Dunlap Earns First PGA TOUR Victory, Becomes 3rd Dustin Johnson World Junior Champ to Win at Golf’s Highest Level
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have company. 2021 Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship winner Nick Dunlap joined these two golf legends Sunday in the rarified air category of achievement, thanks to Dunlap’s first PGA TOUR victory at The American Express at PGA WEST in La Quinta, California.
In the latest chapter of Dunlap’s rapid ascent among the game’s elite players, the sophomore from the University of Alabama is the first amateur in 33 years to win on the PGA TOUR since Mickelson, a six-time majors winner, won the 1991 Northern Telecom Open in Tucson and became one of now only eight amateurs in history to claim a PGA TOUR event title.
And having only recently celebrated his 20th birthday, Dunlap now also holds the distinction of being the second-youngest PGA TOUR event winner in the last 90 years.
Dunlap’s victory at PGA WEST also comes just five months removed from joining Woods as the only golfers in history to claim two of the USGA’s top amateur titles. Dunlap added the 2023 U.S. Amateur Championship to his trophy case in August, two years after claiming the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.
Dunlap is now the third Dustin Johnson World Junior champion in the past six months to notch his or her first professional victory at the highest level. 2019 boys’ champion Akshay Bhatia won the PGA TOUR’s Barracuda Championship in July 2023, a month prior to 2018-2019 girls’ champion Alexa Pano earning her first LPGA Tour victory on her 19th birthday at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational Presented by AVIV Clinics in Northern Ireland.
It’s been a stunning run of success for Dunlap. Two-time majors winner and Crimson Tide alum Justin Thomas provided some added perspective after his third-round 61 was upstaged by Dunlap’s Saturday scorecard.
“Didn’t think I was going to have to deal with a freakin’ college kid shooting 60 today,” Thomas said with a grin to Saturday’s assembled media. “(Dunlap)’s a stud. He’s the real deal. I think how well he’s handled the big moments, it says a lot about somebody. It seems like the bigger the stage, the better he plays.”
Who among the next wave of DJ World Junior players is poised to make their big move in the golf world? Stay tuned to PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com, as later this week we highlight several of the top boys and girls players scheduled to compete at the 2024 Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship, March 1-3 at TPC Myrtle Beach!
