Augusta, Ga. — Let's start with this: Nick Dunlap is a good golfer. A very good golfer.
Before turning 21, he already has two wins on the PGA Tour. In the history of the sport, only eight players have done that — and only two others in the modern era: Tiger Woods and Tom Kim. Coming into this week's Masters — still eight months shy of his 22nd birthday — he's ranked 42nd in the world.
And then he proceeded to go out Thursday, shoot an 18-over par 90 and become a bit of a punching bag following Round 1 of the Masters. In the 89-year history of the tournament, only seven rounds have been worse. (The "record," by the way, is 94.)
"Like trying to hold onto a rope and you can't hold onto it," he described the round.
Beaten down and severely disappointed by a round nine shots worse than anyone else in the field, Dunlap could have withdrawn and no one would have batted an eye. His father, Jim, even asked him if he was thinking about pulling out.
"Nope," he told him, "I'm going to go out tomorrow and show people I can do it."
Then he went out back of his Airbnb and hit a bunch of balls he'd bought from Target into the woods, ate Chipotle, as is his custom, and went to bed early.
He arrived at the driving range at Augusta National at noon on Friday, pulled out his driver and started pounding. Drive after drive — on a tee and off the deck. He's in the midst of a swing change, which only adds to the struggle.
That and the rocket ship his golf career has been on.
He was a natural from the start, striping it from the first time his dad put a club in his hand as a young kid.
"I'm out here grinding," his father would say to him, "and you're striping it every time."
He shot a 59 at age 12, was the Alabama state champion at 14, U.S. Junior Amateur champion at 17, committed to play at the University of Alabama at 18, became the U.S. Amateur champion at 19 and won his first PGA Tour event — the first amateur to win since Phil Mickelson in 1991 — at age 20.
One week later, he turned pro.
"We'd hoped he'd take it a little slower, finish out at Alabama," Jim said. "But that win gave him a 2 1/2-year Tour exemption. How do you pass that up?"
Six months later, he won again, collecting a $720,000 paycheck — a not even 21-year-old trying to figure out how to live on his own and manage a suddenly sizable bank account. It's a first-world problem, for sure, but it's a hurdle nonetheless for an up-and-comer trying to figure out how to compete against the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
Dunlap missed the cut at all three majors he played last year, including the Masters, and arrived at Augusta this week having missed three straight ...
