Nick Dunlap before pro debut at Pebble: ‘Could be in school right now’ | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Todd Lewis catches up with Nick Dunlap on his rapid rise to professional golf after his American Express win as an amateur, and the Golf Central crew discusses the narrowing gap between the collegiate and pro golf scene. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral #NickDunlap
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Nick Dunlap before pro debut at Pebble: ‘Could be in school right now’ | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Well in Nick Dunlap the PG tour has a story and potentially a star humbled guy beloved by his teamate 10 based on the body of work so far someone who likes the heat six-footer to win the MX was clutch on top of the match play toughness we saw from Dunlop in winning

Both the USM and Junior am and only tiger had ever done the double Dunlap and Li o as well speak to the strength of elite college golf it is like a tour in and of itself these days in the gap between Elite college players in the PGA

Tour narrowing dun not making his Pro debut exempt as a tournament winner but since his victory came as a non-member he did not receive FedEx Cup points um nor the $1.5 million first place check but when he announced his decision to turn pro last week he did earn his tour

Card through the end of the 2026 season a start at the PGA Championship at Valhalla in May and then starts in all of the Signature Events this year almost had to turn professional with all of that also retaining invitations to the Masters in the US Open that he initially

Earned by being the US amateur Champion he will still play in those two events but now as a PGA Tour winner and he spoke earlier with Todd all right Nick it was just last week you announced that you are joining the PJ tour as a member you’re now a

Professional what has changed in your life since that announcement uh uh this could be in school right now in class um no I mean know I get to live out my dream and and travel to all these cool places and to start here and make my professional debut at Pebble such a you

Know an iconic place and I’m out here I’m playing a practice round with with Scotty and Sam and and lvic and I was invited to a dinner last night with Rory and Justin so things have changed quite quite a bit you mentioned all these players that you’re now associated with

Um what do you hope to pick up from them and have you reached out for advice yeah um just to kind of see how they do things you know this is all new to me I don’t know where I’m going I’m I’m lost when I register I don’t know where the

Range is and um and obviously with their game too you know I’m asking them all like what are their plans you know how many events they’re going to play because I don’t it’s a 20-year-old I’m I’m playing well I just want to play a ton and I don’t think that’s the the

Greatest approach ever so just you know take take bits and pieces from each player and kind of um see how they fit into my game you know when I talked to players who made the jump from the college ranks to the PGA who like lud who you’re playing with has done I asked

Him you know is is winning your your primary goal well I don’t have to ask you that so what do you hope to elevate in your game over the next three months just get as good as I can um and also enjoy it you know like it’s crazy I mean it’s you know

It’s been a week and a half and um could be playing a college event in two weeks and um like I said I’m I’m out here living my dream playing you know some of the best golf courses in the world and um you know try to take my game to the

Next level what would you say right now your strengths are say iron and putting um also I feel like I’m I’m pretty good at being able to dissect a golf course and practice rounds and then kind of figure out a game plan that that works for me and not

Necessarily other people um I feel like that’s something that I’ve learned in college and coach seall has helped me a ton with and I’m just going to kind of stick to that out here it’s not a bad office out here right have you had a moment to like it’s some or maybe you

Will have a moment this week to reflect is like wow I I’ve done what I wanted to do as a kid I’m now a member of the world’s greatest T yeah I remember playing this golf course in a in a video game um but just I’m I’m bad at it but

Take as take as many pictures as I can um just to you know and never know when it could be but be able to look look back on this and uh just enjoy final thing here in the signature event how would you define a good week for

You um I really don’t know I I don’t know um it’s still the same you know come out here and try to learn and uh Hunter and I will put together a game plan come Wednesday night and um go execute as many shots as we can I

Enjoyed our time look forward to seeing you more out on PJ tour thanks I appreciate it all right Nick Dunlap with Todd Lewis of the seven others who won PG tour events as amers three went on the Hall of Fame careers Dr krie moff Jean ller and Phil mikkelson Doug Sanders

Excellent record Scott verplank no slouch he was solid could have won more but for injuries and then Fred hos and Frank Stranahan were the others uh you said something while he was being interviewed that caught my attention go ahead yeah I mean I he I think he was1

Half million dollars he would have won if he was a professional um and he wasn’t eligible to get it and first prize went down to Second which was Christian Baden house uh I think he should have got it um um Maybe not immediately you know while

