The 20-Year-Old Amateur Who Just Eclipsed Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson

After a sizzling third round in the American Express stop on the PGA Tour, two-time major winner Justin Thomas was 23-under par, but somehow found himself five shots off the lead and in the same position as everyone else in the event: staring up at an amateur atop the leaderboard.

“Didn’t think I was going to have to deal with a freaking college kid shooting 60 today,” Thomas said after the round.

Eighteen holes later, that college kid named Nick Dunlap made PGA Tour history.

With an incredible score of 29-under, Dunlap won the tournament in La Quinta, Calif. by one stroke with a gritty par save on the final hole—making him the first amateur to win on the Tour since 1991. That’s when a young lefty named Phil Mickelson won his first PGA Tour event.

“I probably had a thousand different scenarios in my head of how today was going to go,” Dunlap said afterward, “and it went nothing like I expected. That’s golf.”

That Dunlap would perform feats not seen since Mickelson or Tiger Woods is hardly a fluke. The 20-year-old, who plays for the University of Alabama, is one of the brightest young talents in the sport. He has power, touch on the greens and the mettle to handle big moments.

His victory at the American Express, where he was invited to compete through a sponsor’s exemption just a couple of weeks ago, came after he triumphed at the prestigious U.S. Amateur last year with a remarkable performance. Through seven holes of the qualifying portion of the event, he was five over par before he stormed back to make the cut and prevail in the match play. That made him the second-ever golfer to win both the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Junior Amateur. The other: Tiger. A couple of weeks later, Dunlap was part of the American team that won the Walker Cup over Great Britain and Ireland at the historic Old Course at St. Andrews.

So Dunlap wasn’t exactly intimidated when he stepped onto the tee boxes for the tournament formerly known as the Desert Classic, which is played on three different courses over four days. He came into the event not merely as one of the best amateur golfers on the planet, but one that had been playing better than most pros of late. According to the golf analytics website Data Golf, his recent strokes gained—a measure of how a player performs relative to the competition—is better than the PGA Tour average.

Dunlap didn’t look a bit out of place from the get-go. He was eight-under in the opening round and -15 after two. Then what he did in the third round left the golf world slack-jawed.

Playing at La Quinta Country Club, Dunlap came out on fire with four birdies in his first five holes. He continued to show incredible touch on the greens, with a grand total of 25 putts across the entire round, and finished the day with 10 birdies and an eagle.

“The hole looked like a funnel,” he said afterward.

When Dunlap parred the final hole, he fell just shy of shooting a 59. Still, his 60 earned him his place in the record books: It tied Patrick Cantlay’s performance at the 2011 Travelers for the lowest round by an amateur in PGA Tour history.

That performance gave him a three-stroke lead over the field heading into Sunday, but victory was hardly assured. Playing alongside Thomas and Sam Burns, Dunlap watched competitors continue to gain on him while he struggled to find the same precision he had over the prior few rounds. A double bogey after going in the water on the seventh hole negated his two birdies on the front nine and soon enough, he had lost the lead.

Two birdies on holes 14 and 16 then put him in a tie with Burns heading into the final two holes, and that’s when Dunlap looked like the veteran with nerves of steel: Burns went into the water, giving the 20-year-old a two-stroke lead. But adding pressure to the final hole, South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout finished his round with a birdie to move within one stroke. Dunlap had no margin for error going into the last hole.

“Pressure,” he said going into the final round, “is a privilege.”

Dunlap briefly showed his age. As he had done a fair bit Sunday, he pushed his tee shot to the right and missed the fairway. His second shot also went wide right of the green, though perhaps showing that his win was kismet, he got a fortunate roll when the ball funneled closer to the green. The ensuing chip shot left him a par putt just under 6 feet away from the hole.

He sank it. He pumped his fist. And he screamed: “Come on!”

Unfortunately for Dunlap, the win didn’t come with the $1.5 million check the winner gets. He’s still an amateur. And when an amateur finishes in the money, the cash gets funneled down the pecking order, so in this case the second-place finisher gets the winner’s money and it continues to move down the chain.

Still, the victory has enormous implications for Dunlap’s career if and when he goes pro. He’s now eligible to become an immediate member of the PGA Tour—and stay on Tour through 2026. It also gives him an exemption into all of the PGA Tour’s signature events, which have lucrative prize money, along with invitations to both the Masters and PGA Championship. Because of his U.S. Amateur win, he already had invites to the U.S. Open, British Open and Masters, but those latter two were contingent on him remaining an amateur.

Dunlap said he’s still not sure when he’s going to capitalize on his opportunity to become a member of the PGA Tour. So, for now, he’s still a college student. Which means he was supposed to spend his Sunday night doing homework.

“Probably won’t do it though,” Dunlap said.

Write to Andrew Beaton at [email protected]