CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE — Back from the abyss he stared out of early in the week, Nick Dunlap channeled the same motivation on the 33rd green of Championship Sunday that he had channeled after his dismal start to U.S. Amateur stroke play.
That felt like centuries ago, the Crimson Tide golfer starting the tournament at 5 over par after only seven holes. He had looked unrecognizable Monday. Match play was a much more familiar image of Dunlap. The ninth-ranked amateur stampeded through the field, starting with top-ranked Gordon Sargent and all leading to the 15th hole Sunday at Cherry Hills Country Club. Dunlap only needed a two-putt to clinch the title. To clinch history.
“We talked about it all week,” he said afterward, the Havemeyer Trophy glistening at his side.
Dunlap, a 19-year-old from Huntsville, Alabama, completed his remarkable turnaround in Denver by becoming the second golfer in history to win both the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur championships. His only company is Tiger Woods.
“I think it’s only a third of what he’s done,” Dunlap said, grinning.
He knows his stuff. Woods three-peated at the U.S. Junior Amateur (1991-93), then three-peated again the next three years at U.S. Amateur, the biggest stage in non-professional golf.
But if anything, that amplifies the magnitude of Dunlap’s achievement rather than diminishing it. Woods is the ultimate pillar of golf greatness for Dunlap’s generation. That nobody could replicate even “a third” of Woods’ dominance until now is a testament to the parity that has persisted in the sport for years. Standing out is tough.
Dunlap did it by defeating Neal Shipley in the final, a grueling match in which Shipley couldn’t have played much better in the morning round. He erased a two-hole deficit to tie Dunlap with a birdie on the 18th. Dunlap had much to think about as he took his lunch break.
Tiger was a symbol of his aspiration all week. No different at this critical juncture.
“I don’t think you can tell yourself not to think about it,” Dunlap said. “I think it’s there. I think all you can really do is embrace it.”
He talked with a sports psychologist throughout the week to help him find a balance in a tense atmosphere — “the most pressure I’ve ever been under,” as Dunlap called it. He has synthesized multiple effective strategies, from Tiger to self-antagonization.
“To be honest with you, I try to trick myself into thinking people don’t think I can win,” he said. “It doesn’t take much to get me fired up at all. I will grab onto things that people may not even mean. And I will use that to my advantage, as if they were trying to insult me.”
Equally helpful was the yin to that psychological yang: Dunlap’s caddy and longtime mentor Jeff Curl supplies him with pep talks and positive reinforcement before almost every swing. Curl also penned a message to his pupil Monday during the uncharacteristic slump.
“Jeff wrote something in his yardage book and then showed me. It said some words that I can’t say,” Dunlap said. “But he said, ‘If you snap out of it, this could be something really special.'”
The teenager snapped out of it. He birdied on the eighth hole.
He went on to birdie 12 times on Championship Sunday. The defining stretch against Shipley arrived in the first 10 holes of the afternoon round, which started in a deadlock after that hour-long break. Dunlap won four of the 10 holes.
But even a lead that’s considered comfortable by onlookers can feel insecure in the mind of the competitor chasing history. Shipley won the 31st hole, finding a glimmer of hope and momentum. The messy 32nd hole that followed felt designed to benefit his comeback bid; both golfers landed themselves in the rough with their second shots. Dunlap’s first attempt to chip his ball out of the rough and over the small hill blocking him from the hole went haywire; the ball rolled back to the edge of the green, a net gain of less than 10 feet. The door was open for Shipley to pull within two.
Dunlap needed only remember how close he was to history. Or how reliable he is in match play: He had won 29 of his previous 31, dating back multiple years.
“I think I have a mindset for match play,” Dunlap said.
His next putt cleared the hill and positioned himself to finish the job. Meanwhile, Shipley missed a 4-foot putt. Dunlap escaped the hole with a win — back up four — despite his own bogey.
A two-putt was all he needed on the next one to clinch the title.
As he embraced his caddy, Curl called out: “That’s history, baby!”
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