He’s still an amateur but maybe put into an account that one day you know when if he did per professional that would be there for him um um you know we’re in the days now where the world is changing we talked about about that earlier college kids all over whether it be

Baseball whether it be basketball whatever it may be are getting huge money in endorsements now golfers are starting to do the same so why are you stopped uh from earning prize money interesting well I mean he I I disagree with that he entered the event as an

Amor I remember winning a small uh Professional Event when I was an Amer in the New York area second place got the money had I entered it as a pro I would have gotten the money but when you enter a tournament as an Amer you are declaring that you’re not playing for

Money now where I will agree with you is I think he should have gotten the 500 FedEx cut points for the win he’s now a member of the PGA Tour that could play a big role in where he finishes the end of the FedEx Cup season yep I mean two

Sides to the argument there Johnson I I take your points there but I I would have maybe deferred it you know put it put it in account for when he did turn professional well I mean then you have to go retroactively back Gordon Sergeant

Made the cut at the US Open where do you draw the line so any Amer that makes a that makes a cut in a professional event should be able to defer that money if and when they turn professional yeah I think the rules are changing the world

Is changing the golf I think it’s a matter of time before that happens like a lot of things in the game how good do you think he can be I I I mean he’s sitting at a two toop with Tiger Woods is the only guy to win a US Junior and a

US Amer uh I’m not going to say he’s going to be Tiger Woods but his his ceiling’s high Paul the one thing you you touched on at the top of the show and I mentioned it briefly is the the gap between Elite college players and and and the PGA tour players

Shrinking the gap between we saw this last week with Matthew Bavon DP World Tour I know you were very proud of that DP World Tour players and the PGA tour players maybe not as wide as we we had once thought corn Ferry tour closing the

Gap on the PG tour I think there’s like this 500 player Colossus now of guys that can shoot 65 and and and win so the the sort of the new Tiger Woods is parody is the new tiger yeah I think it goes back to Tiger Woods Rich you know I

Mean people talk about you know tiger raised the bar but what he did raising the bar not just in what he won it was the different elements of the game where he raised the bar that we hadn’t seen before he hit the ball further than anybody else he trained harder than

Anybody else he putted better than anybody else mentally he was better than anybody else so he created a vacuum um that people since and colleges in particular are coming behind and filling in that gaps they’ve all learned from what tiger have done look at guys lifting weights now that was never done

Certainly before he came on tour when certainly when I played on tour when I come out on turn nobody lifted weights nobody went to the gym so all of those bars were raised um I I mean everything that’s going on with technology now everything’s going on with instruction

With the flight Radars and the track BS and everything these guys are getting right cutting down to the bone of it and then I just throw in the mental side of it on top of it and I mentioned earlier in the show you know when when aberer

Comes out last year and performs as well as he does so quickly to go from a college player to being a star in the wrer cup within 3 months and hitting the ground running in professional PGA Tour events all of his peers and contemporaries who were he was beaten

And was was playing around college golf and going hey if he can do it I can do it and that kind of drags them up as well too so a combination of all those things is called raising the bar and that’s what we got now we got a very

Small gap between the best and the bar MH and and also I I completely agree with you on all of that which is nice for a change and think about how it’s like being with brle sometimes huh think about how the Amer game the Junior game the Collegiate game has been

Broadcast by the golf channel for the last number of years I remember the first time a camera came out on me on the corn fairy tour my first time I freaked out I was not used to it guys like Dunlap and oay they’ve been used to having the cameras and the people

Watching and the eyeballs and the media question so I think that has a lot to do with why they’re so ready as well and Paul lastly there are now all of these Pathways to the very top of this work the the PGA Tour Pathways from Europe now cor fery tour PGA Tour University

From the very top of the college game out here yeah I mean that word meritocracy is used a lot and I think that’s probably what you’re going to find in the game of Gulf going forward you know there is going to be a pyramid system even more you know may we may

Well have two products that live over here at the PGA Tour but there will be hopefully more and more events where they come together I don’t think it’s going to be a 30 turnament schedule I think it’s going to start out very very small and and and only a couple events

On top of the majors and maybe over time you can grow into something more but the most important thing is it’s not that Elite level it’s where they feed from and one of the great things at the PGA Tour is is has done is taking guys that

Are Elite at Collegiate level and give them a card straight away okay you’ve proved yourself off you go have a go