that now it’s nice to know where he’s going from a physical standpoint. You know, like knowing each week where the clubhouse is; where the practice range is; where the parking lot is at the tournaments in which he plays.

In short, there is a familiarity of the weekly grind for Dunlap that he didn’t have in 2024.

“It’s nice to know where I’m going; I don’t have to find everything for the first time,” Dunlap said.

Nick Dunlap: ‘I can focus a little bit more’

“This year with being the second time I’ll see a lot of these golf courses I know where I’m going, I know the golf course, there’s not that urgency of, I have to see all 18 (holes) this year. So, I can focus a little bit more on my body or recovery or making sure that I feel well going into that week instead of having to see the golf course.”

Not that he needed an introduction to the world – after all, Dunlap had a U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur title already on his resume – but this time last year he burst onto the professional scene with a scintillating victory at The American Express Championship. He made a testy 6-footer for par on the 72nd hole to edge Christiaan Bezuidenhout by one shot. His 29-under total included a third-round 60 as he became the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson in 1991.

A few days later, Dunlap left college golf behind and turned professional. He proved the Amex win was no fluke by winning the Barracuda Championship later in the season and qualified for the FedEx playoffs. He played in the season-opening Sentry Tournament of Champions two weeks ago and last week finished tied for 10th at the Sony Open.

Dunlap admitted he is not used to playing much golf this time of year, given that it does get cold in Alabama.

“I normally don’t play a ton of golf typically from November, October, end of October to January,” he said. “I like to take a break. I don’t touch the golf clubs really at all. This year that was more from after the playoffs ended until Sanderson, so I did get a month and a half, but it just kind of moved up my break.

“It was definitely nice to be playing a couple events before this one and,obviously, I relocated to South Florida, so I can actually play golf in November and December, versus Alabama this time of the year.”

Reflecting on his decision last year to turn pro

Even though it seemed like a no-brainer, Dunlap said the decision to turn professional was more difficult than most people realized because of his commitment to Alabama coach Jay Seawell and his Crimson Tide teammates. Dunlap realized that the longer he delayed the decision, the more his playing opportunities would diminish.

“I was losing time by not playing, so it was either, OK, I turn pro now or I’m going to wait until after NCAAs and turn pro then,” he said. “It’s like, the more time I take off, the more events I’m losing towards end of the year playoffs, all these points are going to matter.

“But leaving my teammates and my brothers back home, it wasn’t easy, and obviously Coach Seawell and Coach [Forrest] Schultz, they put a lot of time and effort into the season, and to kind of leave ’em halfway wasn’t something that made me very happy,” he added.

Dunlap used his first season as a learning experience – getting acclimated to life on the road and playing week in and week out against the best players in the world.

“Obviously I’m a competitor and I hate losing and missing the cut’s no fun, but I knew it was going to be a big change, and I knew that turning pro when I did I was going to be better off in a year and a half versus staying in college,” he said.

Dunlap says his rookie year on Tour was ‘overwhelming’

“For my game I knew I was getting thrown into the deep end, but being uncomfortable is how you get good in this game, trying to figure that out. I knew for that first season, season and a half, it was going to be a big learning curve and something that was going to help me in the future.”

Dunlap called his first year on Tour “overwhelming.”

“I had a lot of stuff happen, whether it’s on the golf course or off the golf course that it all kind of came at me pretty quick, and some of it I was ready for, some it I wasn’t, and got blindsided a little bit,” he said.

“I would say my life got sped up a little bit, and in a good way. Like I said, I’m out here, I’m living my dream, and wouldn’t change it for anything, but that, it all doesn’t just happen easy or smoothly, I would say there’s definitely some bumps and humps in the road that you got to navigate.”

Dunlap is now settled in as not only one of the game’s top young stars, but as a PGA Tour veteran. And there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.

“The life I live now, I’m traveling the world, traveling to new places, I just got to spend two weeks in Hawaii, and I’m playing against the best players in the world, living out my dream, so I wouldn’t give that for anything,” he said.

Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News

Have a story idea or a news item to report to Alabama Golf News? Email gregg@alabamagolfnews.com

Featured image courtesy of the PGA Tour

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