“I’ve never been to the Bahamas.”
“I’ve never seen water this blue.”
These are just the latest of firsts PGA Tour rookie Nick Dunlap has experienced in what has been a whirlwind year for the rising star, a year unlike any other in golf history.
As recently as eight months ago, Dunlap was still a sophomore on the University of Alabama golf team. Now he’s a two-time PGA Tour champion about to make his debut at Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, along with 19 of the best golfers on the planet.
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“It’s pretty special,” Dunlap said on Tuesday in his press conference ahead the Hero. “Eight months ago I was sitting at a table with all my teammates playing college golf. The world’s come at me a little quick.”
Of course, Dunlap’s incredible journey to this moment started even before he left Alabama. In January, Dunlap played the PGA Tour’s American Express event as an amateur, earning a sponsor’s exemption thanks to his 2023 U.S. Amateur win.
It was just his fourth-career PGA Tour start. And he won.
While Tiger holds three U.S. Amateur titles to Dunlap’s one, Woods never won a PGA Tour start as an amateur. In fact, no one had since Phil Mickelson did it back in 1991.
Originally hoping to make the Tour in 2025 through PGA Tour University, the American Express win fast-tracked those plans, and he turned pro soon after. But it took Dunlap a while to get used to his new life following his meteoric rise.
“Those first two or three months was, I mean, I didn’t really know where to go, what to expect, all the golf courses were new,” Dunlap explained Tuesday.
Another thing to add to his growing list of “new” experiences in 2024? Suddenly playing alongside the Tour pros he’d watched and admired as a kid.
“I grew up, and still do, looking up to a lot of these guys and for them — for me watching them on TV and then quickly for them to become my peers was a little new.”
The intense environment of the PGA Tour life took some adjusting to as well.
“I think the early parts of the year it was a little much. The media, it was loud, the social media was loud. Kind of middle of the year it took me to understand it. First of the year I was always looking in the future,” Dunlap explained. “Middle of the year it took me this is where I always dreamed of being, I’m where — I’m 20 years old and I’m living out my dream. Kind of when I realized that, I started to have more fun and live in the moment and play each tournament for what it stands for and just enjoying being out there.”
But his record shows that it didn’t take him all that long to get used to the rigors of the Tour. In July, Dunlap triumphed at the Barracuda Championship to earn his second PGA Tour win.
Dunlap was a member of the victorious 2023 U.S. Walker Cup team, who competed and won at St. Andrews last year. But thanks to the hot start to his pro career, he’s now eyeing a different team event: the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
“It’s one I would love to be a part of,” Dunlap admitted to reporters at the Hero. “I have it circled and I’m trying everything I can to get on that team.”
While Dunlap will compete with a bunch of Tour stars he grew up watching live on TV this week, Woods isn’t one of them. At just 20 years old, Dunlap is too young to have caught Tiger in his prime. But that doesn’t mean he’s unfamiliar. As is the case with many young golfers today, he still saw plenty of Tiger’s greatness thanks to YouTube.
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“Yeah, I am a little young, but I definitely remember [Tiger in his prime], I’ve seen highlights. I grew up watching just like everybody else did the YouTube highlights and all his records that will never be reached, they’re never going to be caught ever,” Dunlap said. “To share a little bit of history with him is very humbling. But no, just to be sitting here at his tournament and to be in the Bahamas when I should be a junior in college is unbelievable and I definitely don’t take it for granted.”
And in case it wasn’t already obvious, Dunlap confirmed Tuesday that despite all he’s accomplished in the past year, the “awe factor” of how far he has come in such a short time has not worn away.
“Even just showing up to golf courses sometimes, I got to go to a couple tournaments when I was younger and just still to kind of walk on to the range and hit balls, the little kid in me is still there and it’s still a lot of fun for me,” Dunlap explained. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m a competitor and I like to play my best, but no, there’s definitely that awe factor’s still there.”
One unfortunate wrinkle to Dunlap’s 2024 campaign was that because he was an amateur for his American Express win, he did not get to take home the massive $1.512 million winner’s check. But don’t worry about Nick, he still collected $720,000 for his Barracuda win and another $760,000 for a T5 finish at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
And even if the pressure of playing with his idols gets the best of him this week and he finishes last, Dunlap will still walk away with $150,000 and, presumably, a photo with Tiger Woods.
Not bad for a 20 year old.
