Maybe there is something in the rarefied air of Cherry Hills Country Club in suburban Denver, Colo., that produces magical and historic performances by amateur golfers. Think back to 1960 when Jack Nicklaus, then a 20-year-old rising senior at Ohio State, nearly won the U.S. Open.
Thirty years later, Phil Mickelson claimed the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills and then five months later at the Tucson Open joined a select fraternity of golfers to win a PGA Tour event before turning professional.
Fast forward to Sunday in another desert, California’s Coachella Valley, where 20-year-old University of Alabama sophomore Nick Dunlap, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion from Cherry Hills and competing on a sponsor’s exemption, won The American Express by a stroke on the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta. He is the eighth amateur since 1945 to win a PGA Tour event and the fourth reigning U.S. Amateur champion, joining the aforementioned Mickelson, Gene Littler and Scott Verplank.
Five months earlier, Dunlap was hoisting the Havemeyer Trophy after defeating Ohio State standout Neal Shipley in the 36-hole final to join Tiger Woods as the only golfers to have won a U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur. Dunlap, a native of Huntsville, Ala., who is a past finalist in the NFL’s Punt, Pass & Kick competition, first announced his presence on the national scene with his victory over Cohen Trolio in the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur final at The Country Club of North Carolina.
That victory earned him a spot in the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and continued a remarkable ascension to the very apex of amateur golf. That led to a remarkable Summer of 2023 in which he qualified for the U.S. Open and then won the Northeast Amateur, North & South Amateur, the U.S. Amateur and helped the USA retain the Walker Cup at historic St. Andrews (Old Course) in Scotland. He also helped the USA win the Eisenhower Trophy at the World Amateur Team Championship in the United Arab Emirates in October.
