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"I've never been to the Bahamas.”

“I’ve never seen water this blue.”
 
These are just the latest of firsts PGA Tour rookie Nick Dunlap has experienced in what has been a whirlwind year for the rising star, a year unlike any other in golf history.
 
As recently as eight months ago, Dunlap was still a sophomore on the University of Alabama golf team. Now he’s a two-time PGA Tour champion about to make his debut at Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, along with 19 of the best golfers on the planet.

“It’s pretty special,” Dunlap said on Tuesday in his press conference ahead the Hero. “Eight months ago I was sitting at a table with all my teammates playing college golf. The world’s come at me a little quick.”
 
Of course, Dunlap’s incredible journey to this moment started even before he left Alabama. In January, Dunlap played the PGA Tour’s American Express event as an amateur, earning a sponsor’s exemption thanks to his 2023 U.S. Amateur win.
 
It was just his fourth-career PGA Tour start. And he won.
 

While Tiger holds three U.S. Amateur titles to Dunlap’s one, Woods never won a PGA Tour start as an amateur. In fact, no one had since Phil Mickelson did it back in 1991.
 
Originally hoping to make the Tour in 2025 through PGA Tour University, the American Express win fast-tracked those plans, and he turned pro soon after. But it took Dunlap a while to get used to his new life following his meteoric rise.
 
“Those first two or three months was, I mean, I didn’t really know where to go, what to expect, all the golf courses were new,” Dunlap explained Tuesday.
 
Another thing to add to his growing list of “new” experiences in 2024? Suddenly playing alongside the Tour pros he’d watched and admired as a kid.
 
“I grew up, and still do, looking up to a lot of these guys and for them — for me watching them on TV and then quickly for them to become my peers was a little new.”

The intense environment of the PGA Tour life took some adjusting to as well.
 
“I think the early parts of the year it was a little much. The media, it was loud, the social media was loud. Kind of middle of the year it took me to understand it. First of the year I was always looking in the future,” Dunlap explained. “Middle of the year it took me this is where I always dreamed of being, I’m where — I’m 20 years old and I’m living out my dream. Kind of when I realized that, I started to have more fun and live in the moment and play each tournament for what it stands for and just enjoying being out there.”
 
But his record shows that it didn’t take him all that long to get used to the rigors of the Tour. In July, Dunlap triumphed at the Barracuda Championship to earn his second PGA Tour win.
 
Dunlap was a member of the victorious 2023 U.S. Walker Cup team, who competed and won at St. Andrews last year. But thanks to the hot start to his pro career, he’s now eyeing a different team event: the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
 
“It’s one I would love to be a part of,” Dunlap admitted to reporters at the Hero. “I have it circled and I’m trying everything I can to get on that team.”

“Yeah, I am a little young, but I definitely remember [Tiger in his prime], I’ve seen highlights. I grew up watching just like everybody else did the YouTube highlights and all his records that will never be reached, they’re never going to be caught ever,” Dunlap said. “To share a little bit of history with him is very humbling. But no, just to be sitting here at his tournament and to be in the Bahamas when I should be a junior in college is unbelievable and I definitely don’t take it for granted.”
 
And in case it wasn’t already obvious, Dunlap confirmed Tuesday that despite all he’s accomplished in the past year, the “awe factor” of how far he has come in such a short time has not worn away.
 
“Even just showing up to golf courses sometimes, I got to go to a couple tournaments when I was younger and just still to kind of walk on to the range and hit balls, the little kid in me is still there and it’s still a lot of fun for me,” Dunlap explained. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m a competitor and I like to play my best, but no, there’s definitely that awe factor’s still there.”
 
One unfortunate wrinkle to Dunlap’s 2024 campaign was that because he was an amateur for his American Express win, he did not get to take home the massive $1.512 million winner’s check. But don’t worry about Nick, he still collected $720,000 for his Barracuda win and another $760,000 for a T5 finish at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
 
And even if the pressure of playing with his idols gets the best of him this week and he finishes last, Dunlap will still walk away with $150,000 and, presumably, a photo with Tiger Woods,
 
Not bad for a 20 year old.

[source: golf.com]

While enjoying the WNBA offseason following a Rookie of the Year campaign with the Indiana Fever, Caitlin Clark brought out her golf game in front of a large gathering on Wednesday in a pro-am for the LPGA Tour in Belleair, Fla.

Clark split the 18 holes of The Annika by playing the front nine with world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda and shot the back nine with one of the winningest female golfers of all-time in Annika Sorenstam.

During a brief interview with Golf Channel, Clark was asked if she learned any tips from golfing with Korda.

“I’ve watched and she’s amazing,” Clark said. “But golf is hard.”

One of Clark’s many endorsement deals is with Indiana-based Gainbridge, the presenting sponsor of the LPGA’s penultimate tournament on the schedule. Clark also participated in a recent women’s leadership summit hosted by Gainbridge.

Korda said she has messaged with Clark on Instagram, but nothing surpasses spending time with her on the links.

