College student Nick Dunlap sensationally won a PGA Tour tournament in California. Due to his amateur status, he does not get access to the prize pool of the tournament.
STT Sports,
Pertti Lappalainen
From the United States About Nick Dunlap has become the first amateur player in more than 30 years to take a tournament win on the men’s golf PGA Tour. The last time an amateur player won in 1991, when Phil Mickelson won in Arizona.
Dunlap is only a 20-year-old university student. He is a sophomore at the University of Alabama. A Finnish American football star is also studying at the same university Olaus Alinen.
Dunlap beat a South African in the California tournament by Christiaan Bezuidenhout with one stroke. The 29-year-old Bezuidenhout got a total score of 260, or 28 under par. Dunlap scored a total of 259 in the tournament, or 29 under par.
However, because of his amateur status, Dunlap, a college student, is not eligible for the more than $1.5 million in prize money that runner-up Bezuidenhout will receive.
In Sunday’s final round, the tournament’s winning battle came to a head when Dunlap hit the ball into the water on the seventh hole. However, he pulled himself together and sank a birdie on the next hole.
– Hitting the water really tested me. “I missed a couple of putts that I thought I was going to hit,” Dunlap recounted his closing round in an interview after the win.
– My sports psychologist told me that you must have gone through different scenarios a million times, but it never goes exactly as you plan. It didn’t go, but I’m just happy to be standing here, a moved Dunlap continued.
He became the second youngest PGA Tour winner in the previous 90 years. Only in 2013 in the John Deere Classic tournament at the age of 19 won Jordan Spieth was younger than Dunlap.
Dunlap said in the interview that he just wanted to give it his all in the final round. He revealed that he expressed several times during the tournament how great it is to be an amateur in such a situation.
– If I had been told on Wednesday that I had a chance to win this tournament, I wouldn’t have believed it, Dunlap sneered in the interview.
– I really learned a lot from this experience. I’m so grateful when I’m here, Dunlap beamed and praised the encouragement he received from the audience and his friends.
Finnish golfer Sami Välimäki play at the PGA Tour’s California Open ended before the final round. Välimäki played the night before Saturday Finnish time in the second round with a score of 69.
Earlier in January, the 25-year-old Välimäki made history in a tournament organized in Hawaii, as he played in the PGA competition as the first ever Finnish member of the tour. Välimäki secured his PGA spot at the end of last year through the ranking of the European Tour.