Nick Dunlap, the 20-year-old golf sensation who made history by winning the American Express PGA Tour event as an amateur last week, is turning professional and joining the PGA Tour.
The Alabama sophomore announced his decision Thursday at a news conference on campus four days after becoming the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson in 1991. The win gives Dunlap a tour card through the 2026 season and immediate exemption into all remaining signature events.
“It was the easiest, hardest decision that I’ve ever had to make,” Dunlap said Thursday. “I was very fortunate that everyone had the same opinion about it, and my teammates were awesome and very supportive.”
Dunlap enters the professional ranks as a historic prospect. When he won the 2023 U.S. Amateur at 19, he became the first male golfer since Tiger Woods to win both the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Junior Amateur, and his win last week in La Quinta, Calif., makes him the only player to ever take both those trophies and win a PGA Tour event while still an amateur. He’s also the second-youngest tour winner since World War II, only behind Jordan Spieth’s win at 19.
Dunlap is already exempt from three of the four major championships. His U.S. Amateur win already got him into the U.S. Open, and his win Sunday puts him into The Masters and the PGA Championship. The Open Championship exemption criteria has yet to be announced.
Why this is such a big deal
This sport is no stranger to young stars with plenty of hype, but Dunlap may be entering the pro ranks with as much excitement and expectation as any (male) golfer in at least a decade. Being the only man to win both the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur since Woods already added an aura around the 20-year-old Dunlap, but his win last week put him in a new category.
He is no longer just a promising prospect. He is now in a category saved for phenoms like the young versions of Spieth and Rory McIlroy. He will be followed closely, put in elite pairings and written about at length.
But this will also require some patience both from spectators and Dunlap himself. He missed the cut at the 2023 U.S. Open and another alternate field tour event. That isn’t to say a then-19-year-old amateur should be making cuts but to say there will be growing pains. He’ll have to learn to be a pro, but he has the makings of a star.
GO DEEPER
Nick Dunlap is the PGA Tour’s new star. Now he just needs your patience
The year of youth?
So much of this 2024 season was already beginning to focus on the rise of several young stars. Ludvig Åberg took over the sport last fall as he thrived in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory before even playing in a major. Then he won his first PGA Tour event at the RSM Classic to signify his status as a top player by 24.
Danish golfer Nicolai Højgaard, 22, was also on that winning Ryder Cup team and is in his first full PGA Tour season after winning the DP World Tour Championship in November. And that’s before getting into 21-year-old Tom Kim with three PGA Tour wins, Min Woo Lee, 25, becoming one of the hottest players in the world and 21-year-old Akshay Bhatia turning a corner with two top-20 finishes while back on tour.
Oh, and there’s another gargantuan amateur star coming in the long-driving Vanderbilt junior Gordon Sargent. The kids are alright.
(Photo: Ray Acevedo / USA Today)