“To see the influence that she has on people, bringing people out here, and to see how amazing of an influence she is just for sports, was really cool to see firsthand today,” Korda said.

Clark is no stranger to golf as she has admitted to enjoying the sport in her downtime and even played in the John Deere Classic pro-am last summer on the PGA Tour.

Korda spoke about Clark’s game by praising her ability to remain relaxed, which she attributed to her constant bombardment by sports media over the past two years.

“It was great to see how relaxed she was,” Korda said. “Obviously with the media attention she has gotten probably in the past year-and-a-half, two years, you can see how she’s comfortable playing in front of a larger crowd. And she was just really enjoying it. You can tell.”

Although most of the golfing day was a success for Clark, there was one shot from the tee box that she shanked into the gallery nearby. Clark was able to laugh off the poorly hit ball by firing off a second shot onto the fairway.

As for Clark, it appears she is enjoying her own leisure life during the offseason prior to the start of her second WNBA season with the Indiana Fever in May of 2025.

[source: usatoday.com]

SHIGA, Japan — Nelly Korda clinched her first award for LPGA player of the year on Sunday when it became mathematically impossible for anyone to catch her in the points-based competition.

Korda skipped tournaments during the Asia swing because of a minor neck injury that limited her practice. Ayaka Furue of Japan would have had to win the rest of the LPGA events to catch Korda. Furue tied for 10th in the Toto Japan Classic.

Korda has won six times this year, including a major championship. She won five straight tournaments earlier in the season to tie the LPGA record.

This marks the second straight year an American player has won the biggest LPGA award. Lilia Vu won the award in 2023 on the strength of two majors. The last time Americans won LPGA player of the year in successive years was Betsy King in 1993 and Beth Daniel in 1994.

Korda, the No. 1 player in the women’s world ranking, still has two tournaments left as she tries to win the Race to CME Globe, which is decided in the season finale Nov. 21-24.

[source: nbcsports.com]

Looking at the PGA Tour’s career money list to determine the relative success of a player’s career is mostly a futile endeavor. Sure, Tiger Woods at No. 1 with $120-plus million makes sense, but Jack Nicklaus with $5,734,031—which ranks him a mere 373rd all time—does not.

The clearest evidence at how skewed prize money has become in the modern era is this simple statistic: There are 20 golfers who have earned $10 million of more in their PGA Tour careers without ever winning a tour event. To put that in perspective, Ben Crenshaw (19 wins, two majors) earned a little more than $3 million in his career. Lee Trevino (29 wins, six majors) about $6.5 million. Johnny Miller (25 wins, two majors) around $7 million.

Still, banking $10 million without winning means you’ve had some longevity and some skill. You’re not getting to that level by missing cuts and finishing T-48 every week. Here’s a tip of the cap to these 19 men who’ve made a killing by being slightly above crushingly mediocre.

Check out the full list and article here: [Source: golfdigest.com]

 

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Tim O'Neal made two birdies on the last three holes Sunday and closed with a 7-under 65 to win for the first time on the PGA TOUR Champions, a two-shot victory over Ricardo Gonzalez in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

O'Neal had a one-shot lead for much of the back nine at The Country Club of Virginia until he delivered two of his best shots, a wedge into 6 feet on the par-5 16th and a wedge that landed next to the hole and spun back to 5 feet on the par-5 18th.

Gonzalez missed three birdie chances inside 10 feet down the stretch, forcing him to make eagle on the closing hole to get into a playoff. He missed the fairway to the left, hit a hook into the bunker and had to settle for par and a 69.

For the 52-year-old O'Neal, this was a long time coming. He was best know for a pair of heartaches in Q-school as he tried to get onto the PGA TOUR, the most crushing in 2000 when he needed bogey on the last hole and made a triple bogey.

He never earned a PGA TOUR victory, winning three times on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and three more on smaller European Tours.

“It only takes one week, and this was my week," O'Neal said as he tried to hold back tears.

This was a good week for him to break through. He was one of three players who moved into the top 54 in the Charles Schwab Cup to advance to the second postseason event next week in Arkansas. O'Neal went from No. 55 to No. 13, assuring he will be among the top 36 who play in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

“For me to get it done when I had to, that means a lot,” O'Neal said.

He is among the more popular players on the Champions Tour, with players coming over to congratulate him even as Gonzalez was coming up the 18th hole.

O'Neal's 65 was the low round of the week, and he finished at 13-under 203.

He was one shot ahead on the 16th when Gonzalez, playing in the group behind him, hit wedge to 3 feet for a certain birdie. O'Neal hit it tight to assure he would stay one ahead, and then he played a perfect wedge into the 18th that all but sealed it.

David Brandson shot 67 to finish third and move into the top 54, while Paul Goydos birdied three of his last four holes for a 70 to tie for fifth and move up 11 spots to No. 48.

Chris DiMarco, Kirk Triplett and Angel Cabrera dropped out of the top 54 in the Charles Schwab Cup, ending their season.

[pgatour.com]

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