It is possible that an Amateur will win the American Express. Alabama sophomore, Nick Dunlap, shot a 60 yesterday and leads the tourney by 3 strokes over Sam Burns. Justin Thomas, Alabama Alum, also went low and shot a 61 but is 4 shots back. It's been 33 years since Phil Mickelson won the Tucson Open in 1991. Of course the pressure will be immense on the young man and truthfully I'll be shocked if he holds up.
The kid held on and won by 1 stroke. Sam Burns was the one who cratered under the pressure, splashed a ball on the #17 island green and hit another one in the water on 18. He thought he had a 2 shot lead going to 18, didn't know a player ahead of him birdied 18 and cut it to 1 shot! Hit a bad drive on 18 but recovered and made par, but didn't know he had to have par to avoid a playoff till he got to the green. He won the Amateur and the Jr Amateur so the kid has game. Now can have his PGA Tour card if he wants or can go back to Alabama and finish out the season with the Tide Golf team. I wonder if what ever mfg clubs he's using will pony up a big number NIL now for him to stay with the Tide at least for the rest of his sophomore year?
I did not watch any of the tournament but an incredible performance by Nick Dunlap, Must have ice water in his veins.
It was amazing. You would never guess he was an amateur. His demeanor and execution was as polished and calm as any other player out there. Actually both Burns and Thomas made critical errors that they couldn't recover from. Dunlap recovered from his mistakes, and that last putt on 18 was a knee shaker, I'm sure.
Yeah I'd have missed that putt on just a normal day with only a couple of bucks riding on it. Esp if I tried putting left hand low.
Golf Digest did a study one year...the PGA pros made only 55% of relatively flat six foot putts over the entire year.
Farmers Insurance tee's off today, I think it might be the only tournament that goes Wed-Sat. Not sure why they do it this way to tell you the truth. Half the field plays the Norh Course today and the other half plays the South course, big difference in length and size of green's. I think the final 2 days are on the South Course. Always some cool views of the course and the Pacific Ocean with hang gliders and all that stuff. When I was in the Navy at San Diego, I wasn't really into golf at that time, more about Tennis. Didn't even own my own clubs, played the base 9 hole course with Navy gear you could check out and borrowed clubs when we had the base golf tournament, which I only played because it was a free day off and there was free beer and prizes. When my Father in Law came to visit I had to play because he was a guy who loved to play. Played Balboa Park and some courses out in Rancho Bernardo where my ex-wife worked as a dental hygienist. Never played Torrey Pines. The kid, Nick Dunlap, with drew from the Tournament. Not a big surprise and probably a good move for him. He doesn't have to turn pro right now, he can now play in 3 of the 4 majors based on his win and his win at the US AM, plus several sponsors exemptions this season. If you remember the kid from Texas A&M (Sam Bennett) who played so well at the 2023 Masters at one point was 8 under and finished 16th. Have you heard from him since then? He's on the Korn Ferry Tour. Nick is no doubt a great young player, but off that win it might be a bit much to think he's the next Phil Mickelson ( who didn't turn pro after his win in Tucson).
Not surprising the leaders all played the North (easier) course Wed. So we'll like see a big flip at the top of the leaderboard today.
I see where Nick Dunlap is turning pro after all and his first tournament will be in Pro Am at Pebble Beach February 1st.
Terry, I think that the scheduling of the final round on Sat. is related to the NFL conference champinship games on Sun.
Lot of names I don't know on the leader board. Finau just a few shots back of a German guy I have never heard of....
First Frenchman ever to win on the PGA Tour, Matthieu Pavon! Almost gave it away on 18, or at least almost ended up in a playoff but a great shot from the rough to 8 feet and the putt saved a 1 shot victory! On to Pebble Beach!
That covers a lot of the field at Torrey, not being a "designated" event hurts the field. Not so at Pebble which will be a designated event, that is a 20M purse as opposed to the usual 8M we saw at Torrey. So I expect a star studded field. Although you have to admit, LIV has hurt the PGA fields drawing away a number of players who we all like to see like Dustin, Jon, etc.
I didn't see it because I played this AM and when I got home I watched Chiefs/Ravens. But Nelly Korda who finished so strong in round 3 including a hole out from the sand trap on 17 for an eagle to take a 4 shot lead over Lydia Ko going into today. Then apparently she stunk it up and had to scramble just to get into a playoff with Lydia, but she beat her in the playoff for her 9th win. I love watching her swing, it is so smooth and rhythmic, effortless I guess, but she has got a game face for sure can't tell what's going on with her game. I think that's what I like about watching Jordan Spieth, you know what's going on with him on every shot!! Purse for Farmers was 8M, Pavon got 1.6M for winning, Purse for the LPGA event was 1.7M a tiny bit more than what Pavon got for winning at Torrey. Nelly pocketed 262K.
That's really too bad about Torrey. It had a great field up to this year. I don't think a lot of pros like flying out to Hawii to play and Torrey was usually the first of the year on the mainland. And I forgot about Rahm moving to LIV. For some reason he is a bigger loss to me than the others. I am glad that they've made Pebble a big time tourney.
A lot is different this year at Pebble since it's a preferred event. Only 80 players, No Cut and since there are fewer players they are only playing Spyglass and of course Pebble. Some really good scores today helped by playing preferred lies, Thomas Detry is leading shooting 63, Patrick Cantlay shot 64 and Pavon the unknown Frenchie who won at Torrey last week shot 65. Same beautiful scenery though!