He hit a shot so bad, it missed a lake. He’s still in second place

A year ago, Nick Dunlap was putting on a clinic by winning the U.S. Amateur over Neal Shipley at Cherry Hills.

Saturday at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Dunlap hit a shot so bad, it missed a lake to the right of the par-4 12th entirely.

Normally, that wouldn’t suggest a positive trend for a golfer, but that couldn’t be further from the truth for Dunlap and how he played the 12th hole was evidence of it.

Dunlap knew his tee shot on the 388-yard par-4 was no good even before his eyes came up to see where it was headed. He immediately dropped the club as his eyes confirmed what the strike of the ball told him.

He snapped his right wrist in frustration.

“I almost missed the ball completely on the tee,” Dunlap said after his round. “My right hand slipped off the club a little bit, and I thought it was out of bounds.”

It somehow wasn’t. In fact, Dunlap’s ball was in a place he admitted he didn’t even know existed at TPC Southwind. The ball completely cleared the lake that runs along the short dogleg right and made it dry land, even unbeknownst to the spectators watching from the bank.

The lake was more than 60 yards wide. Dunlap missed his target by nearly 80 yards.

“I didn’t even know there was grass over there, to be honest with you. I thought it was houses,” he said.

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Dunlap’s tee shot was so bad that it was good, but that didn’t mean he got out of the situation scot-free. The 20-year-old, who turned pro in January after becoming the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour in more than three decades, still had to navigate a second shot back over the lake, around a tree and a hospitality tent to reach the green.

After taking relief from the hospitality tent — where NBC Analyst Smylie Kaufman chose to call the shot from — Dunlap, fortunately, got to move his ball left, back toward the water, but away from the overhanging tree branches.

The next issue was getting a yardage. There were no sprinkler heads on the other side of the lake and walking back to the other side would take too much time. That led to a bizarre sequence with Dunlap’s caddie, Hunter Hamrick, shouting across the lake to playing partner Scottie Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, to ask Scott to read off the sprinkler heads to them. Scott obliged and that’s kosher to do under the rules, but rarely seen on Tour.

Finally, with his feet well below the ball and standing over the penalty area line on the bank of the lake, Dunlap smacked a wedge out over the water, only this one wasn’t going as intended either.

“Fore!”

He pulled his approach and watched it sail long and left, into the gallery, short-sided to a left pin.

“The Dunlap adventure at 12 continues here at TPC Southwind,” said NBC’s Dan Hicks.

This was the Dunlap who had struggled to adjust to a sudden change of life out on the PGA Tour. After winning the American Express in January, Dunlap forwent his final two and half years of college at Alabama and turned pro to accept his automatic membership to the PGA Tour.

His first professional start came two weeks after the breakthrough win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He finished 80th in the 80-player, no-cut event. It didn’t get much better as by the time July rolled around, he had missed five cuts, including the first three majors of the year and failed to qualify for the fourth, the Open Championship, along with just one top-10.

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Then finally, his game showed up again. He won the Barracuda Championship, played opposite the Open, crediting picking up a hobby for helping him feel at home on the road. With his first win not earning him any FedEx Cup points, that catapulted Dunlap into the top 70, booking him a spot in the first event of the Playoffs this week.

He’s making the most of that this week as at the time he played the 12th hole, he was 12 under for the week and in solo second, two shots behind Hideki Matsuyama. And he didn’t let the 12th hole derail him.

From the wrong side of the gallery ropes, Dunlap bumped his chip into a slope short of the green and watched it pitch onto the green and roll out to just four feet.

He drained the putt for par. When his eyes met Hamrick’s as his caddie replaced the flag, he grinned from ear to ear.

“How he made 4, you’d never believe it!” Hicks said.

Funny, because Dunlap still says it’s hard to believe he’s even in this position. After he finished off his third-round 66 that saw him finish at 12 under, solo second and five back of Matsuyama, he reminded reporters that had he not won in January, he’d be in Minnesota this week, defending his U.S. Amateur title.

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“I should be playing the U.S. Am this week, and I just got done playing a round of golf with Scottie. It was pretty cool,” he said. “[If I] don’t win Amex, I don’t have any status. I think Luke Clanton did it, and he finished second. You get two points, heck of a week, get some NIL out of it and move on. But yeah, it’s definitely pinch-me almost every week.”

Should he hang on to second or even chase down Matsuyama, he’d all but assure himself a place in the Tour Championship after being an afterthought to make the playoffs just four weeks ago.

While he has no desire to end his season this week, that doesn’t mean he’s not ready for some rest and reflection on what’s likely been the biggest whirlwind of his life.

“I’m honestly looking forward to a little bit of a break and to kind of recap the year and sit back and celebrate and look back on some of the things that have happened this year,” Dunlap said. “It’s honestly incredible, and I never would have thought I’d be standing here.

“But I am, I’m very fortunate, and yeah, hopefully, I can look back in a few more weeks.”