Nick Dunlap Wins On PGA Tour, Loses $1.5 Million Reward
Due of his amateur status, Nick Dunlap accepts the American Express but does not receive the check.
Nick Dunlap stepped in to save golf’s romanticism during a period when the game was all about money. Since 1991, when Phil Mickelson won the Northern Telecom Open, the 20-year-old American amateur became the first player to win an event on the world’s most prominent circuit, the PGA Tour. This victory came in the American Express tournament, which Jon Rahm won the previous year.
Due to his illness, he was unable to receive the 1.512 million dollar check that went to Christian Bezuindehout, the second-ranked player. This stands in stark contrast to the 180,000 USD prize that the most well-known left-hander in golf had to forfeit 33 years before.
The fact that the previous winner, Jon Rahm, signed a 600 million euro contract with LIV Golf puts the amateur winner’s victory into perspective. Rahm concurred, wishing him “a great future for this talent” and congratulating him on X.
It looked like the inevitable result in PGA Tour. Despite being one stroke ahead of Dunlap going into the final par-5 of the tournament, Sam Burns, one of the twelve American golfers who lost in the Ryder Cup last fall in Rome, chose not to take advantage of the situation and instead finished sixth after hitting two double bogeys and sending two balls into the water while playing next to him.
Dunlap achieved the greatest victory in live memory by making par on the final two holes after seeing Burns use three strokes and going to the water on the seventh hole (a double bogey).
