CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, COLORADO | Only two players have won the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur.
One of them is Tiger Woods, who won each event three times.
The other is now Nick Dunlap, a player who screams future PGA Tour star unlike any U.S. Amateur champion perhaps since Viktor Hovland (2018) and Bryson DeChambeau (2015).
Dunlap, a rising sophomore for the Alabama Crimson Tide, proved as much this week underneath the Rocky Mountains at Cherry Hills Country Club. The 6-foot-3 Alabama native got off to a nervy start when he opened 5-over through his first seven holes of stroke play. Dunlap’s overwhelming talent and determination took over from there, igniting a convincing run that culminated with a 4-and-3 victory over Ohio State’s Neal Shipley.
The two turned in an outstanding 33-hole championship match that produced 21 birdies, including concessions. In the end, Dunlap was too hot to handle.
“I think it's only a third of what (Tiger) has actually done,” Dunlap said. “But just to be in the same conversation as Tiger is a dream come true, and it's something that I've worked my entire life for. It's the hours and hours (of practice) that nobody sees. To even get to this point to have a chance to win this trophy, it’s just unbelievable. I can’t even put it into words.”
“The boys got up at 3:15 this morning to come watch me play. We’re going to have a little bit of fun with this.”
Nick Dunlap
It’s been a steady and methodical rise to prominence for Dunlap, who was profiled in depth last week at GGP Plus. A pre-tournament favorite – he secured his spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team by winning the Northeast Amateur and North & South Amateur earlier this summer – Dunlap settled his nerves during that first round when his caddie, Jeff Curl, wrote an inspirational message in his yardage book.
“This can be an amazing story if you let go and let it happen,” wrote Curl, a former Korn Ferry Tour player who has mentored Dunlap since age 7 when they met at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham.
It certainly became just that.
Dunlap rallied during stroke play to reach the match-play bracket with one shot to spare. When he showed up to the first tee on Wednesday morning, an abnormally large gallery had formed to watch Dunlap play the world’s top-ranked amateur, Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, in an unexpected round-of-64 battle.
Dunlap said he couldn’t feel his hands on the first tee and lost the opening hole, but he settled down once again to make four birdies in a back-nine charge that took down Sargent. From there, we saw why many believe Dunlap soon could be among golf’s elite talents for years to come.
He dispatched Coloradoan Connor Jones, 4 and 2, in the round of 32 and then blasted Utah’s Bowen Mauss, 5 and 3, to reach the quarterfinals where he suddenly had become the favorite of the eight who remained standing.
His toughest match came in his quarterfinals bout with incoming Auburn freshman Jackson Koivun. With matching shouts of “Roll Tide” and “War Eagle” coming from an enthusiastic gallery, Dunlap three-putted twice in his final three holes to give away a late lead. But on the 19th hole, facing a birdie putt that was outside of Koivun’s mark, Dunlap drained a 15-footer and gave a hearty fist pump. Koivun’s ensuing effort slid past the hole.
“He never three-putts,” Curl said moments later, his voice cracking in disbelief. “Well, he made up for it.”
It seemed as if Dunlap only got better as the championship approached its conclusion. He wrested control from Parker Bell, a rising sophomore at Florida, in the semifinals match to win, 3 and 2, and set up a Sunday of exceptional play between Dunlap and Shipley.
The finale was a striking dichotomy. On one side there was Dunlap, a homeschooled prodigy who has been destined for stardom from a young age. On the other side was Shipley, a long-haired 22-year-old graduate student who transferred to Ohio State after three seasons at James Madison. It could be argued the two players had the best summers out of any amateur – Shipley, ranked outside the top 1,000 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking just one year ago, had built considerable momentum with runner-up finishes in the Dogwood Invitational, Sunnehanna Amateur and Trans-Miss Amateur in addition to a top-3 result at the Pacific Coast Amateur. Dunlap, now fully recovered from a bout of tendinitis that slowed him throughout much of 2022 and into 2023, had finished strong in his freshman season before authoring a standout summer.
Looking more like a middle reliever coming out of the bullpen as opposed to a golfer, Shipley earned boisterous crowd support as the week went along. He showed no fear going up against Dunlap in the final, stuffing his opening wedge to 3 feet and continuing to apply pressure throughout the morning 18. After Shipley hit another close approach on the par-4 18th to set up a birdie, the swarming gallery gave a spirited ovation for the two players who had just shot matching 66s.
They went into the lunch break all tied, and deservedly so. It had the makings of an instant classic.
But Dunlap would soon break things open. He rolled in a long putt on the par-4 third to take a 1-up lead and then capitalized on a costly mistake by Shipley, who short-sided himself into a buried lie on the very next hole, to create separation. When Shipley missed a short par putt on the par-4 seventh, the 25th hole of the match, he had quickly fallen into a 3-down deficit that felt insurmountable given the way Dunlap was playing.
Dunlap is now 30-2 in his last 32 match-play scenarios, all of which includes him going up against amateur golf’s best in some capacity. He'll now prepare for the Walker Cup ...
The final two daggers came on Nos. 9 and 10. With Shipley in tight for birdie on the ninth, Dunlap made a long birdie putt of his own to force an unlikely tie. Then Dunlap followed it by making a left-to-right bending birdie try a hole later, padding his lead to 4 up.
It was all elementary from there. Dunlap, who won the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur and was once the No. 1 junior golfer in the high school class of 2022, had cemented his reputation as the best player in amateur golf. If his results this summer weren’t enough, this stat showed it even further: Dunlap is now 30-2 in his last 32 match-play scenarios, all of which includes him going up against amateur golf’s best in some capacity. He’ll now prepare for the Walker Cup, which takes place in 11 days at St. Andrews – and after that, he’ll start the college season for Alabama. A few of his Crimson Tide teammates woke up at 3:15 a.m. Sunday and flew from Atlanta to Denver in time to see their man win the Havemeyer Trophy.
“Is it legal to say?” Dunlap joked when asked what he was going to do with the trophy. “The boys got up at 3:15 this morning to come watch me play. We’re going to have a little bit of fun with this.”
Shipley, a Pittsburgh product who was trying to become the first Western Pennsylvania player to win a U.S. Am since Arnold Palmer in 1954, can take solace in receiving likely exemptions into the Masters and the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. (Dunlap can plan on playing in both of those majors as well as the Open Championship at Royal Troon.)
“He was going to be hard to beat regardless of who he was playing,” Shipley said. “I feel like I played great all day today, and there’s not much you can do when someone does that to you.”
Shipley hasn’t been the first player to say that, and he won’t be the last.
Nick Dunlap has arrived, and it’s a name you will want to remember.
E-MAIL SEAN
Top: U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap celebrates on the 28th hole of his 4-and-3 victory on Sunday.
KATHRYN RILEY, COURTESY USGA